Secret Origins of C-Store Snacks

The inside stories on how some c-store favorites came to be.

Some c-store snacks are easy to take for granted. They’re time-tested; they’ve been moving off shelves for years. New products get a lot of attention, but less flashier ones are often the true foundation of a profitable inventory mix.

That doesn’t make these tried-and-true products boring. Their backstories, for example, can be pretty interesting. Let’s look at a few.

Jerky

Jerky is an example of pre-tech humanity figuring out how to preserve food as long as possible, and doing it so well that their tasty solutions remained popular long after refrigeration. Further advancements in food preservation techniques, including vacuum sealing and packaging, have allowed jerky to be mass produced and distributed widely.

Preserving meat through sun-drying, salting, and/or smoking techniques dates back thousands of years, to indigenous peoples in North America, as well as ancient civilizations in South America, Africa, and Asia. It was the Quechua people of South America, though, that gave jerky its original name: ch’arki.

Pickles

Pickling has been around as long as drying meat but it originated across the globe in Mesopotamia. Around 2400 BCE, Sumerian citizens began putting their fruits and vegetables in salt water (brine) to hinder the growth of spoilage-causing bacteria. The cultures growing up around the area wasted no time putting their own spins on the method, adding herbs, spices, and vinegar as they discovered pickling’s potential for enhancing taste.

The invention of the glass jar at the turn of the 20^th Century made distribution and access of pickled products universal. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in artisan and craft pickles, leading to a new wave of small businesses producing unique, gourmet varieties carried by c-stores and other retailers. Additionally, health trends emphasizing fermented foods have contributed to pickled veggies as a probiotic-rich snack.

Chewing Gum

You’d be hard-pressed to find a retail item with a lower profile than chewing gum, which has been around as long as jerky or pickling. The Mayans and Aztecs both chewed chicle, a natural gum derived from the sap of the sapodilla tree. Not only was it a form of dental hygiene, it tasted pretty good, too.

It took another 2,000 years until John B. Curtis figured out how to mass market his product, known as, “The State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.” By 1886 William Wrigley[1] was adding flavors to his brand, and as popular culture grew in the U.S. during the 1920’s and 1930’s, manufacturers found more and more inventive ways to market their product, like Bazooka Joe and its mini-comic strips.

In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the health benefits of chewing gum, such as promoting oral hygiene and freshening breath. Sugar-free options made with xylitol and other natural sweeteners have gained traction among health-conscious consumers.

Energy Drinks

While our first three entries are examples of ancient foods that have retained their popularity for centuries, the third, energy drinks, is considerably more modern. One of the earliest commercial energy drinks was created in Thailand in the 1960s by the T.C. Pharmaceutical Industry Company, and marketed as a health drink.

The energy drink as the American consumer now recognizes it was another Thai contribution, coming to the American market by way of Austria in 1987. Dietrich Mateschitz and Chaleo Yoovidhya took a traditional Thai drink, Krating Daeng, and combined it with a few of their own tweaks. Krating Daeng means “Red Bull” in Thai. The rest, as they say, is history, a rare case of how a single product can launch an entire new drink category.

Are you having trouble identifying—in a timely manner—the items that are your consistent, proven movers and those that are just taking up shelf space? SSCS Technology can help you provide the detail you, as an operator, need to make those evaluations before it is too late to take corrective measures. Your inventory mix is critical to your store’s profitability. See how to maximize its revenue by giving us a call at (800) 972-7277.

[1] Wrigley first using gum as a giveaway with baking powder, but pretty soon stopped selling the baking powder.