WEBVTT - Reese's Pieces 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.520 Welcome to Business on the Brink, a production from I 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Heart Radio and How Stuff Works. It was the early 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:19.880 eighties and a successful young filmmaker named Stephen Spielberg was 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.320 looking for something sweet. He wanted to make a squat, gray, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.840 wrinkled alien lovable, and part of that hinged on the 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.800 critter developing a taste for candy. His first choice was Eminem's, 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:34.840 but when asked about it, the Mars Candy Company told 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:38.800 Spielberg to phone home. He'd have to go with choice 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.520 number two. This is Reese's on Business on the Brink. 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.920 Hey there, I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Ariel Castin, and 0:00:57.120 --> 0:01:00.800 welcome to our spooky Halloween episode us. It was an 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:05.840 episode requested by my co worker Ramsey, who wanted us 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.160 just to talk about Reese's pieces. However, before we get 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.040 into that, you know we're gonna have a lot of 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.280 fun with this episode. And spoiler alert, we actually already 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:17.039 recorded the whole thing, but in retrospect, we figured we 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:21.080 really can't talk about this without addressing something that's much 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.639 more serious. So we wanted to get that clear up front, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.360 which is that the candy industry a lot of companies 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:37.680 that get chocolate are dependent upon extremely terrible, awful, inhumane practices, 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.520 largely involving child labor and even child slavery, and there 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.360 have been uh regulations and kind of deadlines put into 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:49.400 place to make chocolate companies fix that. But they're having 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:53.120 a hard time, they say, because they don't know where 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.720 a lot of their chocolate is actually sourced, which seems 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.560 pretty corporate, irresponsibly yeah type of thing going on. Yeah, 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.800 so this is something you may have heard of, the 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.200 phrase fair trade chocolate. That's you know, obviously, that's chocolate 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.440 that's been sourced to a place that does not engage 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.960 in these practices. But Hersh's which supplies the chocolate actually 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.280 now Reese's as part of her She's you'll hear all 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.959 about that. Uh, But Hershey's, which has always supplied the 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:25.760 chocolate for the Reese's Peanut buttercups, is one of those companies, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.440 and so we wanted to make sure we acknowledged that 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.400 before we go on to the zany fun of the episode, 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.720 which I know is a big tonal shift, but and 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.240 after we recorded it, we realized we really needed to 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.320 to address that because it's it's something that we think 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:45.240 is extremely important that people know. Yes. Yeah, So now 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:50.320 that we've got that, we're going to rejoin Jonathan and 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:54.560 Ariel from the past, who already recorded the episode that's 0:02:54.639 --> 0:03:00.280 extra spook. Yeah, welcome to our spooky Halloween episode. We 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.880 were trying to come up with a topic that would 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.800 be suitable for Halloween, and while chatting with my coworker Ramsey, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.320 he said, you should do an episode about Reese's pieces 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.280 and how they ended up in et when everyone supposed 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.360 to be a a Yeah, but you know what, Ramsey, there's 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.120 not enough information on Reesa's pieces. Also a lot of 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.360 people know that story, but we're gonna include it anyway. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.840 But more importantly, Ramsey's awesome. His suggestion was awesome. It 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.000 is awesome, Thank you, Ramsey, and it led us on 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.040 this wonderful trail to the business history of Reese's in general, 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.320 which is pretty fantastic. Well, and it's it's funny because 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:39.160 it's a history that was largely ignored starting in the 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:44.120 late seventies because of the company that would take over races. 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.640 Because well, we'll get there. I don't get that, we'll 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.800 get no spoilers jumping way ahead, Jimmy way, all right, 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.200 So let's start with that history, and it all begins 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.120 with the founder of the company. Oh and by the way, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:00.680 you might occasionally here in this episode a little crinkly 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.280 noises because Ariel and I each have a Reese's Peanut 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.640 butter cup, a manager one, the kind you would get 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.160 at Halloween. It is so hard not to eat it 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.520 at this very second, I know I'm trying to hold 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.320 off myself. Okay, so start with the history. Harry Burnett 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.960 