Pete Wright

You know what America needs right now?

Less joy.

But the Choco Taco is just one casualty in what I've come to think of as the great snacking extinction.

Jell-O pudding pops, Altoids sours, McDonald's fried apple pies replaced by baked ones in 1992 because people kept burning their mouths, which McDonald's called a health decision.

McDonald's.

was worried about your health.

Sure.

Here's what kills me.

These products don't fail.

They just stop succeeding enough.

The phrase poor sales appears in every obituary of a canceled food, the corporate equivalent of thoughts and prayers.

It absolves the company while blaming us, the consumer.

We didn't stop making it.

You stopped buying it, they're saying.

But poor sales doesn't distinguish between nobody wants this and this isn't worth our time.

Your memories are subject to quarterly earnings reports now.

Your sense of comfort must justify itself in terms of market efficiency.

Here's one that's a humdinger.

The O. Henry Bar was discontinued in 2019, just months short of its 100th birthday.

That's the corporate equivalent of shooting a racehorse in the homestretch.