Dear Customers,
If you happened to travel this past summer, say from McKean County to Florida, the Outer Banks or even Portland, Oregon, you would expect to see certain brands on your grocer’s shelves no matter where you were. Campbell’s soups? A given. The same with Pepsi, Coke, Tide and Pillsbury. These are company’s which are common throughout our great land. Then, conversely, there are brands which are more local or regional.
For instance, several years ago, a family who had moved from Smethport to Houston couldn’t find Wise potato chips in Texas. They missed that burnt brown, greasy flavor! They called us here at the store and we mailed them an entire case!
For anyone who’s spent any time at Penn State, either as a student or a football fan, you would recognize the distinctive flavor of Middleswarth Chips. They became my wife’s favorite snack food after her years at Penn State and no trip to Happy Valley was considered complete unless she was able to procure a bag – or two!
Back in the first week of August, my son Josh convinced the Middleswarth company to service our location. They didn’t usually come this far North, but they agreed to make the trip to McKean County every three weeks or so. Not knowing quite what to expect, we gave them four linear feet in our chip aisle and a 30” inch wide rack of smaller bags back near the deli. They left a couple of cases of “backstock” just in case.
Well, in less than two weeks, the display was devastated and the backstock was gone! This necessitated a call to our supplier who made an unscheduled trip to Smethport with many, many more cases of chips. We even put a large display in the first aisle and all the big bags are deal priced so if you haven’t tried them before, you can do so without paying full price.
We’ve had numerous favorable comments from those who, as far as I can tell, are truly excited this unique brand of snack food is now available without necessitating a long road trip out of the area. One “snacker” came hurrying down the aisle where are manager was preparing his next order and shrieked excitedly, “WHEN DID YOU GET MIDDLESWARTH CHIPS!” I HAVE TO DRIVE CLEAR TO STATE COLLEGE TO GET THEM!”
So whether you’re a big fan or have never tried them, there could be no better opportunity as they are all on sale through at least October 31st – some longer! You get that unique taste at a fraction of the cost!