Reese is who we can thank for the Reese's Peanut 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.880 butter cup. He actually I have in my notes. He 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.679 had aspirations of becoming a real life Willy Wonka forty 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.880 years before Dahl would write that book. That's being a 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.359 little tongue in cheek facetious. But he was born in 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.320 Pennsylvania in eighteen seventy nine and by the year nine 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.200 he had married a woman named Blanche Edna Hyson, and 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:44.160 he started working as a farmer on the family farm 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:48.279 at Frosty Hill, which is near Muddy Creek Forks. Then 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:50.320 in my notes, I wrote, this makes me think that 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.159 this isn't one of the best spots in Pennsylvania based 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:56.520 on the name. I mean, if it's Frosty then the 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:00.880 mud is probably not like squishy, So bring Muddy Hill. 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.760 That's where my farm is. And he would end up 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.960 working several different jobs in his young adulthood, and he 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.080 was like, he got a reputation for picking up and 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.400 moving with his whole family multiple times in order to 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:20.320 pursue these opportunities. Eventually, he and his wife and now children, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:25.680 of which he would ultimately have several sixteen intervals, would 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.159 settle in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which I've been to. Have you 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:32.760 been to Hershey? I have not. I have been to Pittsburgh. Yes, 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.839 that's it. Yeah, so my wife's from Pennsylvania and we've 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.680 been to Hershey several times. It's also where the Pennsylvania 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.800 Renaissance Festival takes place. I hear. That's fantastic is and 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.320 Hershey is obviously a monument to chocolate. Even back then, 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.520 Hershey's the the Chocolate Company was a thing. Yeah, but 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.880 that's that's not where Reese started in Hershey. He started 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.680 working at a dairy farm called the Round Barn in 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:04.200 like nineteen sixteen. But here's the thing, Round Barn owned 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.640 by Hershey. So yeah, he technically he was, but he 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.640 wasn't working straightly strictly for the chocolate tier. He was 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:16.440 working for the dairy farm. Yes, so he worked there 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.600 for a couple of years, but then Hershey's, in a 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:24.719 cost saving measure, closed that dairy farm in nineteen nineteen, 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.280 and so then Rees's went over to try and do 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:31.239 some other stuff, including create his own candy company. Now 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:36.239 that initial attempt was the R and R Candy Company, 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.720 and he was largely basing his his recipes off of 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.160 his mother's recipes, and they included things like chocolate covered 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.800 almonds and chocolate covered raisins, taking the things that kids 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.840 don't want to eat at Halloween and dipping them in chocolate. Yeah, 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.960 and uh, it did not end up becoming a huge success. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.000 And I mean even at the time, like Hershey's was 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.720 already a dominant player in pocolate. We'll have to do 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:02.640 a full episode on Hershe's at some point. But when 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:04.279 you think of her She's, you think of hershey Bars, 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.760 and he's focusing it looks like on little I Can't 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:09.040 held candies. Yeah, he's looking for the stuff that would 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.600 be sold in like the big barrels at a general store. 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:15.520 Because this is also before you know grocery stores and 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.680 department stores are really a thing. Yeah, so our in 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.760 our candy company didn't do well, and so he rebranded. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.679 He called the new company the Superior Chocolate and Confectionery Company, 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:29.560 which is superior to our and R Candy I suppose yep. 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:32.960 He tried to sell some stock in order to fund 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.480 this business, but this also did not take off, and 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.720 pretty soon he was closing the doors on that one, 0:07:41.280 --> 0:07:44.000 and not too long after that he would go back 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.880 and work for her She's again, this time in the 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:51.440 shipping department, which where he was sneaking little chocolate covered 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.720 raisins into everybody's packages with a little note saying, if 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.280 you want more of these, cover Superior. Now. He did 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:04.640 not find the particularly engaging or interesting, but it was 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.560 paying the bills, and in the meantime, he continued to 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.960 create different recipes for his own candy, working out of 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:16.720 his basement's um hygienic basement candy. Well, here's the thing, 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.640 