The Dog Kids Love To Bite

-lyric from Armor Hot Dog jingle

I was going to post before and after photos of my fence refurbishing project but Blogger photo uploading has been on the fritz all day so I have finally given-up that idea. Instead I will write about hot dogs.

(I would put a picture of a hot dog here but...you know.)

Today I bought hot dogs for dinner and, of course, I had to buy buns to go along with them. After I bought them both I pondered that age old question:

Why do hot dogs come 10 to a pack while buns are 8 to a pack?

Due to this packaging quirk whenever you buy hot dog buns you have to buy 2 packs (16 buns) in order to have enough buns for your hot dogs. Fourteen of the buns end up sitting wrapped in the plastic bag they came in and tucked in some forgotten corner of your kitchen cabinet until they've grown their own little colonies of penicillin.

The only way to not waste hot dog buns is to buy enough hot dog buns to equal the same number of hot dogs; which is 4 packs of hot dogs for every 5 packs of hot dog buns (40 each) at the minimum. Not too consumer friendly, is it?

So, again, I ask:

Why do hot dogs come 10 to a pack while buns are 8 to a pack?

Straight Dope came up with this answer:

...you get ten hot dogs and eight buns per package because meat packers like things that come in pounds and bakers hate things that come in tens.

And that is how it was until the year 2002 when Ballpark Franks was bought by Sara Lee who decided to market Ballpark hot dog buns. They knew consumers were irritated by the 10 hot dogs/8 buns deal and started producing packs of hot dogs containing 8 dogs.

So now, every time I buy my eight hot dogs and my eight hot dog buns I silently give thanks to Sara Lee.