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Author Topic: Plastic salt shakers Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 10-25-2016 11:44 PM                        I keep a plastic salt shaker on my candy counter for people to salt their popcorn. Every once in a great while my salt shaker goes missing when someone decides that he needs it more than I do. I've always thought that a salt shaker that could be tied down like those pens that you see in banks would be a wonderful thing to have, but I've never seen such a thing anywhere. I asked the outfit that I purchase my popcorn supplies from about it once and they've never heard of anything like that either. A while back my supply of extra plastic salt shakers started getting pretty low (down the last two) and I started trying to find new ones. I want plastic and not glass for obvious reasons. I have now spent a couple of years looking and have discovered that plastic salt shakers are almost extinct. No restaurant supply store or website, dollar store or housewares department in something like Walmart has such a thing. Everything is either glass or ceramic. Plastic salt shakers occasionally show up on ebay but even the plain ones are apparently "collectibles" and sell for something like $50 a pair. Every time I pass a likely looking store I always look for plastic salt shakers and never can find any. My wife was just visiting her mother in Mauritius and guess what: She found some plastic salt shakers! A street peddler of all people had them for 20 rupees a pair (about 60 cents). So she bought a dozen from him and brought them home in her suitcase. They're nothing special and just as cheaply made as you would expect a 60 cent item to be, but they are salt shakers and they are made of plastic so yahoo. I've finally managed to get a stock of plastic salt shakers again. And my wife only had to travel 10,023 miles each way to get them for me.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-26-2016 01:05 AM                        Frank, are you talking about something like this? Disposable Salt Shaker We use shakers like this which we fill with the fine grain snack and nut salt. They have a variety of lids you can use. The green one is what you would get for a fine grain salt. Polycarbonate Shaker  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 10-26-2016 01:54 AM                        Well, isn't that interesting. I guess I should have asked about this here a few years back. Oh well. I have several years supply of salt shakers in stock now, especially since I have learned to keep an eagle eye on my salt shaker so it rarely goes missing any more. And my wife got a kick out of presenting me with my new 60-cent salt shakers. The price was right for the salt shakers, but the commute is a bit of a bear. As for the holes, I put a piece of tape on the inside of the top and then use a pin to punch out the holes that I really want. I don't think I would want to use that green-lid salt shaker here. It looks too easy and tempting for a customer to take the lid off. "It isn't coming out fast enough."  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 10-26-2016 04:12 AM                     What's wrong with a Metal salt shaker with a handle? The handle can be used to tie it down.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-26-2016 11:22 AM                        Heck we've used glass salt shakers for my whole career in the business. We just use a kitchen-table type. Yes, it goes missing now and then but we always keep a spare in the storeroom. It's been dropped on the floor countless times by kids and we've never broken one yet. We use two shakers -- regular salt in one, and Flavacol in the other. The funny thing about the Flavocal one is, lots of people think it's cheese-flavored salt...I hear the concession crew setting people straight on a regular basis.  |  IP: Logged Mike Schulz Expert Film Handler Posts: 122 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: May 2007 posted 10-26-2016 05:24 PM                     One of the theatres I worked at many years ago used 2oz condiment cups. We would fill them up about 1/4 with popcorn salt and then poke holes into the lids with a push pin. This was our solution to inevitably losing our bigger salt shakers that we kept next to our butter dispensers and it worked great. Here is an example of what we used but they sell them just about anywhere.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 10-26-2016 06:18 PM                        quote: Frank Cox I don't think I would want to use that green-lid salt shaker here. It looks too easy and tempting for a customer to take the lid off. "It isn't coming out fast enough." If you use the fine grain salt, it comes out plenty fast enough. If you use a courser salt - such as regular table salt - you can get lids with bigger holes. In the 17 years we've been using these shakers we have replaced far more of them due to breakage than any other issue. We put out 7 of them at a time - one for each station and one on the condiment counter. I would say we wind up replacing maybe 3 a year for any reason. But it's not totally uncommon to find one left behind in an auditorium because a customer felt they needed to salt pretty much every handful.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 10-26-2016 06:32 PM                        Wendy's used to have disposable plastic salt & pepper shakers on every table. Similar to these. Possibly not very cost effective but still. Morton Disposable Salt Shakers, 12 Count (Pack of 4) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FS1X2E2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QXteyb5GK33JH  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-26-2016 07:09 PM                     We use salt packets - got rid of the shakers.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 10-26-2016 10:33 PM                        Packets of just about anything are a big waste because people grab 'em by the handful. (They are definitely more sanitary though.)  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 10-27-2016 12:00 AM                        The solution to that would be to hand them out individually. I do that with straws. I used to put a box of straws on the counter but now I just issue one straw with each drink. And now I buy about ten percent of the straws that I did when I put the box on the counter.  |  IP: Logged Manny Montes Master Film Handler Posts: 270 From: United States Registered: Feb 2010 posted 10-27-2016 02:05 AM                     I like the packets, a little higher upfront cost but its more sanitary, I've always worried in high volume sites having some kid prankers remove the lid and put something into the salt. Its never happened but all you need is once to end up on the news...  |  IP: Logged Jack Ondracek Film God Posts: 2348 From: Port Orchard, WA, USA Registered: Oct 2002 posted 10-27-2016 08:16 AM                        Can't see much risk, using disposable salt shakers. Nobody's licking the tops, after all... and can you imagine how many little pieces of paper you'd have all over the place with packets? Some of the people I see here would be tearing open 4 or 5 of them, then taking a handful out to their cars. We've used the disposables out here for 25+ years. Get them from one of our restaurant suppliers for 6 or 7 bucks a package. We keep one at each station and don't worry about losing them. I suppose we do, but it's not enough that we really notice. Most of them stay until they're empty. The Flavacol idea is interesting. That one hasn't come up here. Maybe, having Kernel Seasons individuals for sale has substituted for that one. We use Mike's "Mini Cups" by the thousands out here... they go out for extra nacho cheese, dipping sauce, tartar, salsa and jalapenos. We get those things by the box of 2,000 (lids, too) from Sam's Club.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 10-27-2016 03:56 PM                     Interestingly enough: we rarely have the issues one would think when packets are used. We have a condiment stand with just packets for the condiments along with the salt. The counter has the large hole for receiving trash to the side and patrons using the packets, toss the completed packets in the trash. Never seen handfuls of salt packets leave the condiment stand. Might say, we do have an orderly and respectable patron crowd here. Yet, patrons loves the packets with no complaints. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Brian Poole Film Handler Posts: 4 From: Chicago, Illinois, USA Registered: Oct 2016 posted 12-07-2016 04:32 AM                    Using the salt packets is indeed more hygienic.  |  IP: Logged

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