Erin

Where are all the Cheez Balls?

Saturday, November 12, 2005 2:04:16 AM

My friend Ellen who lives in L.A. asked me to please buy her some Planters Cheez Balls and mail them to her because there seemed to be a shortage in California, in other words, she couldn't find them anywhere. She assured me she had looked high and low for them. I looked at my local Stop and Shop for them and also could not find them. I told her she should look online. Ellen blurted out

I tried that already!

It seemed she was desperate. It all came to a head the other day when I was talking with her on the phone about it and decided to check online myself. I found them being sold by the case Here She told me she'd been to that site and when she tried to buy her case of Cheez Balls it wouldn't work. Oh the horror! So next I went to the official site, Planters I saw that they still had the illustrious Cheez Balls listed in their product gallery. By this time I wanted Cheez Balls just as much as Ellen. I told her I would call them and get to the bottom of this. She said

Great, call me back right away and let me know what you found out!

I called and got a woman on the phone, I explained my plight.

My friend and I can't find the Cheez Balls anywhere, and we're sad about that.

She told me she was so sorry and she would help me out, but first I needed to giver her my name and zip code. I was then put on hold. When she came back she gave me the bad news. She said,

I'm sorry, but they've been discontinued.

To which I replied

Didn't you know that already?

Was that rude? The woman on the phone then proceeded to ask me for my full name, address, phone number etc. I didn't know why she needed it and also didn't quite know how to deny her so I gave it all to her. I was surprised she didn't want my blood type too. I will probably be solicited now for all kinds of peanuty things. I had to call Ellen and gently break the news. She was very upset. She told me she wasn't prepared for them to be gone. The last time she bought some there were 4 cans on the shelf and she bought 2. If she had known it would be the last time though, she said she would have bought them all.

Once, when I was pregnant....Can I really blog via my T-Mobile Sidekick?

Comments

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HowardRoark # Monday, November 14, 2005 10:53:59 PM

Wait! There's still hope! That link up there where you say "I found them being sold by the case Here"....it works! I ordered some from there!

Cheezy Howard

dawninvan # Thursday, December 8, 2005 12:33:03 AM

Have they REALLY stopped selling Cheez Balls at stores? I too have been madly looking for them in every store in Vancouver - they were plentiful enough while I was living abroad, and I figured they'd be plentiful here too?!
Guess I'll have to buy the CASE!
Thanks for your story!
Dawn In Vancouver

7thconspiracy # Saturday, February 4, 2006 4:13:18 AM

There is a company in Atlanta Georgia that makes Cheese Balls they are good the website is http://www.munchking.com/ I loved planters cheese balls too and I bitched @ them about discontinuing the product and notifying the public with and ad or commercial, rude bastards. Planters is owned by Kraft Foods Corporate Asses.

rodwell1 # Saturday, April 1, 2006 5:04:07 AM

It just can not be true!!!!! Planters cheese balls are the only edible snack food...I have been looking for so long. Everytime I am out of town I search for them where ever I am, How could they discontinue such a great and obviously popular product? Can we pressure them into making them again? I don't give a flip for their stupid peanuts...I don't even like peanuts. Surely a company as big as Kraft foods can give the public what they crave. Let's start a campaign to have them make them once again! March 30 2006 Flier

Anonymous # Sunday, July 23, 2006 8:55:52 PM

screwedbyplanters writes: I remember having them for road trips. if not for any reason other than road trips i wish they would bring them back. im going to try and see if i cant buy a case myself. hope it works out.

Anonymous # Monday, July 24, 2006 5:02:53 PM

Anonymous writes: I am 8 months pregnant and not craved one thing until last night. My husband and I drove all over for them and could not find them. I bought them not too long ago. I am really disappointed that I can't get them anywhere.

Anonymous # Monday, July 24, 2006 6:59:42 PM

Anonymous writes: Planters Cheez Balls Rock! I was crushed when I read they were discontinued...what am I going to do now?? Eat Doritos? NO! Eat Funyuns? NO! I am so let down. I would make them if I had a recipe...now there's an idea! Some genius surely must be able to develop a recipe somehow!

Anonymous # Monday, July 24, 2006 11:36:58 PM

Anonymous writes: i totally know how this is... ahhh thank you for the truth!

Anonymous # Tuesday, July 25, 2006 11:30:07 PM

missing the good snack writes: The website listed above no longer has the product

Anonymous # Saturday, August 5, 2006 2:26:12 AM

Anonymous writes: I love those cheese balls and have been looking everywhere for them, nothing else compares. I bought them almost every week for a long time!!

