By Ken Y-N ( February 13, 2006 at 23:41)
· Filed under Lifestyle, Polls
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MyVoice carried out a fun survey of their MyVoice internet community at the start of December last year to find out their views on potato crisps. 14,846 people completed the internet-based questionnaire. 58% were female, 4% in their teens, 23% in their twenties, 38% in their thirties, 23% in their forties, and 12% in their fifties (was no-one older than that?).
I really love Japanese crisps; there is a huge variety of flavours, and Calbee especially put out lots and lots of special limited edition bags. One series that started about two years ago was plain flavour, but salted with salt from various parts of the country. Okinawa’s Ishigaki is the only one I can clearly remember, although they did also have one from Kyushu and one from Hokkaido. Another great series, where they release two new snacks (corn or other starch shapes rather than standard potato crisps, I suppose) every six months is still ongoing; they’ve had ume flavour (sour plums), soy beans, onion and pumpkin, to name the ones that spring to mind, all accompanied by very imaginative advertising. They’re difficult to find, but well worth picking up. We also have two bags of more normal crisps sitting around awaiting eating; one is in the international cuisine series, an Italian (allegedly) basil and cheese flavour, and the other is as pictured above, 梅かつお, ume-katsuo, sour plums and bonito fish flakes, which will probabaly be as revolting as it sounds. However, the package design is excellent – note the plum flowers, with the release of this product timed to coincide with the plum blossoms.
Note that a standard bag of crisps weighs in at about 65 to 80 grammes and costs a little over 100 yen, although the supermarkets I frequent often have one or two flavours on special offer of 99 yen a bag. Imported stuff like Kettle Chips can cost well over 400 yen each, although last month I was lucky enough to find some Canadian crisps on clearout sale for 100 yen at my local supermarket.
Q1: About how often do you eat potato crisps? (Sample size=14,846)
| Almost every day |
0.6% |
| Three or four times a week |
2.5% |
| Once or twice a week |
14.8% |
| Two or three times a month |
27.6% |
| Once a month |
19.6% |
| Once every few months |
19.9% |
| Less than that |
10.5% |
| Never eat crisps |
4.5% |
Q2: What flavours do you like? (Sample size=approximately 14,029, crisp eaters only, multiple answer)
| Consomme |
61.0% |
| Plain/salted |
50.8% |
| Seaweed |
48.9% |
| Garlic |
41.4% |
| Barbeque |
27.0% |
| Soy sauce |
26.5% |
| Sour cream and onion |
22.5% |
| Cheese |
22.3% |
| Local-area flavours |
18.9% |
| Butter |
18.6% |
| Mayonnaise |
13.7% |
| Chilli pepper |
12.7% |
| Kimuchi |
10.5% |
| Other |
3.3% |
| None in particular |
2.0% |
| No answer |
0.1% |
Seaweed flavour isn’t really as awful as it sounds, honest!
Q3: Where do you usually buy your potato crisps? (Sample size=14,846, multiple answer)
| Supermarket |
53.3% |
| Convenience store |
24.7% |
| Discount store |
6.4% |
| Pharmacy, drug store, etc |
5.1% |
| Railway station |
0.2% |
| 100 yen shop |
2.6% |
| On-line shop |
0.1% |
| Import food store |
0.5% |
| Other |
0.9% |
| Don’t buy crisps |
5.8% |
| No answer |
0.5% |
Q4: What is important when you buy potato crisps? (Sample size=approximately 13,911, crisp buyers only, multiple answer)
| Flavour |
79.9% |
| Price |
61.1% |
| Quantity (in pack, presumably) |
34.2% |
| Maker or brand |
24.4% |
| Texture |
22.3% |
| Calories |
11.9% |
| Ingredients |
10.8% |
| Crisp shape |
10.7% |
| New product |
6.9% |
| Package design |
6.7% |
| Opinions of friends |
5.2% |
| Advertisement image |
4.3% |
| Pack shape |
1.1% |
| Other |
0.8% |
| Nothing particularly important |
2.6% |
| No answer |
0.2% |
Q5: What makers spring to mind when you think about potato crisps? (Sample size=14,846, multiple answer)
I wonder if they supplied brand names to help people identify the makers, as I don’t believe that only one in ten was aware of Pringles from P&G, or, for that matter, conversely that as many as one in ten could name P&G as a manufacturer of crisps!
Q6: What potato crisps makers do you like? (Sample size=14,846, multiple answer)
| Calbee |
82.7% |
| Koikeya |
44.0% |
| SB Foods |
14.3% |
| Yamazaki Nabisco |
8.2% |
| House foods |
7.8% |
| P&G |
6.3% |
| Yamayoshi |
2.4% |
| Bourbon |
2.3% |
| Supermarket Own Brand |
1.0% |
| Kettle |
0.6% |
| Good Health Natural Foods |
0.2% |
| BLAIR’S |
0.2% |
| Terra |
0.2% |
| Route 11 |
0.2% |
| Other domestic maker |
1.2% |
| Other overseas brand |
3.4% |
| None at all |
6.2% |
| No answer |
0.4% |
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