There are certain things that don’t make sense in life. Like, why isn't cake considered a breakfast food, but muffins are? Why is mint ice cream
popular when it literally tastes like toothpaste? And why do hot dogs come in
packs of 10, but hot dog buns come in packs of eight? You’ll either have
leftover, bunless hot dogs or tons of buns, probably languishing in your
freezer. We put a man on the moon but we can make the buns and dogs number
match? Why is it like this?
In this famous clip from "Father of the Bride," Steve Martin's George Banks absolutely loses it when trying to pick up dinner for the family all because of the dog vs. bun pack dilema.
Twitter is demanding answers as well:
Is it, like George Banks said, a bunch of bigshots at the bun and weiner companiess trying to rip off the public? You might think this is a plot to make you buy multiple packs until the two match (that would be five
packs of dogs and four packs of buns for you math geeks out there). It’s
actually not some nefarious scheme, though, but instead a result of industry standards.
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, meat is usually sold by the pound. If you have a 1.6 ounce hot dog, 10 of them
in a pack make a pound. This has been the case since hot dogs became available in
retail stores in the 1940s. Bakers, meanwhile, bake buns eight to a tray. If
you recall, the buns are usually connected in sets of four.
With 20 billion hot dogs consumed in America annually,
that’s a lot of left overs (and about 70 hot dogs consumed per person per year -- wow).
Heinz ketchup is hoping to right this wrong with a
Change.org petition to make buns and wieners match pack for pack with 10 each.
Called The Heinz Hot Dog Pact, it is just 2,000 signatures shy of its 35,000
signature goal. They've already got a thumbs up from Oscar Meyer, who vowed to make two packs of buns for 5,700 retweets. Sadly, we still have a ways to go.
If anything changes because of this petition, it remains to be seen, but at least there’s hope with grilling season right around the corner. Now if we could just start a new petition for breakfast cupcakes…