Nutella news

Nutella, the European hazelnut and cocoa spread, had gone forever without launching spinoffs. Now, perhaps in response to the recent appearance of Jif's two hazelnut spreads, Nutella introduces Nutella & Go! (the exclamation point is part of the name, not an indication of how hard Mr. Tidbit would stress this news).

Nutella & Go! is a small two-compartment 1.8-ounce plastic tub. On one side are a dozen or so little (3-inch) breadstick dippers, weighing about half an ounce total; the other compartment contains the Nutella, presumably for dipping when you're on the run and can't stop to spread it on bread or crackers.

Such "convenience," of course, comes at a price: At one store, where a 13-ounce jar of Nutella costs $4.04 (31 cents an ounce), the little packet of Nutella & Go! is $1.64. Mr. Tidbit doesn't know how much you think the breadsticks should cost; they're nothing special — just dippers. At 31 cents an ounce, the 1.3 ounces of Nutella comes to 40 cents, so the breadsticks cost $1.24, 10 cents apiece! (The exclamation point does represent how much Mr. Tidbit would stress this news.)

The sorrow and the pita

Keebler's Town House line of crackers now includes pita crackers, little triangles available in sea salt or Mediterranean herb flavors. Apparently triangularity does not come easily: At the store where Mr. Tidbit saw Town House pitas, the 9.5-ounce box was priced the same as all the other Town House crackers, including the 11.7-ounce boxes of Town House Flip Sides pretzel crackers, 13.5-ounce boxes of Town House Toppers and 16-ouncers of the original and wheat Town House crackers.

(Boxes of Town House Flatbread Crisps, with the same shelf price, are, like the pitas, only 9.5 ounces. It seems that flatness is as costly to achieve as triangularity.)

Scents and sensibility

Over in the household aisle, Air Wick now offers a six-fragrance National Parks collection of room deodorants, most of them named for offshore parks. Mr. Tidbit admits to being baffled by this concept. At its best, it seems to him, it would engender guests asking "Excuse me, but why does your bathroom smell like American Samoa?"

Al Sicherman