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Unless you’ve been living on Mars, odds are you've heard the phrase “Snap into a Slim Jim!”. Probably from a professional wrestler. Slim Jims are a “meat snack” that is similar to, but legally distinct from beef jerky, and in the 1990s, they were everywhere. But all of a sudden, this once-dominant salty treat seemingly blinked out of existence, as if Thanos snapped into one. So, what happened?
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Today, we're getting the skinny
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on why we stopped snapping into Slim Jims. 1929, 16-year-old Adolph Levis
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dropped out of his Philadelphia school to help earn money for his family, and he quickly established a business
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supplying local delis and bars with things like condiments, cabbages, relishes, and various pickled meats
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After a while, he noticed that his runaway bestseller was pepperoni. He sensed there was more money to be made
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Levis brought on his brother-in-law, Joseph Cherry, as a partner, and the two hired a meat packer
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to bring their vision to life. That vision was of a slim, spicy stick of dried meat
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which would cure much faster than ordinary pepperoni. These meat sticks could then be distributed to bars
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which would store them in jars of vinegar behind the counter to keep them fresh. The product would need a new name
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and Levis insisted on something that sounded mature and respectable. Somehow, that name turned out to be Slim Jim
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They kept on making snack foods into the 1950s, when they started individually wrapping
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Slim Jims in cellophane, which made them much easier to transport and store
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The change also meant Slim Jims could be sold in grocery and convenience stores
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The new markets kicked the business into overdrive and eventually drew the attention of food manufacturing giant General Mills
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who bought out the company in 1967 and moved the whole operation to North Carolina
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And for the next 15 years, all Slim Jims would be produced at that North Carolina plant
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Slim Jims changed hands a few more times and today they owned by ConAgra brands Slim Jims were already successful but they didn become the must snack of 90s kids until professional wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage growled out the catchphrase You know Simon snap into a Slim Jim Oh yeah Of course nothing lasts forever And that includes
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the snap into a Slim Jim campaign. Over the years, consumers had become increasingly health conscious
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And as you might have guessed, processed snack foods like Slim Jims aren't exactly what you might
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call healthy. But changing tastes and an increasingly competitive snack market weren't
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the end of Slim Jim's troubles. Remember that plant in North Carolina where all those Slim Jim
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products are made? Well, on June 9th, 2009, it was the site of a devastating natural gas explosion
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Four workers were killed and over 70 others were injured. ConAgra ultimately made the decision to
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shutter the facility on May 20th, 2011. Ironically enough, the same day Randy Macho Man Savage
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shuffled off this mortal coil and headed off to that great wrestling match in the sky
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So that was a real tough day for Slim Jim fans. The brand certainly faced its share of trouble
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but in recent years, the iconic meat snack seems to be making something of a comeback
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In fact, Slim Jims are arguably more popular than ever. ConAgra currently makes over a billion of them every year
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to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in profit. The basic process of creating a Slim Jim
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isn't really much different from making a sausage. In other words, part of the reason Slim Jims have had such a long shelf life is that they
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aren't anything more than they claim to be. A delicious spiced snack stick of various meats sent to brighten your afternoon