With auto factories popping up all over Metro-Detroit, savy entrepreneurs opened potato chip factories nearby to sell their product directly to the auto workers on their lunch breaks.
With over 40 different brands during DETROIT's "halcyon days", there are a number of vintage potato chip tins to be had at various estate sales, yard sales & flea markets.
I've managed to pick up a number of KRUN-CHEE brand potato chips tins. All that I've seen, actually....
KRUN-CHEE was a Detroit brand that came under the ownership of Paul Zuckerman in 1952. Zuckerma already owned the Velvet Peanut Butter co.
I believe that 2 of the tins are from the "Velvet Era" of the company....the early to mid 1950's...
At some point the 3 "Norberts", modeled after Zuckerman's son, appear on the KRUN-CHEE tin.
BY 1957 KRUN-CHEE was sold to the Sunshine Biscuit Company of Cleveland, Oh. The large blue tin is from this era of the company.
The 4th container is a plastic chip "can"....I believe from the late 1960's/early 1970's....
I've come across one other KRUN-CHEE tin...a non-potato chip tin, that I'm currently pursuing....these 4 KRUN-CHEE containers are prime examples of the Potato Chip empire that existed in the Detroit area during the boom of the mid-20th century.
***UPDATE 2/2017***
Just last Thursday, at a local Estate sale, I came across the missing tin...a KRUN-CHEE Pop Corn tin! A bit weathered, but just what the doctor ordered! I've acquired all the various KRUN-CHEE tins I've come across....now to see if any odd ball tins pop up!
***UPDATE 2/2017***
I worked at Krun-Chee from September, 1968 until they closed in December, 1974. Nice collection of tins. One thing on the dates though. Krun-Chee stopped marketing tins sometime in the mid sixties. By the time I got there they were pretty much gone. Too expensive to market. Paul Zuckerman had sold off the Krun-Chee brand to Sunshine Biscuit but kept Velvet. Paul had used the front half of the building at 14471 Livernois, Detroit to make Velvet. The back half was for Krun-Chee production. Krun-Chee eventually became part of the American Tobacco Company (later became American Brands) when American Tobacco bought Sunshine Biscuit.
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