Anonymous # Tuesday, August 8, 2006 8:19:07 PM

madKiley writes: yesterday I got a craving for planters cheeseballs I asked my parents for some I love cheeseballs but planters was the best about a week past and still no cheeseballs so I asked my grand parents my grand parents LOVE PLANTERS another week past and so I decied to get online well sure enough they were discontinued

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 9, 2006 4:22:47 AM

Matt writes: CHEESEBALLS ARE GONE! I WANT TO CRY :( WHY ME??!! WHY US

Anonymous # Thursday, August 10, 2006 8:50:34 PM

Anonymous writes: I bought some ripoff cheese balls at Sam's Club that sucked so bad that just looking at them in that gigantic container made me want to puke. I'm boycotting all Planters products. Who knows when they will discontinue something else that I like. There are other quality nut products out there.

Anonymous # Friday, August 11, 2006 3:27:35 AM

B R Wright writes: I am one of those, like the ones who have written above, that craves Planters Cheez Balls. Cheetos just won't work. I don't care if they are puffed, baked or whatever. I don't like Cheetos. I want Planters. Seems to me, if they get all of our desperate cries, they would start producing that product again. I have griped out my grocery store manager for not stocking them, so he hides when he sees me coming now. I guess he didn't know they have been discontinued either. There is every other Planters product you can imagine, but I want CHEEZ BALLS!! Get with it, Kraft!!! Your customers are waiting!!!

Anonymous # Friday, August 11, 2006 4:53:43 PM

sad cheese ball misser writes: I grew up with cheese balls, my mom and I absolutely LOVE them. I have been searching the stores for months now because I haven't had them in a while, so when I couldn't find them anywhere I panicked and called my mom, who also has been looking and can't find them! Then I found this website and I am heart broken. : ( Someone please help us bring cheese balls back!!!

Anonymous # Saturday, August 12, 2006 3:39:51 AM

Anonymous writes: Is there someone we could write to at Planter's to petition for them to bring back Cheese Balls? I can't believe this! How can they do this?

Anonymous # Sunday, August 13, 2006 3:43:40 AM

Anonymous writes: I am destroyed. That's all there is to it.

Anonymous # Monday, August 14, 2006 8:05:29 PM

J.BEASY writes: WOW, I ACTUALLY FEEL A LOT BETTER ABOUT MYSELF AFTER READING THIS PAGE THAT I AM NOT THE ONLY CRAZED PSYCHO OUT THERE WHO HAS BEEN ON THE HUNT FOR THESE CHEESE BALLS!! I TOO BOUGHT THE HUGE GYNORMIOUS CONTAINER OF THESE IMITATION BALLS AND THEY JUST DO NOT DO IT FOR ME AT ALL. THEY HAVE SUCH A FAKE CHEESE TASTE. REALLY, I THINK I AM GOING TO GO HOME AND CRY NOW THAT I KNOW THEY TRUELY ARE DISCONTINUED. OH WOE IS ME.............................................................

Anonymous # Tuesday, August 15, 2006 8:20:51 PM

Anonymous writes: Seriously. I only found this page because I resorted to looking for Planters balls online. I don't know what it is - I don't like any other fake cheese junk food (cheese doodles, etc.) or even any other brand's Cheez balls. I'm totally writing Kraft a letter, even though I know it will do no good.

Anonymous # Tuesday, August 15, 2006 11:56:36 PM

Anonymous writes: Oh My God! I knew I wasn't goning crazy! I have been casually peeking down every snack isle at every food store I go to for the delicious Cheez balls from Planters. I also purchased the large tub of cheese balls at Walmart and they do not even come close to the original!! I am so SAD to know that they are actually gone!

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 16, 2006 7:50:46 PM

Anonymous writes: I too have been searching. They bring back so many fond moments with my mom. We would eat them on trips and also while we watch General Hosipal while drinking coke form the glass 1 liter bottle. Those were the days. I am sorry to hear they are discontinued because nothing compares to them.

Anonymous # Thursday, August 17, 2006 2:43:41 AM

Anonymous writes: We too have been looking for Planter's Cheese Balls and could not find them anywhere. Just by reading this site did I find out they had been discontinued. I am also going to write Kraft to see why they can't bring them back. If we would start write in petition to Kraft and maybe if enough people write in,maybe, just maybe, they will consider bringing them back.

Anonymous # Sunday, August 20, 2006 12:52:22 AM

Anonymous writes: The cancellation of Cheez Balls should have been a MAJOR news story..NBC should have done one of those "End of an Era" segments. Maybe the Food Network's Mark Summers can help us, he has all the junk food connections. As we all know, there is just something special about that Cheez Ball cheese that the others can't match. I only eat them a few times a year, but I still miss em'.

