Never even realized Warren Buffet bought them out….. Odd they wouldn’t be in Meijers. Wonder if they don’t make as many as they used too for some nefarious reason???
No easier to find pickles from Holland after sale of Heinz to Warren Buffet
By BRIAN VANOCHTEN
Posted Apr 21, 2013 at 12:01 AMUpdated Apr 21, 2013 at 9:13 PM
It all depends upon which way the wind is blowing, but much of the Holland area is reminded daily that pickles and vinegar are produced at the Heinz plant at 431 W. 16th St.
Heinz factory on 16th Street in Holland. — Dennis R.J. Geppert/The Holland Sentinel
It all depends upon which way the wind is blowing, but much of the Holland area is reminded daily that pickles and vinegar are produced at the Heinz plant at 431 W. 16th St.
Sniffing out those products at local markets isn’t nearly as simple.
The sale of Pittsburgh-based H.J. Heinz Co. to billionaire Warren Buffet for $23.3 billion in February represented the largest deal ever in the food industry, but further magnifies the perplexing lack of pickles available to local residents who smell baby dills and sweet gherkins being made here but have a hard time finding them.
You can’t get them at Meijer or Family Fare supermarkets.
You’ll instead see them occupying shelf space at odd spots such as Shopko Hometown in Allegan and — believe it or not — Menards home-improvement stores.
“I’m not a pickle person,” said Brad Swineheart, assistant general manager at Menards of Holland, 572 E. 16th St., “but I didn’t know (Heinz pickles) were such a hard commodity to come by. People are surprised by some of the stuff we sell in here.”
Or perhaps confused.
The Sentinel staff scoured the Holland area following inquiries from local residents wondering why pickles produced right in their backyard seem to be so scarce.
The factory in Holland, which opened in 1897, is Heinz’s only pickle-processing plant and accounts for 15 percent of its annual sales, which reached $17.6 billion last year.
Menards stocks five different varieties of Heinz pickle products.
It has kosher dill spears, bread and butter slices, sweet relish and hamburger dill chips, but the Holland location was completely sold out of sweet gherkins recently.
Meijer and Family Fare sell numerous brands of pickles. No jars of Heinz pickles on its shelves, although its omnipresent bottles of ketchup take up lots of shelf space.
Shopko Hometown, 540 Jenner Drive, of Allegan proudly stocks Heinz pickles.
“We sell kosher dill spears, hot dog relish and regular relish,” sales floor supervisor Rebecca Moore said. “Our food section isn’t all that big, but we’ve carried them since our grand opening in October. I like ’em. I try to buy local as much as I can.
“But sometimes that’s hard to do.”
A bigger challenge is getting an informed response from Heinz.
The Sentinel requested a list of local retailers offering its pickles, but a spokesperson from corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh had no idea Menards sold them.
The same company official poured vinegar on the Sentinel’s request to interview new Holland plant manager Jon Pepoy to get to the bottom of the great pickle caper.
Assorted pickles, relishes and sauces are made at the Holland plant, which employs about 300 people full time and 200-300 laborers during the cucumber season.