  Summertime1 Member Username: Summertime1 Post Number: 19 Registered: 01-2008 |
My Grand father worked for Better Made. I have a calender of him from 1940. The chips are great. I love the burnt ones the best. He would take me through the factory and show me how they were made!! | ||
Living_in_the_d Member Username: Living_in_the_d Post Number: 33 Registered: 01-2008 |
Cool!, Very Cool. | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 3436 Registered: 11-2005 |
http://www.modeldmedia.com/dev elopmentnews/betmade66.aspx | ||
Civilprotectionunit4346 Member Username: Civilprotectionunit4346 Post Number: 627 Registered: 06-2007 |
That's cool. It's quite interesting to find out what products/goods are made in the D' and the surrounding area. Do they still offer tours of the BetterMade plant? I know that Kowalski meat products are made in detroit. I heard that Koegoel is made in detroit as well. When I lived in the NY/NJ area there was hotdogs made out there called Sabrett, anyone here ever hear of them or Taylor Ham? | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3809 Registered: 10-2003 |
Sabrett hot dogs are sold by street vendors in downtown Detroit during the warm months. | ||
Izzadore Member Username: Izzadore Post Number: 110 Registered: 11-2006 |
A really good heavy chip. And Yes. Jay's is going outta business. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5056 Registered: 10-2004 |
Jay's is currently bankrupt--for the third time. But still being made in Jeffersonville, Ind, pending its possible sale. | ||
Edziu Member Username: Edziu Post Number: 35 Registered: 07-2007 |
Koegel products are made in Flint. | ||
Ladyinabag Member Username: Ladyinabag Post Number: 364 Registered: 03-2007 |
Doesn't anybody remember "Gold Chip" potato chips. Their plant was located on Conant, just south of Davison, but about a block north of Americana Dance Studio in Hamtramck. I can taste them now. They sold them in all of the movie theaters. I would get them at The Nortown Theater on Saturday and Sunday when I would go (which was pretty much every week-end). I remember falling in love with Audie Murphy (my favorite cowboy), and The Flash Gordon serial , and Mighty Mouse ("Here I Come To Save The Day...."). (Message edited by Ladyinabag on February 05, 2008) | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3813 Registered: 10-2003 |
Who makes the thickest chips? | ||
Ednaturnblad Member Username: Ednaturnblad Post Number: 25 Registered: 09-2006 |
I don't know about the chips - but I'm still stuck with the same old dip! | ||
Jfried Member Username: Jfried Post Number: 1103 Registered: 11-2003 |
I rarely read the magazine any more (I swear!) but this months maxim ranks the ten best potato chips and better made took top honors. | ||
Jokerman Member Username: Jokerman Post Number: 114 Registered: 07-2005 |
Better Made Chips Rule! I have to get some every time I'm back home in Michigan. One time I ordered a whole case of them online to be sent to me in San Diego. I also love the burnt ones best. At one time they sold whole bags of chips that were overdone. They called them Rainbow Chips. I remember as a kid, when we went in, they would give a free sample bag to all children. | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 920 Registered: 10-2003 |
No more Better Made factory tours. They still sell Rainbow Chips, only at their factory store. | ||
Ferntruth Member Username: Ferntruth Post Number: 354 Registered: 11-2006 |
"Doesn't anybody remember "Gold Chip" potato chips. Their plant was located on Conant, just south of Davison, but about a block north of Americana Dance Studio in Hamtramck" Are you thinking of New Era chips? I thought they had a plant in that same area at one time.... | ||
Wash_man Member Username: Wash_man Post Number: 598 Registered: 05-2006 |
My brother-in-law used to work for Frito Lay. He could get all the free chips he wanted. He insisted on buying Better Made instead. That is brand loyalty! (Also biting the hand that feeds you, but that's another topic) | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 3819 Registered: 10-2003 |
We used to go to the Better Made store on Gratiot when I was a kid and they'd give you HOT bags of chips, just off the line. My god, they were so good. I've been told that's not possible anymore. | ||
Frankg Member Username: Frankg Post Number: 180 Registered: 08-2007 |
