Full disclosure. The author is a proud, native Pennsylvanian and a huge fan of Utz’s pretzels and potato chips. Mmmmm, tasty. There is a good reason for this. Pennsylvanians instinctively love chips and pretzels. It’s in their DNA. In fact, there is an unconfirmed rumor that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has officially enshrined chips and pretzels as one of the basic food groups, equal to fruits, vegetables, and Philly cheesesteaks. I need to check that out. In the meantime, here’s some startling evidence to confirm what I’ve said about DNA.
IMAGE OF NORMAL DNA
IMAGE OF A PENNSYLVANIAN’S DNA
In 1921, Bill Utz quit his job at a shoe factory in Hanover, Pennsylvania. With a $300 dollar investment, Bill and his wife Salie (not a misspelling) set up shop as a two-person operation in a summer kitchen behind their home in Hanover. Salie had good knowledge of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking and used hand-operated equipment to make about fifty pounds of potato chips per hour. While Salie stayed home making chips, Bill delivered them to “mom and pop” grocery stores and farmers markets in Hanover and the Baltimore MD area.
Today, Utz Quality Foods, Inc. is the largest privately owned snack food company in the U.S. It has over 2,200 employees and annual revenues of over $400 million dollars with distribution centers stretching from Maine to Louisiana. That’s a perfect snapshot of how successful free enterprise works.
Utz is certainly not a unique story of American capitalism. It has happened thousands of times in our nation’s history. But sometimes we need to be reminded that people like Bill and Salie Utz created something very beneficial not just to themselves, but to our country. Private sector jobs which supported the employees and their families. Personal income, real estate, sales, and corporate taxes which supported the nation, Pennsylvania, and the local community. Products which consumers freely bought and enjoyed. Major purchases from farmers who grew the crops and from manufacturers who made the equipment used by Utz.
Another important feature of Bill and Salie’s adventure with capitalism is that it didn’t cost anyone else a nickel. They took the risk, they used their own money, and they used their own labor to kick start this successful enterprise. As a result, over the nine decades Utz has existed, literally billions of dollars have been pumped into the U.S. economy and government treasuries.
At the end, there’s a link to the historical timeline of Utz Quality Foods. As you read through the history of the company, I think you will be struck, as I was, about the long term positive economic impact Utz has had, from the enormous expansion of their manufacturing facilities to an explosion in the number of employees. Just from one company. And yes, starting with Bill and Salie Utz, the Utz family did build that.
www.utzsnacks.com/about_history.html
Cool story. Sad, too. Why? Because while their story “has happened thousands of times in our nation’s history”, I don’t think it could happen again.
Let me assume that $300 in 1921 is equal to $6,000 today. Seems fair. You think that ma and pa Utz could build their empire today with $6k in startup money? Ha! They’d need $60k just to get EPA licenses!
You can only wonder if they had tried to build a business today if they would have been as successful. A $300 investment wouldn’t grease very many whore politician’s hands.
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Modern Version:
Bill & Salie quit their jobs to start this business, literally in their own kitchen. They are immediately targeted by the Occupy folks who demand the Utz’s open their kitchen to “the people” and that ownership of the Utz production be partially owned by “the people”. The hashtag #OccupyUtz hits #1 on twitter for a solid month.
The EEOC swoops down and fines them for no minority hires. The Justice Brothers organize a rally on their front lawn demanding black yuts be hired as managers and marketing staff.
The EPA shuts down their oven/stove for releasing too much carbon and then fines them for contributing to global warming. The Utz are advised to buy a solar oven, made in China, to cook their product in.
OSHA inspects their home office and fines Bill for eating one of their pretzels in his home office and Salie for not wearing a hair net in bed – since the home is connected to the food preparation place, all aspects of the Utz’s life is open to regulation.
The IRS levies back taxes and penalities on the Utz’s for previous years, even when they did not have a home business going in those years under the new Obama Social Justice IRS Rules.
Moochelle chides them for creating food that contributes to the childhood obesity problem and exhorts them to add some broccoli to the product. A national boycott against the Utz products ensues until they comply and produce a low carb low calorie veggie version for the kiddies.
Bloomberg makes the Utz’s take the salt off the pretzels.
And, drum roll please, Goldman Sachs spins up an IPO , with a hugely inflated P/E ratio, then bets against the manufactured success of the IPO – and makes $1 billion dollars in hedging against their own IPO.
The Utz’s lose their home, their money and their good name, but no one cares because they are evil capitalist 1 percenters and should be strung up by their toenails anyway, so says Thom Friedman who wins another Pulitzer writing about it.
