Dollar-Store Oddities

It's a hard time for the retail industry, with certain exceptions, such as dollar stores. Lilly and Ann and their generation will never know the five-and-dime -- a misnomer even when I was their age, when I caught the tail-end of the retail phenomenon -- but they do have dollar stores.

I have my own interests at dollar stores. Namely, finding merchandising oddities. Such as Pampa Frosted Flakes.

For a dollar and tax, I was willing to try Pampa. Only 8 oz., but still not too bad a deal. Closer inspection of the box reveals that my 8 oz. of frosted flakes came all the way from Argentina. So Pampa is a good name for it. That would be like calling a North American dry cereal "Great Plains Flakes." (Maybe a Russian cereal would be "Steppe Flakes.")

The skateboarding mascot is Igny. I ran that word through a Spanish dictionary, but no luck. Maybe it's something Argentines would appreciate. Since the box was made for export, it's otherwise in English, including what could be a motto for the dollar-store food aisle: "Keep It Simple! Pay Only For Taste."

One thing you're not paying for is vitamins, which cerealmakers in North America spray on their products during manufacturing. Pampa Frosted Flakes' ingredients are refreshingly simple: corn, sucrose, salt, malt extract. Not sure if that means the British meaning of corn or the American one, and with sugar coating, it's hard to tell just by taste.

The flakes themselves are a little smaller than the Kellogg's variety. And the taste? Not bad. A little less sweet than Kellogg's, but otherwise not so different. Igny might not be Tony the Tiger, but he's OK.