Armour and Hormel

It seems universal that for every well-known product, there is a knock-off version of said product. You would think that for things like Spam, the product itself would be the end of the line. The other day at Walmart, though, I came across the Treet Luncheon Loaf-- much cheaper than Spam, and, upon purchase and consumption, not quite as good.

I assumed this was a regular knock-off job, a lamentable product for those who didn't want to shell out for name-brand Spam. I was just surprised that it was called 'Treet', not 'Span', or something along those lines. It turns out, though, that Armour, the company that makes Treet, is also responsible for the famously tinned Vienna Sausages.

The company that makes Spam is called Hormel, and I wonder if Hormel and Armour are for the tinned meat world what Coca-Cola and Pepsi are for soft drinks and Microsoft and Apple are for computers. I haven't looked any further into the matter, but I'm sure that struggles in commercial meat packing are just as dynamic as the constant Coke-Pepsi war.

One more thing-- as of 2013, Hormel also owns Skippy, my favorite peanut butter brand.