Aficionado Intelligence Report - 1

 

Aficionado Intelligence sources report that all wasabi pretzels have disappeared off store shelves. This condition has existed for several months. There is no known cause for this development.

On one manufacturer's website, Glico, there's been no message from the President and the pretzels are not shown in the product lineup any more.

The highly popular pretzel's disappearance is highly suspect.  Why remove a highly profitable product from the store shelves? There are several conspiracy theories out there. Some think they are trying to generate hype, like shortages of Apple products. As one can see from the Cheese Cake flavor below the company seems to like scarcity.

Others think the mystery could have something to do with the Yakuza, but of course our sources close to (not in) the Yakuza say no one is talking.  They have been known to make things "disappear" and a pretzel is certainly among their easier targets.

"Disappeared"

Help solve this important mystery.

Update: According to unsubstantiated reporting, a cleaning lady spotted an empty package in a Hong Kong hotel room trash bin. By the time Aficionado operatives arrived, the entire floor was blocked off with crime scene tape and the front desk claimed nobody had been in that particular room for days. Security quickly arrived and "escorted" Aficionado out a back side kitchen door onto the street.

Our "people" later stopped by Hong Kong restaurant Wasabisabi (the clear wasabi authority in Hong Kong) hoping to gain further insight into the situation but the restaurant is gone too, with one reviewer stating "the entire 13th floor is flattened and is no longer there" - adding further mystery to the whole situation.

Remain vigilant. Obviously the company or someone is feeling the heat.

Creating scarcity through direct marketing

Wasabi - oddly missing from the lineup

In a recent development, the company thinks they can conceal the wasabi disappearance by throwing in "Beer" Pretz. Well Mr. Glico Pres, we are not so easily enamored by Beer Pretz. You just can't go throwing the word beer around and think that everyone will forget about wasabi. Au Contraire Mon Frere.  But that "grain mustard" flavor was really, really good. OK well you can keep the wasabi pretz hidden, just don't take the Beer Pretz away now alright??

* Aficionado Intelligence Reporting (AIR) was conceived of grey bearded men, through brilliant thought, in a small Izakaya on the backstreets of Yokosuka. AIR reports on little known but exceptional (or maybe just really good) dining spots or interesting food developments and relies on highly untrained observers making random observations and developing conclusions through sometimes single data point regression statistical analysis.

Any conclusions from it's reporting are final.