I worked as a union organizer for a few months last year in NYC. There were a few ex-Detroiters on staff up there and we got to talking about potato chips. I called up Better Made and had them send a big box of the 1oz bags of potato chips to the office in Manhattan. It was awesome, everybody up there really liked them. Our family came from the Better Made factory area, so every year at our family's Christmas, I bring one of the large plastic buckets of regular Better Mades, a tin of the chocolate-covered Better Mades, and a tin of Better Made chocolate-covered pretzels. These are all well-received by the family, and every year, I get the title of being my Mom's "Golden Boy." :-) | ||
Stinger4me Member Username: Stinger4me Post Number: 165 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ladyinabag; This guy remembers Gold Chips, with a dime you could walk in the front door and they would fill a bag. The bag would be jammed with chips and sometimes they would sell the brown chips. The chips were really great. At certain times I could stop at the Better Made factory on Gratiot and they sold what they referred to as burnt chips, really brown and really good. It was unique to see the lift they used to empty the trailer trucks. The entire truck was elevated at an angle and the potatoes came out of the double doors via gravity. I do not remember where the plant was for New Era. Potato chip selection was a family thing. The Gold Chip plant was not very large. It was done the street from the music studio owned by the Tucci family. | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 417 Registered: 11-2007 |
I remember the giant New Era tins that we would haul food to the campsite in when I was a kid. Almost the size of a five gallon bucket. Haven't seen one in how many years? | ||
Pgn421 Member Username: Pgn421 Post Number: 344 Registered: 02-2005 |
New Era plant was at Jos Campau and Grandy, i just recently someone torched it | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 5063 Registered: 10-2004 |
There must have been a half dozen PC makers in Detroit during the 1950s. My uncles' store carried New Era. | ||
Summertime1 Member Username: Summertime1 Post Number: 20 Registered: 01-2008 |
I still have the Better Made chip containers. they were yellow, red, and white. We would put them in the middle of the table. you could put chips or hot bread in them!! | ||
Rel Member Username: Rel Post Number: 30 Registered: 02-2008 |
Those New Era tins were SO beautifully Deco. | ||
Oladub Member Username: Oladub Post Number: 125 Registered: 08-2006 |
Either Mr. Nicolay or Mr. Dancy started making New Era chips in the basement at 4351 Three Mile Drive in about 1929 or 1930. His southern crews took turns working and using the same beds. New Era production moved to St. Jean and Shoemaker. Eventually, that became the Wolverine Potato Chip factory. | ||
Pgn421 Member Username: Pgn421 Post Number: 346 Registered: 02-2005 |
oladub- Bedford st, not far from where i grew up. good info | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 123 Registered: 01-2008 |
I vaguely remember as a kid in the late 60s, some plastic potato chip large bowl-sized baskets that were distributed for Better Made? Yellow or white ones with their logo on the bottom? My father used to go to the old Sears store on Gratiot nearby the Better Made factory, and would bring back home a bag of hot peanuts from Sears, and a large box of potato chips from Better Made that had two large individual plain waxed paper bags of chips inside. | ||
Polaar Member Username: Polaar Post Number: 29 Registered: 10-2006 |
As found in my basement!!  | ||
Stinger4me Member Username: Stinger4me Post Number: 167 Registered: 08-2007 |
Polaar; My guess is the tan one is the older of the two, am I correct? | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1393 Registered: 08-2007 |
Some history: In 1951, New Era had four plants in the Midwest, including the Detroit plant at 5801 Grandy, and outsold the competition by three-to-one. The company's logo was a black silhouette of a thin woman, her arm arched to her head seemingly reaching for chips. Her thinness seemed to imply that chips were not fattening. ... New Era was bought out by Frito-Lay, and the company was closed in 1981. The article has more on Detroit chips: http://info.detnews.com/redesi gn/history/story/historytempla te.cfm?id=209&CFID=19487940&CF TOKEN=38560516 |
