The article is copied here in its entirety, but prices quoted are from 2005, so check the Web sites for updated info.

By Nicki Lefever

Daily Record/Sunday News

If you lived in York County all your life, then moved away, there would be certain smells, places and people you would likely long for.

Undoubtedly your taste buds would be craving the easy access and overabundance of snack foods produced here — at least a little bit.

“I guess you don’t think about it until you can’t get it,” Kathy Allue said.

Allue’s three young sons — Kevin, Chris and Andy Welsh — have each been stationed in Iraq at one point.

A frequent assembler of toilet-paper and potato-chip care packages, Allue often finds herself asking, “You want what?”

The Snack Food Association understands the loyalty people have to their favorite brand of potato chips, chocolates or pretzels, so they’ve dubbed February National Snack Food Month.

It’s fairly easy to travel to a local grocery store or market for a bag of Martin’s Kettle Cook’d Potato Chips or a sample of Wolfgang’s milk chocolate. In fact, there are a handful of area factory tours where you can see your precious potato chips or candy bars being produced.

But Kevin, who is currently stationed in Bayji, Iraq, only has roadside stands to buy chicken kabobs and Chai tea in addition to his standard three meals a day. They certainly don’t sell his favorite — Stauffer’s Chocolate Covered Star Cookies.

“We used to live near the factory store and walk over to the cookie outlet,” Allue said. “You just assume it will always be there and don’t stop to think the rest of the world doesn’t have them next to them.”

On a recent phone call, Kevin said, “Ma, I need more of those chocolate stars.”

But they are a seasonal product made at Christmas, so Allue can’t get them now.

“I told him he would be getting the bunnies real soon,” she said.

But it isn’t only military personnel shipped overseas who miss out on some East Coast specialties.

If you move to California and crave a handful of Utz chips or Bickel’s Nacho Tortilla Chips, you’ll have to settle for Poore Brothers or Buffalo Bill products.

“They don’t get Tastykakes everywhere either,” Allue said.

Tastykakes are made in Philadelphia and are only readily available on store shelves in states surrounding Pennsylvania.

Ann Wilkes, spokeswoman for the Snack Food Association, said the industry is one of a kind. She explained that nearly all snack food manufacturers direct deliver their product. That means they don’t hire a trucking fleet or depend on a supermarket clerk to stock their product on the shelf. Every bag of Martin’s chips that hits the shelf is personally delivered there by an employee of the company.

For many manufacturers, it is only cost effective to deliver regionally, except national giants such as Frito-Lay, which has manufacturing plants and distribution sites nationwide. Frito Lay has a plant in West Manchester Township that makes Doritos and potato chips.

“Most snack food companies are regional,” Wilkes said. “It keeps things fresh.”

And besides, she said, it isn’t easy to ship chips. But Allue has found a way to make it work.

“You are remarkably creative with packages,” she said.

Sometimes she buys the large boxes of chips, slaps a label on and ships it off to Iraq. Other times when the boys need toilet paper or underwear, she surrounds the snacks with rolled up boxers and packs of toilet paper.

“I send any of the extra-soft kinds — Cottonelle, Quilted Northern, Charmin,” Allue said.

Martin’s chief executive officer Kevin Potter said it isn’t that the company wouldn’t want to distribute to more places such as a Publix grocery store in Florida, it is just hard to get into the market.

“We would like to expand distribution, but the challenge is having a network set up and getting into the supermarkets,” he said. “Competition keeps us out.”

So until the unforgettable taste of Martin’s Kettle Cook’d Potato Chips becomes available at stores across the nation and even the world, emigrants of York will have to find another way to get the chips.

Before you leave the county, think twice about what you’ll be missing. If you really can’t replace a Martin’s chip or a Wolfgang creamy chocolate bar in your diet with a different brand, prepare to pay the price. While most companies are willing to ship their product anywhere in the world through online orders, it isn’t as cheap as making a run to a local store.

An online order for a variety box of six 5-ounce bags of Utz potato chips costs $10.85 for the chips and $5.67 for ground shipping according to utzsnacks.com. Or add $23 shipping if you want them shipped overnight for next-day air delivery. If you buy the same six bags of chips at Weis Markets, it costs $8.94 or $1.49 a bag.

And if you are craving a box of Peanut Butter Treats made fresh at Wolfgang’s York facility, they won’t be $5.69 like they are at Weis Markets. You’ll pay $7.50 for a 10-ounce box plus $6.10 shipping, according to wolfgangcandy.com.

And another thing, if you love your local products, it’s possible to support them. If grocery stores are asked by enough people to get a particular product, they are likely to put it on the shelves. If you’re curious about where your favorite local products are made, where they began and how much of their product is produced, check the following listings.

Reach Nicki Lefever at 771-2101 or nlefever@ydr.com.