New from Hormel are eight different pre-assembled refrigerated items called Revs. Each is a wrap containing meat -- pepperoni, ham, turkey and so forth -- and one or another pasteurized process cheese product, all rolled up in a piece of flatbread. Each comes in a sealed plastic wedge. Find them in the lunchmeat case.Where Mr. Tidbit encountered them, each 3-ounce Rev was $2.09. That seemed a little steep, so Mr. Tidbit decided to see what it would cost if he went through the arduous process of actually rolling up some lunchmeat and cheese in a tortilla.
Well, he wouldn't have to do everything himself. Right next to the Revs, Mr. Tidbit found four kinds of Land O'Frost wrap kits: enough meat, cheese and tortillas to make five 31/4- ounce wraps for $6.99 -- just $1.40 each, saving 33 percent and getting wraps that are each 1/4 ounce bigger than a Rev.
Mr. Tidbit assumed that he would save lots more if he was willing to exhaust himself by buying the three components -- meat, cheese and tortillas -- separately. He was wrong. He estimates that, by buying separate ingredients in normal packages, each wrap would cost only about a dime less than those from kits, and he'd have enough for 10 identical wraps, very possibly quite a few more than he'd want.
The world is very tricky.
Asian appetizers The many P.F. Chang's dinner-for-two products in the supermarket freezer aisle are now joined by five frozen appetizers. There are two kinds of spring rolls and three kinds of little dumplings. All come with a sauce packet. In one store, where the 22-ounce dinners are $9.99, the 12-ounce bags of five spring rolls and 12.5-ounce bags of 14 dumplings are $6.99.
Salty Milanos The relatively sudden expansion of the Milano industry at Pepperidge Farm (filled Milano Melts, open-face Milano Slices and tiny Milano Minis) continues with a bold step: The latest version of Milano Slices is topped with bits of salted pretzel, a cookie component that Mr. Tidbit doesn't recall having seen before.
But then there are lots of things that Mr. Tidbit doesn't recall.
AL SICHERMAN
