The Economics of Everyday Things
00:06:26 · Jennifer Lee, Zachary Crockett
[00:06:26] S4: And so when they went back to their local Chinese restaurants, they were like, why don't you have the fortune cookies like they do in San Francisco or California? And these Chinese restaurant owners, through the word-of-mouth network, they basically figure out what these fortune cookies were, and they become an expectation. [00:06:48] S2: Lee says that when Japanese Americans were put in internment camps, Chinese business owners bought up many of the fortune cookie operations. By the nineteen sixties, the government had introduced more favorable immigration policies that nearly doubled the Chinese American population. A wave of Chinese restaurants opened across the country, and that meant many more fortune cookies. [00:07:12] S4: They just really caught fire in The United States. [00:07:17] S2: Initially, Chinese restaurants had to place orders with small family run fortune cookie factories in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The cookies were handmade, and a top notch employee could fold around seven fifty cookies an hour. But eventually, the demand grew so large that humans could no longer keep up. [00:07:40] S4: You go from something that originally was handcrafted, made in mom and pop shops to the point where there's machinery and automation and, like, industrial scale. No one chooses what Chinese restaurants are gonna eat at by the fortune cookie. So it's basically a commodity product. It favor someone who can plug into a nationwide distribution network.
00:07:40 · Jennifer Lee, Zachary Crockett, Norman Wong
[00:07:40] S4: You go from something that originally was handcrafted, made in mom and pop shops to the point where there's machinery and automation and, like, industrial scale. No one chooses what Chinese restaurants are gonna eat at by the fortune cookie. So it's basically a commodity product. It favor someone who can plug into a nationwide distribution network. [00:08:03] S2: Today's machines produce 8,000 fortune cookies an hour. Most of those family run cookie factories have been put out of business, And the industry is now dominated by a few giants, one of which controls the bulk of the market. [00:08:20] S4: You basically have one really big gorilla that makes fortunes, which is wonton food. [00:08:25] S3: We're talking about millions of cookies a day. [00:08:28] S2: Again, that's Norman Wong, the CEO of Wonton Food. The company traces its roots back to his father, Ching Sun Wong, who immigrated to New York in the nineteen sixties. [00:08:42] S3: Just a typical story. You know, came with very little money in his pocket, did the usual jobs, restaurant, laundromat, construction. I guess he wasn't really good at that kind of work because he kinda got fired and then rehired and so forth. [00:08:56] S2: But Ching Sun possessed a special skill. His family members in China had taught him how to make noodles.
00:08:56 · Zachary Crockett, Norman Wong
[00:08:56] S2: But Ching Sun possessed a special skill. His family members in China had taught him how to make noodles. [00:09:04] S3: And his uncle said to him, as long as you hold on to this skill and craft of noodle making, you'll always be able to find a way to support yourself. He went around and borrowed money from a lot of people, and that's when he started the noodle factory in Chinatown. [00:09:17] S2: Ching Sun later expanded his business by acquiring a small fortune cookie factory, and he began selling them to restaurants alongside his noodles. His son, Norman, took over as CEO in 2013. Today, it's still a noodle company. It's also the nation's leading manufacturer of fortune cookies. [00:09:38] S3: We do dried noodles. We do the fried crispy noodles that you put into wonton soups or your salads. Also, the skins that we use for dumplings, egg rolls, spring rolls. The product that we're most famous for is fortune cookies, and those go out to Chinese restaurants around the country. [00:09:56] S2: We'll take a trip inside the fortune cookie factory after the break.
00:09:56 · Zachary Crockett, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11, S12, S13
[00:09:56] S2: We'll take a trip inside the fortune cookie factory after the break. [00:10:03] S5: To the millions of small business owners out there, we appreciate you. We see your early mornings, late nights, and all the hard work in between. And with the US Bank Business Essentials card, you don't have to go it alone. With unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase because we know your communities count on you to be here, there, everywhere. So, yeah, we don't just appreciate you, we support you. The creditor and issuer of this card is US Bank National Association pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. [00:10:34] S6: The right tools aren't optional. They're essential. That's why pros trust NAPA for the equipment that gets the job done right. From Milwaukee fuel sets, sockets, impacts that deliver power when you need it, to Carlisle hand tools and sets built for precision and durability, NAPA stocks the professional grade tools that keep your base productive and your business moving. Find what you're looking for right now at NAPA. Available in store or napaonline.com. [00:11:02] S7: What do I gift my mom and nieces? [00:11:04] S8: Walmart has top brands you know, like Ninja, Disney, Lego. Oh, dad loves music. [00:11:18] S9: And my coffee obsessed bestie. [00:11:20] S10: Deloney brews coffee right for morning's extra price. [00:11:24] S11: All those great brands at Walmart? [00:11:25] S12: Who knew? Knew. Now you do too. [00:11:28] S13: Shop gifts they'll love at Walmart.
00:11:28 · S13, Zachary Crockett, Norman Wong
[00:11:28] S13: Shop gifts they'll love at Walmart. [00:11:36] S2: In the bowels of the Wonton Food Factory in New York City, you'll find the fortune cookie version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. The fortune cookie process begins in a loading zone where 50 pound bags of dry ingredients are stacked up to the ceiling. The standard fortune cookie recipe is pretty simple. Flour, granulated sugar, vanilla flavoring, coloring agents, and water. These ingredients go into giant stainless steel mixers for around twenty minutes. [00:12:10] S3: That's actually one key part is mixing, making sure that the batter has the right combination of viscosity and strength. [00:12:18] S2: The mixed batter travels down a series of pipes that lead downstairs to the factory floor. Down here, a dozen rows of conveyor belts are in constant motion. The batter is squirted out from the pipes onto greased metal slabs as thin little pancakes. This process cooks the cakes. And while they're still hot and malleable, a proprietary piece of machinery cuts a single fortune off a giant roll of preprinted phrases. In one descending motion, it lays the fortune onto the pancake and folds it into the shape we all know. [00:12:56] S3: It's made out of food grade paper and ink because, you know, little kids might, you know [00:13:01] S2: People eat them. [00:13:02] S3: They might forget there's a little piece of paper in there.
00:13:02 · Norman Wong, Zachary Crockett
[00:13:02] S3: They might forget there's a little piece of paper in there. [00:13:04] S2: So it's safe to eat. Oh, definitely. Yeah. A fan cools the cookie, and a different machine seals it in a wrapper with air. This whole process happens in a few seconds. And as you stand there, you see an unrelenting stream of wrapped cookies flowing down the line. They're packed 350 apiece into cardboard boxes and loaded up to be distributed all over the country. Wonton Food sells some of its fortune cookies white label to big national chains who put their own logos on the packaging, but most of its products are sold under its own brand, Golden Bowl. You might see the name on the fortune cookies at your local family run Chinese restaurant. Fortune cookies are usually free to us, the diners. Restaurants take on the cost. And given the tight profit margins in the restaurant business, typically three to 5%, Wonton Food faces a lot of price sensitivity from its customers. They're only willing to spend so much on something they have to give away. On its website, Wonton Food sells boxes of 350 vanilla fortune cookies for $12.85 each, a little less than 4¢ per cookie. But for larger deals that go through a food distributor, the wholesale price is likely much lower. Jennifer Lee, the author of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, says in some cases, fortune cookies may even be a loss leader.