Bill & Salie Utz file for, and receive, SSI for “stress”. The NYT applauds the Utz’s for their “struggles” and their desire to “give back”, and laments how hard it is to start a business in Amerika these days while calling for more “community involvement” and “government investment” in the market place.
There ya go, a Modern Amerikan Success Story.
HZK
That is a fine piece of literature and captures the absurdity of our civilization in less than a few hundred words. Brilliant!!!
Eastern PA bias rears its ugly head again!
Chips and pretzels (especially not those awful soft ones) are NOT built into the DNA of Pennsylvanians. And if you’re going to count Philly cheesesteaks as a separate food group, then you’d damn sure better include a category for Pirmanti Bros. sandwiches as well!
In case you forgot, there’s another side of PA outside of Philadelphia. If you look westward under the night sky, you might just pick up the glimmer of the six Lombardi trophies that reside there….
Hey, Trophy Boy
If this is true….
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… then, these guys are fucked!
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Christopher said “if you’re going to count Philly cheesesteaks as a separate food group, then you’d damn sure better include a category for Pirmanti Bros. sandwiches as well!”
I second both motions, the food triangle needs to be remade to include both philies and Primanti Bros sandwiches, and shit lets through in a slice of pizza for good measure (PB makes great pizza).
It is my understanding that they are going to make a pretzel especially for Obama.
They’re going to call it the (P)UTZ..
@Admin:
Thanks! I learned it all at the feet of The Master, that would be you.
No, I am not ass kissing here. Your site has been a real education for me, and a ton of other folks. Your articles are brilliantly written, exhaustively researched and just damn AWESOME. Like I have told you, I forward them on to everybody I know.
You outta right a book with them, seriously. You could even publish them as an e-book.
I know you were getting discouraged about feeling like no one is listening. Don’t be. You are getting the message out and people ARE listening. Turnings and awakenings don’t happen by commerical time, lol.
Keep plugging away, no, that’s not right, you are not a plodder. You are the Aragorn of our merry fellowship, fighting for what is right. I’m just a Pippin, here for some comic relief most days.
DO NOT DESPAIR.
Giving into despair and giving up is just what the assholes want us to do.
Hope
The similarities between myself and Aragorn are uncanny.
Nice analogy,
But I think, due to his educating tens of thousands of people, and his responsibility for the fine curriculum on this site, he should be called “the professor.”
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@Admin:
It is NOT about the length of your hair or of your “sword”.
It is about the size of your HEART.
It’s about TRUE GRIT.
I think you are more the Rooster Cogburn type, in your heart of hearts.
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Admin firing away at the banksters and politicians, yeah!!! Go get ’em!!!!
AWD:
Perhaps Admin is more this professor:
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Or this one:
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“Administrator says:
Hope
The similarities between myself and Aragorn are uncanny.”
You’re only 5′ 4″ ? You’re pictures make you look fatter. Ha!
“…set up shop as a two-person operation in a summer kitchen behind their home in Hanover.”
That can’t happen here. You have to have a business license, separate sinks and facilities for baking and washing up, health inspection, zoning request and hearing at the city and whatever else the PTB throw up as a roadblock.
This isn’t America anymore. I should save rainwater as an act of rebellion.
Stucky (FBD), Hope, et al.
When I was writing that article, I started to segway into a part which addressed the question of “What if the Utz family started that business today instead of 1921?.” Knowing that the TBP visitors would jump in with both feet and address that question themselves, I deleted that part and just submitted what you see above.
You all did not disappoint. And in your own inimicable way, you hit the nail on the head.
“the food triangle needs to be remade to include both philies and Primanti Bros sandwiches, and shit lets through (sic) in a slice of pizza for good measure (PB makes great pizza).”
—-Norman Orwell Body
Say that in NYC, and you’ll get arrested.
“You all did not disappoint. And in your own inimicable way, you hit the nail on the head.”
The monkeys rarely disappoint….
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“In case you forgot, there’s another side of PA outside of Philadelphia. If you look westward under the night sky, you might just pick up the glimmer of the six Lombardi trophies that reside there….”
—-Christopher Harrison
I was born and raised in south central Pennsylvania, in a town almost equidistant from Philly and Pittsburgh. I have no bias against any part of my native state. But I will say this about that.
THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS EAT SHIT AND DIE.
Pennsylvania. Home of junk food, scrapple, the Steelers and the FSA. Sounds like a wonderful place.
Also home to the Amish – people who will easily handle the coming crash because they have never bought into the American Dream (nightmare).
Zara
You forgot deer hunting. The opening day of deer hunting is a school holiday in Pennsylvania. Once you get outside the two big shitties of Philly and Pitt, you’ll find A LOT of well armed people who love to hunt and fill a meat locker with venison.
