Spam now in bite-size form for satisfying snack attacks

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COURTESY THE SPAM BRAND
Hawaii stores will be among the first in the nation to stock Hormel’s new Spam Snacks products. All three varieties will be available to consumers in Hawaii, the state with the largest per-capita consumption of Spam in the U.S.

For when you absolutely, positively, have to have Spam right this minute, Hormel has created Spam Snacks in single-serve pouches, and they will arrive on Hawaii store shelves any minute now.

Offered in original, teriyaki and bacon flavors, the new products will first be available in Hawaii, and in Western and Southeastern states where the more familiar canned version of the product is popular, according to a spokeswoman.

The Hawaii distributor for Spam products was not available to discuss when the product might go on sale or for how much, at retail.

Hormel has offered fully cooked Spam Singles in pouches for several years, but the new product is different.

The packaging describes Spam Snacks as dried meat bites and reflect that each package contains from eight to 10 grams of protein, showing the rectangular pieces in actual size on the front.

In imagining what they are like, one might at least mentally compare Spam Snacks to something like beef jerky, which also is dried meat.

However, the new products’ pages within the Spam website work to stave off such comparisons, as each says, “It’s much nicer than a jerky.”

Industry publications such as Food Business News report that Spam parent company Hormel Foods Corp. has its sights set on generating $3 billion in sales on new products launched since 2000.

Some of the company’s new products that are not at all like Spam Snacks, but which also are created for on-the-go consumption, include Skippy P.B. Bites, the latter inspired by morsel-sized versions of candy bars that have proved successful for other companies.

Other national publications write about Spam products with a rather gawking fascination and curiosity about the canned staple’s appeal.

In reporting on the innovation, Consumerist.com seemed to lament the limited release of the treat, saying that the “most Spam-loving regions” would be first to get the product, adding the phrase “Congratulations, Hawaii,” with perhaps just a slightly green tinge of jealousy.

Producing an infomercial for the Spam Snacks could be fun, were Hormel ever to produce that type of advertising.

A harried woman with messy hair would try to prepare canned Spam while on the go, but it’s rather impossible to easily bust out a frying pan and portable electric burner or charcoal hibachi while driving the minivan to soccer practice, or while trying to grab a quick lunch at her desk.

Naturally, she would wind up with an unspeakably burned-out minivan or frighteningly messy desk, and even messier hair, which she would try to blow out of her face.

Then of course, we would see the de rigueur frazzled look.

That is, until the hand of an off-screen friend presents her with a pouch of Spam Snacks, resulting in the first smile we see in her 60-second, incredibly unlikely ordeal.