open letter to Tropicana

17 October 2005

Tropicana Products, Inc.P. O. Box 049003Chicago, IL 60604-9003

To Whom It May Concern:

As I was shopping the other day, I walked over to the refrigerated section to get some orange juice. I really expected to just go over and grab some orange juice and continue my shopping, but I found the task to be much more difficult than I had imagined.

The first carton I grabbed said “Original” in big, bold letters. Before I could put the juice into my cart, though, I noticed that it also said “No Pulp”. That seemed strange, because I was sure that the original must have had pulp. I put the carton back and looked for another. I saw that there were many different pulp options: No pulp, reduced pulp, some pulp, and lots of pulp. Nowhere did I see just “regular pulp”. Now, I don’t really understand why anyone would want orange juice with no pulp. Why not just drink Hi-C or Tang or something like that? On the other hand, what do you do with “lots of pulp”? I realize you must want to do something with the pulp you took out of the “no pulp” and “reduced pulp” versions, but who buys orange juice with extra pulp? Do you eat it with a fork? And “some pulp”? I don’t even know what that means. Where does that even fall on the pulp continuum?

Could you please make some regular pulp-leveled orange juice for those of us who are not so high maintenance as most of you customers seem to be. Call me old fashioned, but I just want some regular old orange juice. You know, the kind mother used to buy.

Thank You,



Skip Chalker