you know, I will eat basement candy, maybe everything but 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.640 bathroom candy. Okay, that's fair. Well, you know why he 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.280 was making his basement. It's because this is before air conditioning, 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:33.040 so the temperature would get too warm, especially during the 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.080 summer months. Like in summer they couldn't make chocolate at 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.560 all because the temperature would be so warm they could 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.920 never get the candy to set properly. It would always 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:45.880 be that kind of sweaty, melty stuff. So the basement 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.760 was the coolest room to work in, so you could 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.760 heat up the chocolate, mold it, and let it cool 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.360 and set there. So that's why he set up down there. Yeah. 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.400 So I think it's really cool that some of the 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.520 candy was he named after his kids, yes, right, yeah, 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:04.800 And not only that, but it was the successful stuff 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.360 that he was making. Yeah, so that this is what 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:12.400 would actually help establish him and convince him to make 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:14.600 a real go of it. Yet again, So do you 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.240 know the name of the candy bars? Well, I do, Jonathan, 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.960 because it's right here in our nose and frost. Okay, 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.199 let's not. Don't peel back the curtain too far. I'm sorry. Okay, No, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:27.439 there's the Lizzie Bar, which was carmel and coconut covered 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.640 in chocolate. Sign me up. You know. I first read 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.400 it and I was like, m hmm, but I could 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:36.880 totally see mixing a Snickers in an almond in a 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.080 mound's bar, and I'd be happy, and I love coconuts 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:43.360 so much together with the caramel took me by surprise 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:44.520 for a little bit. And the other one was the 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:46.439 Johnny Bar, which is made from alasses. So I guess 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.160 similar to a sugar daddy, maybe, yeah, kind of yeah. 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.560 And so he had sixteen kids that I mentioned in total, 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.240 eight boys and eight girls. They tragically not all of 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.680 them would live to adulthood, but you know, he had 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:04.839 had so many kids, and every single history has a 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:10.880 similar joke about how the chocolate business was necessity because 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.079 of his large family. And uh, they had a great 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:18.240 advertising slogan that would come a little bit later down 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.000 the road, but I wanted to include it now. Arial 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.440 could you please deliver that slogan sixteen good reasons to 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.600 buy Reese's. Yep, they would have a picture of all 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:33.320 the kids lined up, so essentially saying exactly, buy candy 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.679 so we can feed these children. So, uh, this was 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.960 enough for him to be convinced to give another go 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.679 about actually starting a candy company of his own, because 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.600 these these chocolate bars named after his kids were starting 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.160 to see some success. And so once again he quit 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.640 his job at Hershey's and he founded the H. B. 0:10:56.120 --> 0:11:01.120 Reese Candy Company in nineteen twenty three. And you know, 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.920 he was already selling candy at this point and that 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:06.120 was enough for him to actually make a living. So 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.760 now he was just creating the company to make that 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:11.599 his full time gig. Yeah. And the candies he was 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.200 making around the time where things like peppermint creams, encoded 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.880 dates and things like that still in the raisins and 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.840 almonds arena, and he, as you said he was, he 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:23.400 was trying to sell them in like the general stores 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.360 and the barrels. So he sold them on consignment to 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:30.720 local shops in Pennsylvania. And he had made enough money 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.080 to build a new house, probably because he ruined his 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.480 basement and his old one. That's an assumption by me, Ariel, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.480 but I'm sticking to it. And also enough money to 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.240 build a factory. Yes, So now he's like hiring people 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:45.200 he's making he's making these candies in uh, in larger amounts. 