Nabisco Arrowroot National Biscuit cookies

Hi:
I make it a habit to visit cookie/pastry bakery stores adjacent to
large commercial bakers (as well as hitting up ethnic retail bakers in
urban places).
At the Toronto NaBisCo plant store, adjacent to
the Humber R. mouth, and across from Lake Ontario-
I discovered that the Canadians were getting some
drier, less richly flavored Arrowroot biscuit, that
originally had been made that way by the predecessor
company which NABISCO had absorbed. A true disappointment, I can tell
you.

However, I still
could get the US version with more shortening back
home,although the number of venues has declined
steadily since the difference between other
forms of standard packaged cookies reached more than
a dollar a box. They are now approximately four
bucks a box, when I can find them.
Recently, I came across them on sale in a
liquidator called BIG LOTS' local store, and
bought some NABISCO Arrowroots without checking
what they were. You guessed it!- those dry Canadian Arrowroot
misnomers.
I don't know what that bodes for us. The US
style Arrowroot Biscuit was a arrowroot flavored
shortbread cookie. The ingredients cost more
than the Canadian version, and they are a more
tender product, especially in the days immediately
after baking. This requires two things that also
increase costs. The first, is that the line must
run slowly to prevent physical breakage; and the
second, is that agents to retain the butter and oil
must be incorporated in the ingredients, and
large amounts of absorbent paper have to be
used with the drying and handling, up to packaging.

Is this bad? Not if you are a local baker making
linzer torte's or similar goods, for your
store out front. If your NABISCO having to get
a certain margin per product, I think it is.

Who is going to spring for 4 to 5 bucks a box
for these. Not many, for the audience is limited.
As apparent from some of the comments
hereat, people are unfamiliar with this
quality product. If they look around their
local supermarkets they find(mostly) those sad excuses for Arrowroot
Biscuits sold as NEWMAN's
OWN.
It looks like NABISCO is going to throw in the
towel and sell their Canadian version which is
least as good as the competition. Of course
that isn't very hard to do, but they will lose
the market, and cease production here within
five years. They won't keep us because the
product is a massive disappointment to us.
People don't reward those that inflict pain
on them.

NABISCO doesn't get the fact that there exists:
a market for quality cookies, that is being
filled by Europeans; that they could play in.
They have some universal bean counters running
their show that lack the business acumen related
to operating a business. They have a role as
overseers in keeping costs low enough to
produce products that will maximize profits
while assuring that they meet market needs.
When you allow that role to eliminate portions
of your market, you are effectively sentencing
your business to death. It may be a gradual
thing, or you wake up as FFV did, and find
that you couldn't get back into the market
that you threw away to concentrate on limited
areas.
Good-Luck, Peter Boylan

I agree with Kara. I purchased a box of arrowroot cookies at the
supermarket, thinking they were the ones we used to beg our moms for
years ago, and to my dismay, they were not the same cookie. They were
much harder, and definetly did not taste as good. My daughter, who is
19 months, made a face and spit them out. I am very dissapointed
because I used to love those cookies as a child, and still do as an
adult. And the product has changed, and not for the better. Please
change the cookies back to the original cookie. The one that used to
have a sort of flowery looking edge. Thanks!

Sincerely,
Jamie
Ofallon, MO

I couldn't agree more. The new cookies are terrible, neither of my
kids will eat them anymore and I was buying two boxes a week for the
last 10 years. They have lost my business again. The last time was
when they changed the formula for the ginger snaps. I'm sure cost
cutting of ingredients is the culprit again.

Art
Boston, MA

I absolutly agree. How can a company completely change a product and
still advertise it as 'babies favorite cookie for over 100 years' The
new product does not resemble the old in appearance or taste. Please
Please Please return to the old recipe!

Gary
Seattle, Wa

I thought those were baby food.

Ah, Arrowroot cookies. I hadn't had one of these since I was a baby.
And, then, when my oldest turned 1, oh boy... I rediscovered them.

Call me a nut, but they are way better than Oreos.

And you say they've changed the recipe. Harumph.

I wonder if the other brands, like Beachnut (found in the baby aisle)
would meet your tastes. Personally, I found that they didn't. It's
Nabisco or nothing.