Scrapple? You got me on that shit. I hate it. Admin loves it. I ain’t eating anything containing left over pig parts mixed in with flour and corn meal, then pan fried. Scrapple, or pon haus, is an old Pennsylvania Dutch (aka German Baptists, Amish and Mennonites) tradition that goes back centuries and dictates that when a hog is slaughtered, NOTHING goes to waste.
But I guarantee that, if you haven’t visited Pennsylvania outside of the shitties, you would be stunned at how rural the state is. And it’s really beautiful. Bonus. Most of the farmland where I grew up is owned or leased by Mennonites. Those people can cook!!!! And they offer their wares to the public in a variety of family owned stores. Mmmm, tasty. Double bonus. It’s all organic.
Greatest deer hunter of all time. From some shithole steel town in Pennsylvania.
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Admin – if I let my workers go up high without a scaffold – like the Amish – I would be sued and out of business in a heartbeat. Dont they know about OSHA? I shit you not, though, what they are doing far exceeds crazy and is well into loony tunes – that high up without safety devices is asking for someone to die.
llpoh
There won’t be an OSHA when the SHTF. The Amish will still be building barns. They are just doing things as they have always been done.
LLPOH
I think you were being sarcastic, but just in case…….thumbs down.
The goobermints don’t fuck with the Amish, except when they’re investigating them for such heinous crimes as crossing state borders with raw milk. Gasp. The horror.
Know why? Religion. The Pennsylvania Dutch have CENTURIES of religious beliefs to back up what they do and why. And it’s all based on their religion. Getting into a legal battle with those steadfast people is a constitutional non-starter. Bless their pea-pickin’ hearts.
SSS – half and half. I simply could not work that way, as safety inspectors would close me down.
But in all seriousness, what they are doing is unsafe as hell. Falls cause a lot of deaths, and if you are up over 6′ working, and fall, you are likely to be maimed or killed, as you do not fall well (ie feet first) and tend to land on parts of your body ill-equipped for said landing (like your head). I understand that was the way it has always been done by the Amish, but they really should do it in a safer manner. Not all old ways are good ways, and this is an example. Almost as many people die from falls as from car accidents (not total transport accidents, for anyone looking to start a fight!).
Their method of helping each other en masse is to be admired. I love the Amish.
SSS, I thought we had a lot of deer out here in Oregon. I’ve changed my mind. Last month I was driving through western wisconsin from Minneapolis. Between Chippewa Falls and Abbortsford, not only did I spot four deer carcasses on the side of the road but at dusk, I came across two deer blocking both lanes of the road. All I could do was slam on the brakes. I stopped about 10 feet from those stupid creatures who still didn’t move until I yelled at them.
LLPOH
I don’t know where Admin got that photo, but I think we’re looking a “barn raising” activity. Now, whether the former barn was knocked down by a fire or a tornado, I don’t know.
But I do know this. The Pennsylvania Dutch take care of their own and frequently others. Something bad happens, they load up with lumber, nails, and tools and head to the scene to help. OSHA be damned. Full speed ahead. It works well. Why get in the middle of what works.
As for falls that result in injury or death, please cite an instance where they will sue “somebody” if an accident happens. Hasn’t happened because they don’t do it.
The Amish help each other, and don’t waste billions or trillions doing it.
An Amish kid from around here, working at his family’s saw mill, had the band saw blade break and almost tore his face off, took off a toe, and filleted his arm. He was flown to St. Louis and was made whole and well again, and has some nice scars now. They use what’s available to them. They’ll be around long after millions of city and suburban denizens are liquidated.
SSS – why would I want to cite an incident of them suing someone? What is your point? My point is that what they are doing in that photo is overly dangerous. There are 4 things that are too dangerous to screw around with, and for which I fire people on the spot, and they are 1) climbing up on anything above waist height, or being up high on anything whatsoever for any reason. I hire people, not monkeys, and I get specialists in if we neeed to go up high for any reason. 2) screwing around with electricity, 3) unlicensed use of a forklift, or misuse of same, and 4) misuse of compressed air. If my folks follow these 4 rules, no body dies on my watch. Really simple.
That barn raising is dangerous as hell. They are up 30 feet with no safety gear that I can see. I don’t care about their law suits, or lack thereof – that is just plain stupid.
Me thinks Lipoh is afraid of heights (and lawyers)
LLPOH
No disrespect intended, but you are ignorant of these people, their religion, and their culture. They DO NOT CARE about modern rules and regulations. They will do things their way, according to their religious beliefs. For the most part, states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, have been smart to let these folks alone. It’s worked quite well. If we were all smart, we’d let sleeping dogs lie.
