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[Bill Lee]

Haitai hits jackpot with new potato chip

By Park Jin-hai

Haitai Confectionery & Foods’ new snack is enjoying an unprecedented popularity, with some willing to buy it triple the price at online sites.

Its Honey Butter Chip, a potato chip with sweet buttery taste, can’t meet an unexpectedly strong demand, leaving many convenience stores unable to secure enough supply, company officials said.

Its retail price is 1,500 won, but it’s trading from 2,000 won to 5,000 won a pack on-line. Despite its higher price tag, people are queuing to buy one.  

Since its August launch, the word of mouths fast carried its “superb” taste through social networks, making it Lotte Mart’s best selling potato snake among over 70 potato chips in October.

The chip has emerged as the rare hit item for the company since the previous best-selling item “Mychew” taffy came to market a decade ago.

The chip’s sales surpassed 5 billion won in three months.

Consumers are sharing their episodes about how they get their hands on the popular snake. One with ID: Hodori ― love tweeted that when she was looking for it at a convenient store, the clerk guided her to the adjacent stock room and handed one for fear of people stockpiling the product.

Another Internet user commented that the snack companies should learn that instead of over-sizing packages they should make better tasting snakes and consumers will buy.   

Its name has been the top searched word in the shopping category in the country’s largest portal service Naver on Wednesday.  

To meet the demand, its manufacturing plant in Wonju has changed its two-shift system into three-shift, running it round the clock to its full capacity.

The confectionary company said that it has sampled more than 1,000 potato chips, taking two years to develop the snack.

1. Have You ever tried this? How was it? Are You willing to recommend to us?

2. Why is this snack getting popular?

3. Among snacks discontinued producing, Which one do You miss the most?

4. What's the biggest problem of Korean confections?