Why do hot dogs come in packs of ten, but buns come in packs of 8?

Answer 1

The meat-packing side of this is easiest to understand. Your standard-issue hot dog, a product that generations of consumers have found to be convenient, comes ten to the pound. Jumbo hot dogs come eight to the pound, and occasionally you'll see some symptom of wretched excess that comes four to the pound. If you've got 10,000 pounds of hot dogs, therefore, you know you've got 10,000 packages. A few packers deviate from this rule and give you, say, eight standard dogs per 12-ounce package, but they're in the minority.

The situation with bakers is a bit murkier. Here are some of the "explanations" you'll hear: (1) We do it that way because everybody else does. If we started doing ten to the package we'd have to charge more, consumers wouldn't notice they were getting more, and we'd lose business. Fine, but why did the first guy start packing eight? (2) There is something inherent in baking tray or oven design that makes ten impractical to produce. Not true. Continental Baking, maker of the Wonder brand and one of the largest companies in the industry, sells both eight-packs and ten-packs, depending on "consumer preferences and local market conditions." What this means is that if enough people want ten-packs and everybody else is selling them, Continental will too. St. Louis, for one, is said to be a big ten-pack town. (3) Ten-packs are a clumsy shape and tend to get broken up when they're tossed around on supermarket shelves. This is close to the truth, I think (see below), but obviously not that close, since Continental somehow manages to cope.

The true explanation, in my opinion, is that bakers just don't like tens. They prefer dozens, or more generally, multiples of three and four, notably four, six, eight, and twelve. These quantities lend themselves to compact packaging--three rows of four, two rows of three, two slabs of two by two (e.g., hamburger buns), and so on. Ten lends itself only to one row of ten or two rows of five, which are seldom compact shapes. Therefore, the baking mind-set--and here's where we start getting into anthropology--is such that you instinctively regard ten as an unwieldy number. When the pioneers of bun baking were trying to figure out how to package their product, they probably figured what the hey, eight makes a squarish package, so that's what we'll go with, without even considering the unique circumstances that made ten more appropriate. The situation has been allowed to continue because the Teeming Millions meekly submit to it. Oscar Mayer says that of the 50,000 or so consumer letters they get each year, only 10 or 15 complain about the hot dog/bun mismatch.

Answer 2

I think it's obvious. Both hotdogs and buns were created by mathemeticians. Mathemeticians hate people who don't know how to use lowest common denominators (or whatever the appropriate term is here). Since we have 8 buns and 10 dogs, you need to buy 5 packs of buns and 4 packs of dogs to get an equal amount of both, at 40 dogs and buns. This way, they educate the masses and make tons of cash.

Answer 3

Because if you plan on cooking out they want you to buy hot dogs right? well if you have ten guest that only want a hot dog a Peace, you will only have 8 buns if you want It the cheapest. therefore you will have to buy more buns, but when you're done, you have extra buns! If you don't want them to rot what do you do? GO OUT AND BUY MORE HOT DOG WIENIES! A continuous cycle... of you paying people more than you need to. This I get irritated with. lol...

Answer 4

Buy Bun-Length hot dogs. They only have 8 to a package.

Answer 5

The bun makers and hot dog makers conspired to make it that way... so you'll keep going back and forth buying buns and dogs.

Answer 6

Think outside the bun!

Answer 7

to get u to buy more buns. lol. then to buy more hot dogs for the other buuns. then to buy more buns for those hot dogs. and so on and so forth. profit thing i guess

Answer 8

my hot dogs also come in packs of 8.....

Answer 9

Buy them from the deli, then you can get the correct amt. to match the package of 8......*u*

Answer 10

So you can give two of them to the dog!