SSS – wrong you are, Spyman. I know a fair bit about them. Nothing you have said is news to me. I might even know as much as you, seeing as I spent some years of my life studying world religions, including the Amish. I am not suggesting anything about rules and regs. That they take risks with life and limb that they need not take is stupid, plain and simple. Their religion does not say go forth and die or be maimed. They are smart enough to make harnesses and to work off ladders, etc.
They are putting themselves at high risk for very little benefit. I know heaps about safety, and about how to organize work safely and effectively – my freedom and livelihood depends on it, and has for many years. Some things come with inordinately high cost to benefit ratios. However, falling isn’t one of them. The risk of death and permanent disability is simply too high to be doing the job they are doing in the way they are doing it. It makes them look retarded, and in general they are a very smart bunch who know how to survive. I make cost benefit judgements all the time re safety, but the 4 I mentioned above are too risky to trifle with.
To challenge me on religion and safety/efficiency issues, no disrespect intended, is not your finest moment. It would be akin to me trying to teach you about how to plant a bug or bring down a cartel.
Thanks for playing, though!
“I might even know as much as you, seeing as I spent some years of my life studying world religions, including the Amish.”
—-LLPOH @ SSS
Study all you want. I grew up with these folks. My paternal heritage for 300 years was Mennonite. I know what I’m talking about, including planting bugs, bringing down cartels, and flying fighters.
Incidentally, LLPOH, given your Indian heritage and my intense interest in studying the Plains Indians Wars, does my “interest” and “study” override your lifelong experiece as an Indian. Well, if you’re an ultra radical idiot like Dennis Means, maybe so. Otherwise, experience counts.
Do the Amish light their homes with whale oil lamps and tallow candles? Just curious…
SSS – I am Indian, but would profess no expertise thereof. I would defer to any claimed knowledge on that.
However, re safety/risk v reward evaluation, and general all round knowledge of religion, I will stand my ground.
Your “no disrespect intended” was ill-advised. I made no comment that was non-reasonable or non-factual. You say I am ignorant re the Amish. Present your case based on my comments above. My statements were only about them being stupid for failing to implement safety measures instead of climbing like monkeys. I did say “don’t they know about OSHA?” which was an amusing aside and not a serious question. Otherwise, I made no statements about them whatsoever other than them being stupid for taking inordinate risk for little or no reward. Further, you have no idea what my experience or education re the Amish is, or you would not have called me ignorant, especially as I hadn’t commented on them at all save for their lunacy in the way they deal with safety. That is both insulting and wrong, and you were just showing your ass, which is unlike you. Your no disrespect comment not withstanding.
I have a lot of experience organizing men in the building or undertaking of dangerous works. Some things are not worth the risk. Why you would challenge this is beyond me.
llpoh, dot or feather?
Choctaw.
llpoh, I had a college roommate who was a Colville. This is a reservation in NE Washington that is relatively wealthy. It is forested and it also abuts the Grand Coulee Dam and they get a portion of the electricity revenues. He was the son of the chief of the Colville tribe. When we met, Colville didn’t seem a particularly indian name so I asked, “what are you, Nez Perce?” He responded, “Nez Perce? Fuck no, they were our slaves!” He and his buds called each other “skins,” short for redskin. One friday I remember him telling me that some of his rez buds were coming to visit. I said “fine, just don’t let them take my scalp.”
A quck google of stats shows that falls are one of the major work related causes of deaths among the amish (behind tractor/buggy accidents and killed by animal). I also came across this:
The impact of pediatric trauma in the Amish community.
Vitale MA, Rzucidlo S, Shaffer ML, Ceneviva GD, Thomas NJ.
Source
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Surgery, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, 17033, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To describe the epidemiology of trauma in Amish children and to determine differences in treatment and outcome related to injury mechanism.
STUDY DESIGN:
In this retrospective review, data were collected on all Amish children with trauma requiring hospital admission. Demographic, interventional, and outcome data were collected. Categorical outcomes were compared by using chi-square, logistic regression, or Fisher exact test; continuous outcomes were compared with analysis of variance.
RESULTS:
A total of 135 trauma admissions were studied. There was a significant difference of proportion of injury by month (P < .01). The most common mechanisms of injury were falls (39%), buggy versus motor vehicle accidents (MVA; 16%), and animal injuries (14%). A total of 41% of patients required operative procedures, and 50% of subjects required intensive care. Animal injuries and buggy versus MVA were significantly associated with a requirement for surgery, increased length of stay, and increased severity (all P < .01). The overall mortality rate was 3%. There were significant associations between mechanism of injury and outcome scores (P < .05) and hospital charges (P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS:
The spectrum of traumatic injuries is unique among Amish children. These injuries contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality and impose a large monetary burden on the Amish community. Education may decrease the incidence of these events.
