Why is Heinz 57 sauce so goldanged expensive?

December 5, 2004 5:22 PM

CondimentFilter: Why is Heinz 57 sauce so goldanged expensive? I love the stuff, so I bought some last weekend. It was almost four bucks for a tiny bottle that barely got me through the weekend, much more than larger bottles of competing sauces. I checked the ingredients and din't see anything exotic to justify the price bump. Any clues?
posted by jonmc to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

I doubt the ingredience has anything to do with it.

They'd double the price if they thought you'd pay it. I'd argue that the price of any product put out by a company with Heinz's ability to research is priced to the max that people who "love the stuff" will pay. In addition, the higher price makes it seem like it must be a better sauce than the cheap alternative.
posted by dobbs at 5:41 PM on December 5, 2004

Response by poster: If that's their strategy, it backfired. The price is the reason I buy it so rarely. There's a lot of condiments out there, you figure they'd be more competitive.
posted by jonmc at 5:44 PM on December 5, 2004

And people still buy CVS brand pseudoephedrine in a 48-pack when they can spend the same at Costco and get enough to start a meth lab. So it's all about branding.

But that is good sauce. And of you love that, you'll at least like HP Sauce just as much. But it's as expensive as heroin.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:59 PM on December 5, 2004

Marketing? Brand recognition? What is euphemistically called "customer differentiation"? Kerry's electoral debts (kidding, please, stop hurting me)?
posted by Non Serviam at 6:00 PM on December 5, 2004

Response by poster: I've had HP Sauce, it's not bad. And I understand the concept of charging a "brand premium," but if I'm any indication it looks like they overestimated how much the market will bear. So I figured there must be another reason.
posted by jonmc at 6:01 PM on December 5, 2004

Huh. It really is a word. Neat.
posted by interrobang at 6:01 PM on December 5, 2004

Don't be so hard on yourself, Non Serviam; Kerry's electoral debt was the first thing that popped into my mind.

On Preview: I thought ingedience was a typo too. Learn something new...
posted by Doohickie at 6:05 PM on December 5, 2004

I don't know why it's pricey, but you could clone it cheaply.
posted by O9scar at 6:26 PM on December 5, 2004

Buy it in bulk on the Internet.
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:42 PM on December 5, 2004

Brand recognition?

Yeah, this is a really old, established brand. With retro-anything being quite in fashion these days, I wouldn't be surprised if they've jacked up their prices, even if it does leave some of their customers behind.
posted by scarabic at 6:49 PM on December 5, 2004

Where else do you think they get the money to fund those other fifty-five unpopular formulas?
posted by interrobang at 6:51 PM on December 5, 2004

Mmmm... HP... seek out their Fruity and Curry sauces.
posted by mkultra at 6:52 PM on December 5, 2004

interrobang: fifty-five? you mean fifty-six? or do you count that "Organic Heinz" I bought once (tasty AND not totally soaked in sugar for a change)?
posted by Non Serviam at 7:05 PM on December 5, 2004

I'm including A-1 in my sauce-mathematics.
posted by interrobang at 7:11 PM on December 5, 2004

Here's the obligatory Cecil Adams debunking of the notion that 57 actually represents anything at all, much less the number of condiment varieties.
posted by bibliowench at 7:29 PM on December 5, 2004

This Gladwell article explains it very nicely. Via Gladwell.com
posted by RMALCOLM at 7:39 PM on December 5, 2004

Gladwell article is about KETCHUP. What's 57 Sauce? Now I'm curious....
posted by ParisParamus at 9:00 PM on December 5, 2004

Hmph. It's no Samson's Sauce.
posted by Vidiot at 9:33 PM on December 5, 2004

If I'm any indication it looks like they overestimated how much the market will bear.

They have probably done market research to figure out exactly how much the market will bear. If they double the price but only lose 30% of their customers, they're in good shape.
posted by grouse at 10:58 PM on December 5, 2004

For what it's worth, since the chances of me getting to use this in casual conversation ever again seem pretty remote, see L.H. Summers' famous article on ketchup economics [pdf], basically comparing financial economists and general economists.

And if you ask me, it's because people who like it will buy it no matter what the cost (within reason), and people who don't really care about it have a huge market of sauces to pick from so there's no point in trying to undercut the millions of other options.
posted by pokeydonut at 12:30 AM on December 6, 2004

Where are you shopping?! My local supermarket regularly has quite large bottles of Heinz at 2/$4.
posted by mimi at 6:06 AM on December 6, 2004

This is about 57 Sauce, not ketchup.
posted by zsazsa at 6:29 AM on December 6, 2004