A year after toilet paper disappeared from store shelves, now restaurants all around the country are struggling to obtain enough ketchup packets.
The latest shortage during the coronavirus pandemic, more than a year into the health crisis, has stricken businesses of all shapes and sizes, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Monday.
“We’ve been hunting high and low,” Chris Fuselier, owner of Denver-based Blake Street Tavern, told the paper of his search for the condiment. “Everyone out there is grabbing for ketchup,” Stephanie Mattingly, chief marketing officer of Long John Silver’s, said.
MASK MANDATES AND RESTAURANT RESTRICTIONS HAVE SMALL IMPACT ON CORONAVIRUS CASES AND DEATHS: CDC
Many traditional sit-down restaurants became takeout spots when pandemic restrictions closed their doors to diners, which elevated demand for packets of ketchup. Packet prices are up 13% since January 2020, the report said, citing data from the restaurant-business platform Plate IQ.
The health crisis also pushed restaurants with in-person dining to pull ketchup bottles on tables. That, along with the packet shortage, has caused some businesses to rely more on individual cups of ketchup.
An executive for condiment heavyweight Kraft Heinz encouraged restaurants to be patient, saying the company has plans to open two new manufacturing lines this month and to increase production by about 25%, the goal being to manufacture more than 12 billion packets a year.
“We’re busy doing everything we can,” said Steve Cornell, Kraft Heinz’s president of Enhancers, Specialty, and Away from Home Business Unit.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The company is reportedly already running extra shifts at plants and has cut back on some condiment varieties to direct more work to serving up more single-serve packets.
