Consumerist: Pringles

Procter & Gamble: Pringles Are Not Potato Chips

Carey — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:15:22 EDT

Seeking to evade a 17.5% sales tax, lawyers for Procter & Gamble successfully argued that Pringles aren't actually potato chips. Even though all Pringles containers are clearly marked "Potato Crisps," Procter & Gamble's lawyers argued that "Pringles don't look like a chip, don't feel like a chip, and don't taste like a chip."

The absurdly hypocritical claims were made to weasel out of a British tax on potato crisps and other potato-based foods. London Justice Nicholas Warren ruled that Pringles were made, not of potatoes, but out of good 'ole fashioned American chemicals.

Potato chips "give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed," the Cincinnati-based company's lawyers argued. "It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue."

Warren agreed. Pringles aren't "made from the potato" for the purposes of the tax office's exemption, he said. He didn't say what Pringles are, other than that they're tax-exempt.

What's that old adage about a duck?

Pringles are not potato chips, judge says in British tax case [L.A. Times]

The man who invented the Pringles canister ...

Ben Popken — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:40:02 EDT

The man who invented the Pringles canister died recently, and, as per his request, a portion of his ashes were interred in a container of Pringles. [AP]

Northwest Airlines Will Not Trade A Hot Meal For Pringles

Meg Marco — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:14:35 EDT

Northwest Airlines must realize their food is crappier than a snack size tin of Pringles because when Stephen Dubner (of the Freakonomics book and blog) tried to swap his 1st/Business class hot meal for a tin of lowly coach Pringles, he was told that it would cost him $2—the coach price.

So I told the flight attendant "no thanks" to the dinner — but instead, I said, I would like a can of the Pringles that, as I'd heard over the P.A., were being offered for sale in coach.

She looked surprised — maybe she didn't know how delicious Pringles are? — and then replied, "Well, I'll have to charge you for that. It'll be two dollars."

I agreed to pay — I really, really like Pringles when the mood strikes — but I thought it was pretty odd that a company would take a customer who had bought a premium version of its product and then, when said customer wants to substitute a can of potato-ish chips for the hot meal that comes for free with the premium version of the product, require him to pay $2.

Obviously, Dubner's mistake is to assume that the hot meal was the "premium" product. No, just kidding. It's weird. They should have offered to trade his uneaten meal with some poor starving person back in coach who had reluctantly paid $2 for Pringles and was just sitting back there staring at them, trying to hold back the tears. —MEGHANN MARCO

No Price Discrimination at Northwest Airlines [Freakonomics]
(Photo: drewski2112)