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The New Shortage: Ketchup Can’t Catch Up The pandemic turned restaurants into takeout specialists, boosting demand for the condiment; ‘Everyone out there is grabbing for ketchup’
wsj ^

Posted on 04/06/2021 9:46:54 AM PDT by mylife

Supply chain problems are reaching into a far corner of the business universe: Ketchup packets.

After enduring a year of closures, employee safety fears and start-stop openings, many American restaurants are now facing a nationwide ketchup shortage. Restaurants are trying to secure the tabletop staple after Covid-19 upended the condiment world order. Managers are using generic versions, pouring out bulk ketchup into individual cups and hitting the aisles of Costco for substitutes.

“We’ve been hunting high and low,” said Chris Fuselier, owner of Denver-based Blake Street Tavern, who has struggled to keep ketchup in stock for much of this year.

The pandemic turned many sit-down restaurants into takeout specialists, making individual ketchup packets the primary condiment currency for both national chains and mom-and-pop restaurants. Packet prices are up 13% since January 2020, and their market share has exploded at the expense of tabletop bottles, according to restaurant-business platform Plate IQ.

Even fast-food giants are pleading for packets. Long John Silver’s LLC, a nearly 700-unit chain, had to seek ketchup from secondary suppliers because of the rush in demand. The industry’s pandemic shift to packets has pushed up prices, costing the Louisville, Ky.-based company an extra half-million dollars, executives said, since single-serve is pricier than bulk.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Food; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: ketchup
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To: mylife

That woman in Memphis at the drive thru was enraged into impulsive gun violence by slow service.

What will she feel about being given a bag of fries with no ketchup? Let’s not even think about it.


21 posted on 04/06/2021 10:24:07 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud, harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: mylife

This must mean that the carry out is only edible if the taste is hidden with ketchup.


22 posted on 04/06/2021 10:25:45 AM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

we all have a drawer full


23 posted on 04/06/2021 10:26:40 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia
If they rationed them better maybe they wouldn’t have a shortage.

In my city we already have ration apps that can be used by anyone who has had two vaccinations and has appeared at at least one BLM demonstration and contributed $25 or more by debit or credit. We can get two---count -em--two packets of generic ketchup. ((Just a gag----as of today.))

24 posted on 04/06/2021 10:28:08 AM PDT by frank ballenger (End vote fraud, harvesting,non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we are finished.)
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To: ScubaDiver

York (PA) had 3 FIVE GUYS, but closed 2 of them, due to so many other burger joints, priced less, opening up. I’m willing to pay their prices, once a month or so. I usually get 2 dbl-cheeseburgers and 2 lg fries, and the bill is $30-plus. That 2 days worth of food for me.


25 posted on 04/06/2021 10:41:18 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit..)
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To: mylife

There’s a combined KFC and A&W near me, and when I order a cheeseburger they would always put way too much mustard and ketchup on, so that it oozed out the sides and made a sloppy mess. So the other day I asked them to eliminate the ketchup. Their response was to double the mustard, so it was still oozing out.


26 posted on 04/06/2021 10:42:00 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: mylife

Woke restaurants

Don’t put salt and pepper or ketchup on the table

Jackasses


27 posted on 04/06/2021 10:43:18 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG lz’’z:s)
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To: mylife

That is a good one


28 posted on 04/06/2021 10:43:41 AM PDT by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG lz’’z:s)
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To: mylife

Start charging for ketchup packets.

Problem solved.

“Say, man, I can count on you to be discreet, right?
“I dig, brother. What you need? Weed? Snow? Extacy? You need it, I got it.”
“Got ketchup packets?”
“Hey, that’s original, man. Do you snort it or smoke it?
“I just tear it and smear it on my fries.”
“I dig! I dig!...”


29 posted on 04/06/2021 10:45:07 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Chinese communism will look different once the masks come off.)
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To: rightwingintelligentsia

They don’t want you to run out of ketchup and then return and shoot up the place.


30 posted on 04/06/2021 10:50:40 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: nickcarraway

I prefer to skip the ketchup and have sliced tomato instead. For one thing, it’s less messy.


31 posted on 04/06/2021 10:55:35 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Gone but not forgiven.)
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To: mylife

That and onion rings are the only thing I can eat at WB.

Their burgers are the second worst, Sonic being the worst.


32 posted on 04/06/2021 10:58:02 AM PDT by freedumb2003 (No matter what, resist and stop the agenda of blow bidet and hairass the whore)
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To: freedumb2003

I agree on sonic.


33 posted on 04/06/2021 11:00:04 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

I did notice the other day at the supermarket all the “high end” boutique ketchup options were gone, and it’s just Heinz and the generics left on the shelf. Couldn’t even get tangy Hunts and that’s a Midwestern staple.


34 posted on 04/06/2021 11:01:17 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: freedumb2003

I either cook my own burgers or occasionally In-n-Out. Dont think I have ever eaten at WB but I would have thought they would be in the gourmet category like FiveGuys or Fuddruckers. Are they really that bad?


35 posted on 04/06/2021 11:01:34 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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To: wardaddy

Neither my husband nor I use condiments on tables at restaurants after seeing a boy lick the open top and neck of a ketchup bottle. His mother saw him, but just put the lid on and put it back on the table. We told the waitress and she removed the bottle after the family left.


36 posted on 04/06/2021 11:02:03 AM PDT by kalee
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To: Harpotoo

Steak sauce on french fries? Begone heathen!


37 posted on 04/06/2021 11:02:21 AM PDT by Boogieman
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To: Dilbert San Diego

I think they removed them from the tables, so as not to have to sanitize them so frequently. If you had to ask for Ketchup and/or salt & pepper, they would bring it.


38 posted on 04/06/2021 11:03:02 AM PDT by NEMDF
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the NOT rush limbaugh show is reporting this now.


39 posted on 04/06/2021 11:03:50 AM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

That’s what I’m talking about!!!


40 posted on 04/06/2021 11:04:13 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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