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.440 And by hiring people, um, I think you can imagine 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.439 what much of his workforce was made up of his children, 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.600 which is almost the same thing that I don't know 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.920 if they would sing songs about, you know, being greedy 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.000 or chewing gum all the time, but they definitely would 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:04.680 work for him quite a bit. We'll get back to 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:10.679 the family issues a bit later. So in ninete, Reese 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.959 happened to fall into a conversation with a local shop 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.120 owner who was telling Reese, you know, my customers really 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.840 like these peanut butter cups that this other candy company, 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.559 this other candy maker is making. In your face, Reese, yeah, 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.520 so so peanut butter cups. Chocolate covered peanut butter cups 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:31.960 were already a thing. Okay, Reese had never made them, 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.600 but they were they were a known quantity. So Reese 0:12:35.600 --> 0:12:39.760 did not invent the peanut butter cup um. And but 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.360 he was being told by the shop owner, the problem is, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.080 this candy maker can't make enough of these peanut butter 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.080 these chocolate covered peanut butter cups to meet the demand 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.920 my customers have. They are always asking for them. So 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.120 do you think you could make some? And Reese wasn't 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.240 super crazy about this, just he didn't that was not 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:01.280 what he was really interested in doing. But he thought, well, 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.200 there's a demand, I should definitely try to meet that. 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.920 So he got to work and um, he started roasting 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.800 his own peanuts, which for a long time was like 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.960 the thing that Reese's would say, set their peanut butter 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.240 cups apart from everyone else's. Yeah, but that's because he 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:24.520 almost burned his peanuts. Yeah. Apparently, according to the histories, 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.680 there was a malfunction in the roasting equipment which over 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:29.960 roasted the peanuts almost to the point of burning them, 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.720 and then he ended up turning it into peanut butter anyway, 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.679 and it was a happy mistake because it produced a 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.720 peanut butter that people found particularly tasty. Yeah, but imagine 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.960 when you're trying to cook peanuts to a certain level 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:44.680 and then you overcook him, and now you have to 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.120 overcook him that exact amount every time to keep your 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:50.640 to maintain like a standard. Yeah. I ad meant that 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.200 once he fixed that roaster, he had to figure out 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.520 how to replicate the effect with a roaster that was 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.520 actually working properly. And then he covered the burnt peanut 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:04.480 butter in Hershey's chocolate. Yes, And this would be something 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:10.640 that is an interesting, interesting kind of sympatico relationship because 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:15.520 throughout his career Reese would use chocolate from Hershey's. He 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.280 would purchase the chocolate from Hershey's, and Hershey's would send 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.360 him the chocolate needed. He and her She had a 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:27.040 good working relationship. It's it's not uncommon for confectioners to 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.480 outsource their chocolate from other people. Yeah, and so this 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.200 was one of those cases where, uh, this was not 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:37.440 even a rivalry so much as it was like like 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.720 just two different companies doing business in the same area. 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.120 But they both realized there was enough room. Plus, I mean, 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.880 Hershey's was operating at a level far beyond what Reese 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.560 was doing at this point. So then he introduces the 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.280 peanut butter cup. That's not what they were called originally. No, 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.520 they were called penny cups. That's how much they cost, 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.040 one penny a cup. That's also that's also the same. 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:08.400 It's a good exchange rate. When you said one one 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.400 one cup of penny, or however you said it, I 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.080 just pictured someone like throwing pennies into a cup. That's 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.040 fair enough. That's fair enough, which you weren't incorrect. My 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.000 brain just went weird anyhow. Sorry. We actually have the 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.840 date that they debuted too. It was November. Are you certain, 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.600 because oftentimes dates are shaky, I mean sure enough to 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.520 put it into the notes that's super awesome. To be fair, yes, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:38.000 the histories state November fift it could give or take 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:40.800 five years, but for once, we're not getting so many 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.920 conflicting reports on the date, so it's it's pretty spectacular. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:47.440 So he originally sold these peanut butter cups in bulk 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.200 mixed up with all of his other candies in five 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.560 pound bags. But you know what, people like the peanut 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.960 butter cups better than the chocolate covered dates, and so 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:59.680 again Reese was not super thrilled with that. He he 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.640 was not a fan of the peanut butter cups, but 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:04.920 you got to give the people what they want. So 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:07.800 he would continue to make them, and eventually it would 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.120 take a couple of years, but eventually it got to 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:14.520 the point where he could make them solely on their 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.280 own and sell those as a separate item as opposed 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:22.040 to being one item in a five pound bag of 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.640 bulk candy. So they got popular enough where they could 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.800 stand out as a single item, which was unusual at 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:35.160 the time. And then we get to a brink moment. Yeah, 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.360 so this was a bring moment that was not unique 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.280 to Reese's. It was not something go ahead and unwrap 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.520 that candy I'm gonna I'm not gonna eat it. I'm 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.360 just unwrapping it. Okay, that's fair. She really, she literally is. 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:51.840 That's not that's not us doing sound effects. She really 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:53.840 did just do that anyway. So this bring moment was 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.360 a bring moment that happened to the entire world. This 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.720 is not something that was unique to Reese's and not 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:01.280 a moment would be if you're keeping track of what year. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.879 It is the Great Depression, and it was almost enough 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.600 to bring the story to an end, and then we 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:11.760 would have two segments of nothing. But we've got a 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:21.160 little more to explain right after this break. So the 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:25.960 Great Depression hit, you are right of their areal. Yeah, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.280 I'm your started before I'm done with this peanut butter. Okay, 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.480 I wasn't going to eat it, but um, it smelled 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:38.199 really peanut butter and good. I can taste those burnt peanuts. Okay, 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:43.560 I need another one, Well, this one's mine. Originally, guys, 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:45.440 I wanted to just bring this giant bag of rees 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.520 peanut butter cups and see how many I could eat 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.159 throughout the episode episode. But I'm sparing you all of 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.560 that smacking noise. If you want to take that challenge 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:58.000 on yourselves. Please do let us know how many you ate. Yes, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.000 you can, but don't tell us how much you threw up. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.159 Ariel will keep it tally and then as a reward, 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:05.720 will name whoever ate the most of the end. But 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.000 be honest. All right, we don't want you saying I 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.720 ate a thousand Reese's peanut butter it cups No, Okay, 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:14.520 let's get back to the story. The Great Depression really 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.480 hit Reese very hard, and he was so short on 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.240 cash that, according to the stories, he got to the 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.280 point where he wasn't able to pay his employees in money, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:29.159 so he paid them in candies. I mean I would 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.440 be happy, I mean, but his employees were his kids, right. 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:37.080 Well know, yeah, that's that's you know, fun in theory, 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:39.760 but not very practical. Yeah, you can't pay your rent 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.080 in candy most of the time, and his employees complained 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:43.800 in The sheriff even came after him, and he went 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.520 into hiding. And yes, he kind of reminds me of 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.439 the Ozarks. Yeah, he ran off to hide at his 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.280 old family farm while the sheriff was looking for him. 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:58.080 So things were pretty grim, and he decided that in 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.640 order to to make it through the hard times that 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:04.639 he actually would go back to farming, especially in the 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.920 summer months, because again it was too warm to make 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:12.399 the candy, So he ended up putting his workers to 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.760 work doing stuff like canning vegetables, So people who had 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:22.280 been making chocolates were now canning, Like, maybe they'd make 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:28.159 those canned lama beans taste better. I like chocolate. I 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:32.680 would eat those. He also would end up in order 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.680 to keep his business afloat, and he secured several loans 0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.440 to make sure everything was in operation. Now. Obviously, that 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.200 in itself meant that he was taking on a big 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.040 risk because now he had debt he needed to pay 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.560 off in addition to just making sure that he could 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:51.840 make ends meet, you know, day to day. Yeah, but 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:54.760 here's the thing, people still really liked his peanut butter cups. 