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Resurrecting an old post from 2012 about me going into the popcorn pricing deep end, of all things. A decade later the Whirly-Pop is still going strong (after I replaced the original aluminum lid and plastic gears with stainless steel), and I’ve gone through a LOT of popcorn since then. |
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I recently stumbled across a used Whirley-Pop popper at a yard sale – five bucks, and looked like it had never been used. You can purchase these new for $20 from Bed Bath and Beyond, or about $25 or so from Amazon or The Andersons (ed: rip). It’s fairly easy to use – a splash of vegetable oil, half a cup of kernels, stove top (or side burner of the grill), and good to go. I have never cared for the hot-air poppers: the popcorn tastes like cardboard.
After a few times using it, I was curious as to how cost-effective using a stove-top popper vs. the “traditional” microwave popcorn. Doing some research, there is lots of vague “it’s cheaper than microwave” and “microwave popcorn is baaaad for you” hand waving, but no actual cost breakdowns. So, taking my trusty cell phone into a few stores, buying a few packages of different popcorns (microwave and raw), and snapping pictures of price tags, I had some nice breakdowns of price per ounce, and etc.
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