Click on the AL display for a larger view.
(Photo Courtesy of Ron Gerstung, Frito-Lay)

A new record was set for the World's Largest Cracker Jack Display on March 8, 2000, at a Wal-Mart SuperCenter #1284 in Phenix City, Alabama. The display contained 37,864 eight-ounce bags, including both Cracker Jack Original Flavor and Butter Toffee Clusters, weighing 18,932 pounds. The display was enhanced with inflated Cracker Jack balloons hanging from above, large Bingo plush toys prominently placed, and, out in front, a Volkswagen painted to resemble a Cracker Jack baseball - the grand prize in Cracker Jack's "Catch the Baseball Bug!" promotion.

The display, which was 15 feet tall at its highest point, was begun at 3 a.m. and took nine hours to built, according to Matt Brown, Wal-Mart food manager. Assisting in the construction was Jay McLoughlin, Frito-Lay route man.

Prior to the record breaker in Alabama, Frito-Lay Salesperson Chris Green and the Houston West TDD Zone team built and unveiled the world's largest display of Cracker Jack bags and cases up to that time at a Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Richmond, Texas on Friday, October 8, 1999, twenty-five years after the record was set for the largest display of Cracker Jack boxes.

Click on the TX display for a larger view.
(Photo Courtesy of Ron Gerstung, Frito-Lay)

According to Ron Gerstung, Frito-Lay's National Sales Manager for New Ventures, 1,300 cases of 24 4-ounce Cracker Jack bags were used, 775 more cases than the previous record. The sides of the cases announced the Bingo/FAO Schwarz promotion and contained the specially marked Bingo promotion bags. This was the first time these bags had hit the market, over a week before they became available on store shelves nationally. There were 1,288 cases on display, and an extra 12 cases were unpacked and squeezed into them.

How many bags: 24 x 1,300 = ?

If your answer is 31,200 bags, that's right! Just imagine all those Cracker Jack prizes and chances to win a Bingo plush toy or the FAO Schwarz Sleepover and Shopping Spree grand prize! At 4 ounces per bag, the display contained 7,800 pounds of product, just 200 pounds less than 4 tons!

The display was 23 cases long and 6 cases wide at the base, and 11 cases tall at its highest point. That measures out to have been 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 10 feet high.

Wal-Mart nationally is helping build the World War II Memorial; and the Richmond store, along with Frito-Lay, is making a contribution by donating some of the proceeds from the sale of the Cracker Jack display bags to help fund the project. Media coverage of the event included The Houston Chronicle.

 

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© Jim Davis 10/22/99
Updated 3/31/00 & 6/4/00