The Joy of Discovery

[schizmatic]

Many years ago, in 1994-1995, I had a cookie that I really, really enjoyed, namely the Keebler Toffee Sandy. It was the same shortbread cookie as found in the Pecan Sandy, but with bits of toffee in it instead of pecan. Well, sometime in late 1995-early 1996 Keebler discontinued this cookie. I was heartbroken. How could a thing so wonderful

Comments

[pauldrye]

Ha! I'm glad I vaguely-sort-of remembered them then!

Compliments is their store brand, which means there's some minor manufacturer out there making them. I'd guess Keebler outsourced to them, or sold them on consignment, whoever they may be.

[schizmatic]

It's just odd to see a long-dead cookie resurrected under a different label.

[pauldrye]

Well, it may not have been long-dead. There's a whole undercurrent of snack makers who do regional and/or dollar store work in the candy, cookie, and chips lines. They only intrude on our consciousness when we're in their region or someone picks them up. (Go to the dollar store one day and closely examine the food aisles. It's social archaeology.)

If I had to guess, they've been made all along but up east somewhere. Sobey's is a Maritime outfit, so they would have sourced store brands to food manufacturers there and in New England and...voila! Lazarus Cookie.

[schizmatic]

Which would probably mean that Keebler discovered them, brought them nationwide, and then dropped them a short time later. So who knows, these cookies may have been out there for a while and I never new. The ins and outs of regional food brands and what penetrates what regions is something I find both strange and fascinating.