Interesting sandwich cookie history

Repairatrooper · 2024-01-18T17:06:58.000Z

The curious case of the disappearing Hydrox cookies

Oreo, the Hydrox knockoff, has been accused of burying its competitor by scoring sweetheart deals with grocers. Does it wield too much power over smaller rivals?

I think the rather chemically sounding name of Hydrox might be an issue.

edt · 2024-01-18T17:35:29.000Z

Just goes to show, it’s not always the better product, but who has the connections and the money.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

wyld · 2024-01-18T17:36:48.000Z

I have heard this story, or at least part of it, before. I remember Hydrox in stores as a kid but I don’t recall if we were buyers of those cookies or Oreos. I do remember thinking that Oreo was the original though. It’s amazing what good marketing will do for you.

brianinca · 2024-01-18T18:22:44.000Z

I remember Hydrox from undergrad years, with penny pinching the rule, they were the “value” cookie. There was a vanilla variety, too, as I recall?

Pecan sandies and almond shortbread won the morning coffee wars after I moved on from the dorms, but I definitely remember Hydrox. Never did like Oreos.

Funny to read the press manipulation was part of the picture 110 years ago, just like Jamie Dimon today:

“the company became a check on Nabisco’s power — and a counter to the prevailing sentiment among business moguls that trusts benefited the country while competition was “ruinous.” In 1912, the Wall Street Journal described Sunshine, “an independent,” as an example of successful competition against “an alleged trust.””

komashok · 2024-01-21T04:22:27.000Z

I still liked the taste of Oreos a little better.