Anonymous # Sunday, August 20, 2006 4:06:22 PM

Dave writes: I went to 10 places last nigbht looking for them for my girlfriend. Now I read this. I am deeply saddened. When I was little I would go to the dentist and once I got out if that misereable dungeon, I would walk to CVS and get a can of cheese balls. They got me through some tough times. :(

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 23, 2006 7:55:23 AM

Wesley writes: Odd how what is essentially air-puffed processed starch and orange chemical flakes can become such a part of our identity. :P For me, it was like a ritual in the Army and college. A can, 2 cokes, and a snickers bar every weekend..... *sniff*

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 23, 2006 3:52:01 PM

Cheez Ball Craved writes: I also miss those Cheez Balls... how dare Planters do this to us? I had some Hy-Vee branch cheese balls, out of a bag, and it was not even close to the same great flavor of the original cheez balls out of the canister. I grew up on this amazing snack and cannot believe it no longer exists! We need to ask Planters to bring them back!!!

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 23, 2006 5:42:12 PM

Melissa writes: Hi Wesley! That's my husband- I went on a Cheez Ball search for him too. I looked on Amazon and found them, but didn't order- I waited. I went back a couple of weeks later and they were gone! I e-mailed the company and that's how I found out the bad news. My sympathies to all that loved them so.

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 23, 2006 8:55:18 PM

Anonymous writes: Thank heavens it's not just me! I have been on the hunt now for 6 months and just thought I was going blind or maybe there had never been any real Cheez Balls. I began thinking I left the planet and did not know it. Thank you all for clearing the air. I am going to write to the talking heads at Kraft and try to convince them that Cheez Balls are the Star Trek of the Snack World! Cheezies Unite!!

Anonymous # Friday, August 25, 2006 12:48:52 AM

Tom writes: I was also sent out on the hunt by my friend (an absolute goddess for whom I'd do anything) to satisfy her craving for the elusive Planters Cheez Balls and Cheez Curls - I went everywhere, even K-Mart and the various Dollar Stores, but alas, it was to no available. Doesn't Kraft and Planters get it? Didn't they learn their lesson when Coke tried to reformulate their Coke and the public bitched so much they came out with Coke Classic, with New Coke falling by the wayside? I sent Kraft an inquiry about what happened and they never answered me. Here's a task for the princess that's not completed - really appreciate it Kraft, really appreciate it. Probably some MBA who wouldn't know product loyalty and dare we say it iconism if it bit him in the a**!!

Anonymous # Friday, August 25, 2006 11:58:53 PM

Anonymous writes: Jesus. Like everyone else here apparently I found this blog becasue I had resorted to typing "planters cheese balls" into Google becasue I have been looking for them since the start of last football season and now here we are a year later and still no cheese balls. After taking a second look I noticed that all the comments are kinda recent. how many cheeseball-deprived lunatics are internet searching for these things in the hopeless casue of finding someone selling them by the case with reasonable shipping? If I ever find them it'll be like that Seinfeld episode with Elaine and the birth control. I was traveling for business last week and found myself looking all over the local grocery store (an indipendent, not a chain) becauseI thought maybe jsut the chains stopped carrying them for some reason. Man, all the craptastic new snacks they are inventing left and right and they have to take a proven classic like Cheese Balls off the market. Anyway, thanks for doing the research and saving me a call to Planter's corporate. We should form a support group. I'm off to eat some of those lame cheetos now

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 30, 2006 1:13:56 AM

suz writes: I can't believe that it was discontinued!! I had been looking for planters cheez balls for months. So like so many others...I thought buying them online would be my only hope. Until, I found the devastating news. I bought the sams barrel of cheese balls and after tasting one of them...I trashed it. That was the worst tasting cheese balls ever. I need my planters cheese balls fix!

Anonymous # Wednesday, August 30, 2006 5:22:53 PM

Missouri Girl writes: I cannot find Cheez Balls anywhere either! I have been sending my poor boyfrined all over the place looking for them! I am so sad now! But I did just write to Planters and BEGGED them to bring them back!! I left them the link to this website so they could see how many of us they have crushed by discontinuing this product!!!! Hopefully something goods happens! And its great to know that i am not the only crazy one who drives to every store searching for them!!

Anonymous # Friday, September 1, 2006 12:10:33 AM

Shay Sings writes: I had been looking for cheez balls for months now all over town... different states... I've even had my sweetie and my sister on the look-out for them. My sweetie confirms at the 800 # that cheez balls have been discontinued. The horror. I'm a little depressed because I have been craving them for months and have settled for cheese puffs - which just arent' the same. :(

Anonymous # Friday, September 1, 2006 2:13:31 AM

Anonymous writes: Completely...utterly....ridiculous that they discontinued them. I used to get the "Economy" tin and eat the entire thing in a day. To further display my past addiction, I actually gave up Cheez Balls for Lint one year...worst 6 weeks of my life. It seems to me like re-introducing them would be fairly profitable. They have to be available somewhere....they have to...

