It’s ABOUT DAMN TIME is all I can say. Seriously, it took this long?
PORTLAND, OR (AP) — The ketchup packet has been around for more than 40 years, and complaints about it for nearly as long: too messy, too small, too hard to open. Now H.J. Heinz Co. is unveiling the first major packaging change to the to-go condiment. The new design has a base that’s more like a cup for dipping and also a tear-off end for squeezing. It holds three times as much ketchup. Heinz has long struggled to find a design that did all that that could also be sold cheaply enough. The company recently made a solution a top priority.
It even bought its design team a minivan to give their ideas real road tests. The new packet is in test markets and will roll out at some fast-food restaurants in the fall. Link
I always thought the size of ketchup packets especially was stupid. Can you do ANYTHING with ONE packet of ketchup? No. And making the new design dippable solves the whole ‘wet glob’ issue when eating fries/tater tots/anything. Now THIS is the future!
Comments
3 CommentsMatt R.
Feb 5, 2010Whataburger was way ahead of its time.
Darren!
Feb 5, 2010Totally! I’ve always loved that about Whataburger. I never throw Whataburger extra ketchups away!
Matt R.
Feb 6, 2010When I was a child, I remember the family getting burgers from the Burger King drive-thru one afternoon. I playfully suggested, as 10 year olds do, that we should run by Whataburger to get ketchup. Everyone laughed, tickled at my ludicrous suggestion. However, as we approached the section of the road where the Whataburger stood, I felt my throat tighten as a silence filled the car. All eyes on me for a moment, then on my father.
“Dad?” said a sibling. “Can we?”
Without even a slight pause, as if he’d already formed the answer before the question was asked, my dad turned sharply and jerked the car into the Whataburger parking lot.
All eyes on me again.
As I made my way in, a thousand versions of a similar story strobed in my mind: Um… hello sir or mam… my family was just here… and we forgot ketchup… you know, that ketchup you have? in the containers? And well…. we were just wondering if we could get some… of your ketchup… for our Whataburgers?
As I stood in the 2 person line, though, it occurred to me that I was a horrible liar, and that I was shaking uncontrollably (at least internally). If I was going to make it through undetected, a change in my story needed to take place.
As the man in front of me ordered his chicken strip combo, I was on the brink of panic. I almost started to, instead, figure out how to lie to my family that they were out of ketchup. Then, it occurred to me: I could tell the truth… just not the WHOLE truth. I could simply say that we’d gone through “the” drive-thru (NOT a lie), and that we love some ketchup (NOT a lie)!
“Can I help you?” a voice called out.
A million variations of the story jumped around in my head. I swallowed…
“Um…” I said.
I could feel eight blood-related eyes burning me from a distance…
“I was wondering…”
A single tear welled up in each of my eyes…
“Well… you see… we like your ketch–”
Before “up” exited my mouth, a mound of the cubed containers were shoved in my direction by the uniformed, apathetic young adult.
Twenty minutes later, as I sat on the couch watching my family stare at the TV and happily dip their fries on that glorious Sunday, a genuine cloud of pride filled the air in the room. At least internally.