Small, silly request for a lost cookie...
 

No, not a computer related question .... a travel-related question because wherever I go in the US, I check in local grocery stores to see if they still carry certain things I miss (like Maine's "pilot crackers" and Habitant Pea Soup or Maryland's OTC crackers, etc.). Every so often I have a "major Jones" for Nabisco's flat raisin cookies, but they seem to have disappeared. If anyone knows what I'm talking about and has seen them locally, I'd love to know where they have gone to!

cfc, put Maines pilot crackers, Habitat Pea Soup, Nabisco flat raisin cookies and/or regional groceries in you title and you may find them.

By the way, Lee Brothers catalog carries obscure groceries. www.boiledpeanuts.com

Oooooooo ... I remember those... have you googled for them??

cfc I think you are referring to Sunshine Golden raisin biscuits. My Dad used to love them!

Wow, such quick, mostly helpful answers. Yes, that's right, in their most recent incarnation, they were from Sunshine, although my memory is that Sunshine's are doughier than what I remember from Nabisco -- but either brand would make me happy. And I now know their nutrition content from the Sunshine/Keebler website.

I actually looked on Vermont Country Store's website (boiled peanuts is more for southern stuff) but no....

I'll trade anyone a box of grits or canned calf brains in milk for a package of the raisin cookies!

On hometownfavorites.com these raisin biscuits are on the list of products no longer in production. Maybe someone knows of a similar cookie?

Are those the ones that are long, flat, rectangular and scored in the middle? Or am I thinking about something totally different?

Wow, what a strange sensation! The instant I read "flat raisin cookies" I remembered eating them frequently as a child. Just like the taste of Proust's madeleine, the image of those cookies put me instantly in my grandmother's kitchen. Hope you find them, cfc!

Those are the ones. Until the last year or so when we could no longer find them, they were with us on every trip since 1960.

those used to be one of my favorites - but haven;t seen them in years. I didn't realize they were discontinued - because I live in NYC where the markets are small and you get only the few most popular brands of each item (ie 25 kinds of cookies vs 100 in the big suburban markets).

Wow -- what a thread for me! I have worked at the Keebler Company for the past ten years. We were bought by Kelloggs Co. three years ago, and next Friday is my last day (along with 200 others), because Kelloggs has closed the Hollow Tree and is moving the "Snacks Division" (their new name for Keebler Cookies and Crackers) to Battle Creek, MI. I'm trying not to sound too bitter, here!

It has been a long, sad summer of seeing friends leave for other jobs. Personally, I'm giving up corporate life and going back to school to become a teacher.

Keebler bought the Sunshine company in '97, and we either absorbed or discontinued all their brands. The Cookies which were kept became Keebler branded, but have all died out since then. The Crackers we kept retained the Sunshine name -- most of you are familiar with Cheez-Its.

As for Pilot Crackers, Nabisco makes them. I remember researching them to find out why they're only sold in Maine; it turns out Nabisco tried to discontinue them, but the good folks in Maine put up such a stink that the company decided to keep them just in that market. (I think I read that Pilot's main attraction is that they're eaten with chowder.)

I agree that your best bet would be to try and purchase them online. I know there are websites for finding long-lost candy and cereals, so it's a possibility.

SusanM, I'm so sad to read your post. Good luck with teaching. Lived in Glenview (KraftRJR) and heard similar stories, saw product line be dumbed down, people laid off or sent to Lower Slobbovia, etc. Hate that we lose raisin bars and keep 17 varieties of Cheezits. And they wonder about obesity in the US.

I'm afraid anything purchased on line would have been baked a few years ago and pretty stale by now.

I remember the 60 Min. piece about the Pilot Crackers, wish we could come up with a similar campaign for the raisin cookies, but I guess they won't listen if they don't think the market's there. And of course it's not there because people hardly notice how products come and go nowadays ... yippee something new, with plastic cream filling and coated in plastic frosting!

Thanks for the encouragement, Soccr, and you are so right about product development these days. Some non-R&D exec decides we need a (fill in the blank) cookie, and we're off and running! We even had to develop a cookie that's sold only in Wal Mart, at their request.

You're also right about the age of product sold online -- same with the stuff sold in dollar stores. Buyer Beware!

Thanks, Antlori. I agree with you about "kids these days," and I have two of them! My biggest hurdle is the self-doubt that nags me from time to time (WHAT AM I DOING?!!), but I tell myself to shut up and press on.