Anonymous # Friday, September 1, 2006 7:20:05 PM

Anonymous writes: oh the horror. the horror. roses are red voilets are blue, cheese balls i miss you, where are you?

Anonymous # Sunday, September 3, 2006 4:39:54 PM

drmsknight writes: I found this site while searching for the cheez balls. Everyone here should go to Planters, and ask why they are not being made. Also...I am going to the Vermont Country Store, who sometimes is able to bring back old discontinute items.

Anonymous # Sunday, September 3, 2006 4:50:36 PM

drmsknight writes: I sent a post to the Vermont Country Store....perhaps they can find it. If anyone is interested, they have Ralston Cereal, Whip N Chill, and B&M Brown Bread in a can.....worth a try folks.... and don't forget....write to planters!!!!!

Anonymous # Sunday, September 3, 2006 6:46:27 PM

Anonymous writes: Like so many others I was tired of looking for these at every store I went to,so I typed in Planters cheese balls.I am glad I am not the only one out there who is outraged by the total lack of not only business sense but customer relations at Planters. All things are possible but I have had this exact thing happen to me too many times before to get my hopes up that they will ever bring them back.Thanks for doing the research at least I know now.

Anonymous # Tuesday, September 5, 2006 8:15:27 PM

Planters Cheese Balls addict writes: I too have looked in vein for the puffed, cheezy goodness of Planters Cheeseballs. I think we all must be a little crazed to actually google Planters Cheese Balls, and whined up here. But, they are the best. The other cheese balls just don't cut it. Come on Planters - BRING BACK THE CHEESEBALLS!

Anonymous # Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:57:02 PM

Anonymous writes: I went to the website and did not see them under products...now this site has confirmed it....oh no!

Anonymous # Thursday, September 14, 2006 4:29:27 PM

Anonymous writes: I was looking online after a long search to find them...my fears have come true...

Anonymous # Saturday, September 16, 2006 3:52:52 PM

Kelsey writes: Cheese balls were my life.......I always had to buy cheese balls for my girlfiend in Ohio and mail them to her in St louis....Now she and I can no longer find them anywhere....It is such a sad day for us

Anonymous # Monday, September 18, 2006 6:35:02 PM

Anonymous writes: I echo the sentiment of everyone who posted above me. I don't understand how they can just discontinue this item, especially with all the crap that's out there. The only snack food I'll eat now is Lays, and I'm already sick of them. Cheeseballs were never old after 20 years! If anyone from Planters sees this board (since somemone above mentioned they forwarded this link to Planters - excellent idea), please reconsider your decision to discontinue Cheese Balls.

Anonymous # Thursday, September 21, 2006 4:34:58 PM

Cori writes: I am 6 months pregnant and only have had one craving..I have been to every store\gas station in my area...No cheez balls. This is not something you can buy generic...it has to be the good stuff. Planters!! I am so upset!! I tried cheetos asteroids(which are close but smaller) BRING THEM BACK PLEASE!!

Anonymous # Saturday, September 23, 2006 5:10:23 PM

Anonymous writes: This is very sad! Working for a major food company, though, I know the pressure to cut back on product lines. But the Cheez Balls??? Even when they were around it was hard to find them in stock. I can't believe they would get rid of such a popular item! I'm a little depressed now...and even hungrier for them. Why???

Anonymous # Tuesday, September 26, 2006 12:38:17 AM

Planters Peeved writes: As others have noticed, these two products (Planters Cheez Curls, Planters Cheez Balls) are completely unlike the competitors' products. The other products are easy to get tired of, but these never got old. The Planters Cheez Curls in the vacuum-packed cylinder cans were fun to open and fun to eat. Boggles the mind that this product could be simply discontinued rather than sold or rebranded. Unless maybe someone knows that the product was picked up by another seller?

Anonymous # Thursday, September 28, 2006 6:54:42 PM

anonymous writes: I am sooooo upset! I just found out that the cheez balls were discontinued! One Question: why?!?!? I have found Cheetos Asteroids to taste very similar but I have only found them at 1 convenience store and they haven't reordered since I bought the last stock of them! Please bring the Cheez Balls back!!!

Anonymous # Friday, October 6, 2006 8:59:22 PM

Anonymous writes: Does anyone remember the White Cheddar version of these? I miss this snack!!!

Anonymous # Friday, December 1, 2006 11:14:50 PM

rwer writes: And I had been so virtuous about the Cheez Curls. So went I went to buy a few big canisters (18.75 oz), none to be found anywhere. At least I had only been to one store. Orange fingers no more.

Anonymous # Monday, December 4, 2006 5:59:06 PM

Anonymous writes: why kraft? why? why discontinue a products like cheese balls that actually sells, but keep random things like that poor coffe alternitive "sanka".. who buys sanka??

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