On the Lousy Quality of Today's Jays Potato Chips

For the first time ever in our lives, we have thrown out a half-eaten bag of Jays Potato Chips.

The new Pennsylvania-based multinational corporate owner has changed and cheapened the recipe, and today they are barely edible.

A Chicago delicacy since 1927

A Chicago institution, since 1927, Jays was bought out by a Pennsylvania mega-firm, Snyder-Lance (the corporate monstrosity that puts those cheap peanut butter crackers in vending machines) in 2007 and in turn is reportedly being bought out by the multinational Campbell's Soup Corporation and today, the one-time Chicago delicacy, really stinks.

Decades of Chicagoans grew up devouring the thin, crispy, salty and slightly oily potato chips produced by the local Japp's family.

In fact, they were originally manufactured and marketed in Chicago, in big steel cans as, "Mrs. Japp's Potato Chips." The name was changed to "Jay's" in 1942, when the name "Jap" wasn't terribly popular in the US, after the Japanese sneak attack on the USA at Pearl Harbor.

Today, the Snyder firm, with corporate headquarters in Pennsylvania and Berlin, Germany, heaves up thick-cut, relatively pallid chips whose only relationship to the original product, is the blue and white label on the bag.

We recall returning home to Chicago for Christmas break and making a point to bring back 2 big bags of Jays Barbecue Potato Chips with us - because there was nothing even remotely as good available on the East Coast.

They were a traditional Chicago delicacy.

Today, we find ourselves tossing out a half-consumed bag of the cheap multinational corporate substitute.

On the plus side - Jays Potato Chips are almost always on sale for half off the retail price stamped on the bag.

On the downside - today's Jay's Potato chips aren't worth buying - at even that deep discount price.

Today, there is one thing a Chicagoan can honestly report about the new corporate Jay's Potato Chips:

"You sure can stop eating em"