June 03, 2004
Mmmm, Potato Chips
Chip Chat: Red Dot and the Potato Chip is a charming online exhibit from the Wisconsin Historical Society (via
GMTPlus9). This reminds me of when my dad was a potato chip salesman. For a time (late '80s), he delivered huge cans of potato chips, pretzels and snacks to homes and businesses from his own van. He worked for Charles Chips, which once had a big, cultish following back East -- but by then I believe most of his customers were nostalgia hounds. I loved how the chips came in big tan and brown cans, festooned with their splashy, '50s style logo. Charles Chips came in many different flavors; the one called "Ketchips" was my own fave (odd, since I don't like ketchup very much, but ketchup-flavored chips could easily reduce me to a Homer Simpsonesque drooling fool). From what I could gather, they're still available
in bags, but the home delivery biz is dying out.
Here's a story dated last September of one deliveryman's final route.
Posted by mhinrichs at June 3, 2004 03:35 PM
Charles Chips cans and tins were a big part of my childhood--my grandmother had tons of them (a secret addict, perhaps?), and when the chips were all gone, she stored cookies and brownies and other homemade grandma goodies in the cans. So, oddly enough, I came to associate the brown-and-yellow logo with sweets, not salty snacks.
Interesting article - thanks! We never had Charles Chips in our area (suburban Detroit), but we did have the Awry's Bakery truck that came by once a week. My mom always bought some sort of coffee cake from him, and bread and/or hamburger buns if she hadn't made it out to the supermarket in time.
I loved Red Dot Potato Chips for years, the bag
had the clown and had a big red dot on the bag
and the bag was kind of clear waxed paper kind
of material. you could see the potato chips. They
were wonderful, and reminded me of the circus.
Help. If anyone can give me the mailing address for the Charles Chip Company I would greatly appreciate it....It has been many years since we have had these chips available in our area and I would love to get a distributorship her in the Piedmont of North Carolina.
Thanks
Back in '66 I lived in North Boston, NY which is about 25 miles or so south of Buffalo. The guy who had the local territory ran the business out of his house using the garage as his "warehouse". He had three or four trucks...the really cool, boxy type panel vans with big sliding doors that you could drive with 'em both wide open! Fun at the time but not too safe...but hey...it was the 60's!!! Twice a week a big semi trailer would arrive from Pennsylvania LOADED with chips, cookies, and pretzels...still HOT! Talk about fresh, they literaly must have come right off the packing line, into the truck, and onto the road. They used to stay warm for days in his garage, from delivery to delivery. I had a different route to run every day in a two week cycle. Man...I loved getting up early, getting to the "warehouse" around 7:00 in the morning and loading up the truck. Then it was time to hit the road. It was so great driving along early in the morning with both doors wide open ;-) and the AM radio on WKBW when all the great music like the Rascals "Groovin" was out. All my routes in that area were very rural, and the terrain is very hilly and pretty. I can still remember it like it was yesterday. Oh, and the customers, they were something else! If you missed someone on a run either because of them not being home or whatever...you got an earfull about it the next time around! They were ADDICTED! As I recall many of them would buy upwards of $25 or so of product every other week. My commission was 20%...and all I could eat!
Just to clarify the above post...I forgot to include at the beginning of it that being a "Charlie Chips" delivery driver was one of my best summer jobs when I was in high school!
Thanks, Larry. That sounds like a cool job for a teenager!!
I grew up in southern Minnesota in the late 50's to 70's. My dad started selling Red Dot Potato chips and products before I was born, starting out in Minneapolis and moving to Glencoe. We had our own warehouse at home, and the semi's would deliver weekly. I remember riding on cardboard down the wheeled conveyor line they would set up for offloading. In this area, Red Dot was bought out by Frito-Lay, and my dad finished his 32 year career selling Lay's products.
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER a Clown Poster promotion? (Early 60's.) In the Twin pack boxes, there was a series of Clown Prints that were given away, the artist was MICHELE. There were two sizes of prints, 6x9 in the packages, and 20x17 was also available somehow, maybe by mail, maybe in a separate roll-tube. I thought there were 4 prints in the series and I used to have all of them, but now I can only find 3 of each size, so my memory might be off.
P.S. The Red Dot Shoestring Potatoes (like 1/8" crispy french fries) were TO DIE FOR! I could never get enough of them!
P.S.S.
My family even had 2 sizes of Red Dot Clown suits for kids, Red on one half, White with Red Polka Dots on the other half, with frilly neckline and cuffs. We wore them on Halloween until all of us kids outgrew them.
