typical demise of a classic

 

There are many products that have come and gone. Many lingered in our culture for decades. Western Flyer sleds are an example. Where I live, Northeast Tennessee, deep snow of several inches has almost become an event of legend. Sledding, then, was an anticipated annual event. As much a social gathering as anything.

But I digress. Recently I became interested in what could be called the classic holiday sweets of my youth. Specifically, Christmas, Halloween and Valentines Day.

   I was disappointed this Halloween to find a lot, maybe most, of the candies I associated with the holiday, were no longer on store shelves. A good example are the peanut-butter toffee kisses wrapped in orange or black waxy paper.

   This Christmas season, another fatality has caught my attention. The classic red and white striped peppermint candy stick, made locally, is subject to issues. The candy is still widely available but has suffered a different sort of demise. Management cutbacks and cost accounting have resulted in an inferior product. I have had two boxes this year and all the canes in one box were broken, some in several places. I complained in a form on the company website and was assured there was some mishandling after the candy left the factory. I was sent a free replacement box. An improvement but still there were broken canes.  Perhaps mishandling does occur, but to the degree required to cause two sequential events? Seems statistically unlikely.

An even more insidious event took place in the packaging. Decades ago, candy canes came in a cellophane sleeves, now they are placed in heatshrink tubing that makes the wrapping tight. Further, the material, while transparent, is tough enough to daunt all but the stoutest of souls. This wrap makes detection of broken canes difficult if not impossible. The earlier loose sleeve wrapper made the detection immediate, even from several feet away. The demise of this classic was not in the product itself, but in the presentation, the container. Poor quality control hidden by deviously contrived choice of wrapper. After all, how many people would buy a candy cane if they could see the candy was broken in several places?