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:56.359 I guess they brought him a little bit of joy 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.240 in the midst of all this financial turmoil. Yeah. Yeah, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.000 it's one of those things where it was a luxury 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:04.800 that people were willing to pay for on occasion, and 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.240 it was relatively affordable. Yeah, it wasn't like it was 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:13.000 super expensive. So the peanut butter cups were incredibly popular 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.040 and kept him in business. And by n five, because 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:18.359 of that popularity, he had actually made enough money to 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.119 pay off all that debt. So it was only a 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.800 few years that he had this debt over him, and 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.280 then literally the peanut butter cup was what allowed him 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.840 to to get out from under it. Yeah, but you 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.480 know what, he still couldn't give up on those chocolate 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:37.080 covered dates, not for a while until World War te 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:41.159 was stubborn. Yes, so the Great Depression kept all of 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.000 his other like he was still making other types of candies. 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.240 But the World War Two was a different story because 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.919 during World War Two the United States government put strict 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:56.000 rationing on a lot of different staples, sugar exactly, and 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:59.560 so with sugar under this rationing, Reese was not going 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.280 to be able to make enough of the candies. However, 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:08.720 one thing that wasn't rationed was peanut butter, so that man, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.080 he had plenty of peanut butter, and he could still 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.040 buy chocolate from Hershey's. Her she was still agreeing to 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:19.760 sell Reese chocolate, so that meant he could still make 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:24.480 the peanut butter cup. And ultimately he said, all right, well, 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.440 the only thing that makes sense is to just make 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:29.480 peanut butter cups, and it was a good decision. It 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.760 kept him in business. So he keeps on churning these 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.399 things out, and at this point he has um really 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:42.480 focused specifically on just making peanut butter cups. By the 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.840 mid nineteen fifties, UM it had gotten to the point 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:48.760 where they were going to need to expand again. They 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.800 were going to need to build essentially a new factory 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.080 that they had outgrown their old one, and UM they 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.560 decided that they were going to actually build this thing 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.840 and it was scheduled to open in nineteen fifty seven 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:05.560 like that. That was kind of the target of when 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.720 this would come online. But HB. Reese himself would not 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.560 live to see that come to pass. He would pass 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.760 away on May sixteenth, nineteen fifties, six one year before 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.000 the new facility would come online. Man, that's really sad. 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.359 But what's even sadder is the fact that he left 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.440 his company to his sons. He excluded his daughters from 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:31.439 his will, from his will, and then his not all 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.040 of his sons all I guess eight of them, six 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:35.560 of them, six of them, six of them at that 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.919 point wanted the company. So there was all of this 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.520 in fighting on whether they should sell it or keep it. Yeah, 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.560 the sons didn't all get along with each other, and 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:48.680 yet because of the will, they were each named two 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:52.040 different positions of authority in the in the company. So 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:55.840 get six people who don't like each other and then 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:57.919 tell them they have to lead a company together. You 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:03.000 can imagine that's not gonna smoothly. So yeah, there was 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:08.399 this whole thing about who, whether they should keep the company, 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.320 whether they should sell the company. They had built the 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:14.800 manufacturing facility. This was an interesting thing too, because it 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:19.120 shows how how Reese's was interesting in its marketing. I mean, 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:21.199 you know they had done this sixteen good reasons to 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.840 buy a resas. They had gone from marketing Reese's as 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.480 being sort of a hand dipped candy to now that 0:23:27.520 --> 0:23:31.280 they have the new manufacturing facility saying untouched by human hands, 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:33.400 which also makes me think of Willy Wonka, which kind 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.440 of makes it go from like a little home good 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:42.160 field to a super technical candy of the future field. Yes, so, 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.760 by the time the nineteen sixties rolled around, it was 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:51.760 pretty obvious that her that Reese's sons were not going 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.240