The last line says a lot – "education may decrease the incidence of these events". I am not suggesting they change their lifestyles, but it is clear they need to consider safety issues with respect to those lifestyles.
SSS writes, “But I guarantee that, if you haven’t visited Pennsylvania outside of the shitties, you would be stunned at how rural the state is. And it’s really beautiful. Bonus. Most of the farmland where I grew up is owned or leased by Mennonites. Those people can cook!!!! And they offer their wares to the public in a variety of family owned stores. Mmmm, tasty. Double bonus. It’s all organic.”
So why do you live in Arizona?
I lived close to an Amish community in Kansas for a few years and have a great respect for their way of life. I am attempting to copy their way of life (living off the grid) as close as I reasonably can. The problem the Amish have will be when the FSA comes to take what they have. The Amish will not fight back and will be consumed.
SSS vs. llpoh
There is NOTHING more enjoyable on TBP than watching Two Big Dogs going at it. Precious!!!
IMHO, SSS was winning the battle. BUT, then llpoh delivers a strong right hook to the jaw with FACTS … ie, the study titled, “The impact of pediatric trauma in the Amish community”.
It appears to have silenced SSS, as Mr. Spyboy has yet to respond.
Looks like llpoh wins by knockout.
Zara
My wife (she’s a native Pennsylvanian, too) and I retired to Arizona because it’s where our children and grandchildren live. Just that simple. Family first. Always. Oh, some Amish families DO NOT have electricity in their homes.
FBD
As you try to hide behind your new screen name, the above pronouncement that llpoh is the winner is one more nail in your coffin, Stucky. You did that shit all the time as Stucky, ie. watch a disagreement unfold in a thread and then jump in as a self-appointed judge and declare a winner. I’m all over your case like white on rice.
sensetti
The Pennsylvania Dutch will not be consummed. The communities where they live will provide them protection. Just a gut feeling on my part.
LLPOH (all caps) or llpoh (all lower case) or Llpoh (first letter in caps). Pick one, will you? And then stick with it. You said, “A quck (sic) google of stats shows that falls are one of the major work related causes of deaths among the amish (behind tractor/buggy accidents and killed by animal).”
Proves my point. Some Amish communities stick with the old ways because of their religious beliefs. Deaths due to animals, buggies, and falls reflect “God’s Will.” Whether you agree with that or not or think they’re ignorant, they’re not going to change.
We’re all better off if we just let them alone.
SSS – if I sign in, it changes the smalls to caps. Not my fault, blame wordpress.
I agree re leaving them alone, save maybe if there actions are injuring children – which seems perhaps to be the case, but not enough facts do I have to make that case. Old ways, or simple ways, do not have to be stupid ways. It is easy enough to attach harnesses when 3 stories up in order to prevent falls. I agree that there is likely little they can do re buggy injuries and animal related injuries.
But I do agree that they are a people to be admired, and to be left alone. A rampant FSA may due them great injury, however. Hope not.
Hi Everyone! My son is doing a report on Utz Found William Utz.
We are having a really hard time trying to find out when he was born? Can anyone direct me to this information?
Thanks!!
the 1940 Census shows he was born in 1893 (est). This was the William D. Utz who married Salie Utz and founded the Utz Quality Foods company.
http://www.archives.com/1940-census/william-utz-pa-68225250
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utz_Quality_Foods
Ha! An oldie but goodie (of mine!!!!) resurfaces on TBP almost two years later. I tried to give all my comments in the thread a thumbs up, but it didn’t work. Dagnabit.
@ Thinker
Thanks for answering Mike Rhodes’ question.
Let a food industry professional cue yall in on the nature of potato chips. Unlike french fries, which are dried prior to frying so they absorb less oil as the water boils off, potato chips are sliced from fresh potatoes directly into hot oil, which means that what you are eating is mostly oil, encapsulated by some organic matter. If one potato chip is tastier than another, it’s purely because they use a tastier oil.
Case closed.
Zara said, “If one potato chip is tastier than another, it’s purely because they use a tastier oil.”
Agree, Z. I have only one defense. I like tasty.
Signed a proud native Pennsylvanian and pretzel and potato chip lover,
SSS
SSS, Next time you’re in Pennsylvania, visit a Utz plant and try to get a tour where they allow you to grab a few chips right after they emerge from the fryer. It will be like you’ve never tasted a potato chip before.
The editing protocol should allow: