Krunchy Krisps

It’s interesting that over the last decade or so a lot of smaller food firms have emerged making small batches of potato crisps and marketing them as an alternative to the mass produced product from firms like Walkers. You do have to watch these new products though, sometimes if they get a decent market share the big boys move in and make them an offer they cannot refuse. I notice that Tyrells have just gone this way and so we’ve had to stop buying them.

But back in the 1930s and particularly after WW2 there were dozens of small firms making potato crisps. There were a couple of reason; firstly it was a fairly low cost business to set up, and secondly because the product didn’t have a very long shelf life, it was easier to supply shops and pubs locally. Crisps were generally displayed on a glass jar on a counter and then decanted into a wax packet when bought. The bigger firms could afford sealed storage tins to ship them about in. So curiously unused vintage crisp packets do turn up on the vintage market. I’ve always had a fascination with the product, such a basic item which is just pushed by the big boys with huge marketing budgets to gain big market shares. And the products come and go so quickly, and the packets are changed around so quickly with special promotions and all the rest of the marketing apparatus. There were some limited edition Minions themed Seabrook crisps in our local supermarket the other week. 7 days later they’d vanished.

Anyhow, here are four vintage crisp packets from our collection, from all over the UK: North Walsham, London, and Spennymoor. I don’t know where Hubbards were made. The Swifts packet is cheeky, as they’ve stolen the diamond and raised capital letters straight of the Smiths Crisps packet design, which might have caused them some grief.
I do have a big box of old crisp packets in the loft which I just filled randomly in the 70s with packets which I found round and about, I must bring it down and sort through!
My very favourite in the 60s were Walkers Potato Puffs, sort of little pillow shaped snacks. I can still taste them…