From exclusive items to portion sizes, we wanted to find all the differences between Auntie Anne's in the US and the UK. This is "Food Wars."
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00We're comparing Auntie Anne's in the U.S. and the U.K.
00:03Let's start with how much an original pretzel weighs.
00:05Here is an original Auntie Anne's pretzel in the U.K.
00:08An original pretzel in the U.K. weighs 138 grams.
00:11I saw this German game show online where they had to cut a pretzel into two equal halves,
00:15and I really want to try it out.
00:17I'm pretty sure we have a sharper knife than this somewhere in the studio,
00:19but I couldn't find it, so here we go.
00:21I'm going to attempt to perfectly slice my pretzel so that both sides are even weights,
00:27but I just don't think it's going to happen.
00:29It's a little wonky already.
00:31They're not perfectly symmetrical, so I don't know if I can pull this off.
00:35I think I might have gotten it.
00:37Hold on.
00:39That's not bad.
00:40I was maybe like one gram off.
00:42This might be pretty good.
00:44I goofed.
00:45Next, we've got our cinnamon sugar nuggets.
00:47We have small, regular, and the bucket.
00:51In the U.K., we just have one size of pretzel nuggets.
00:53The website doesn't say how big the portion is
00:55or how many nuggets we're supposed to get in there,
00:57so we're going to measure and count them.
00:59I don't know how they got them in the cup before.
01:01That's way harder to stack than it looked.
01:02That's really not that big a difference in amount of the small and regular.
01:07That's a lot of nuggets.
01:09Our regular cinnamon sugar nuggets come out to 224 grams.
01:13Here we have the classic Auntie Anne's lemonade.
01:16It comes in three sizes, small, medium, and large.
01:20Drinks from the U.K., Auntie Anne's, come in two sizes.
01:23We have a regular and a large.
01:24The volumes aren't disclosed, so we're going to pour them out now.
01:27Here goes the small.
01:29So the large came out to about 27 ounces,
01:32which is pretty low, under 32, I would say.
01:36Still, I don't know if I would notice,
01:39but you should be getting the amount they advertised, of course.
01:42And lastly, for portion sizes,
01:45we have my personal favorite thing to get at Auntie Anne's,
01:48which is the pretzel dog.
01:49And here is the U.K. pretzel dog.
01:51I've never had one of these before.
01:52The existence of them slightly unnerves me,
01:54but let's measure it.
01:56So in the U.K., our glizzy en croûte came to eight inches in length.
01:59Also, Harry, I'm sending you to jail on two counts.
02:02One is that you don't like these, because that's crazy.
02:06And two, you called it a glizzy en croûte.
02:10That's, no.
02:11Let's not ever say that again.
02:13Please.
02:15Here is everything from an Auntie Anne's in the U.K.
02:16that you don't have in the U.S.
02:18Here's everything you'll find at Auntie Anne's in the U.S.
02:21that you won't find in the U.K.
02:23It's not a lot.
02:24I'm actually really jealous.
02:25Considering that Auntie Anne's was founded in Pennsylvania,
02:28and it's such a fixture in malls and airports here,
02:31I thought we would dominate when it came to exclusives.
02:35I thought this is all we have.
02:37We only have one exclusive pretzel flavor in the U.S.,
02:41sweet almond, which sounds really good to me.
02:45That's actually pretty nice.
02:47It does just taste like sweet almond.
02:50I really like the texture that the crushed up almonds on top gives you.
02:53It tastes like they candied the almonds before putting them on top of the dough.
02:57So it comes out really, really sweet, but not too sweet.
03:01In the U.K., we have three exclusive items when it comes to a traditional soft pretzel.
03:05First up, we have cheddar and jalapeno.
03:07Not the biggest jalapeno fan ever.
03:09Although Tilly was saying that she's come around on them recently,
03:11so maybe I'm overdue giving jalapenos another try.
03:15I quite like the flavor of jalapenos.
03:18I think it's the texture that I don't really like.
03:20I'm not the biggest pepper guy.
03:21A bit briny, a little bit spicy.
03:23Not bad.
03:24Next up, we have a sesame pretzel.
03:25And the piece de resistance of our exclusive pretzels,
03:28the Nutella pull-apart.
03:30They didn't skimp on the Nutella, I'll tell you that much.
03:32Just looking at this, and also from the name pull-apart,
03:34I think it's maybe meant as more of a sharer thing.
03:36You get one of these and you just kind of tear chunks off it.
03:38Yes, I'm pronouncing it Nutella, not Nutella.
03:40I'm not changing my ways, even if you think I'm wrong.
03:45It's pretzel though, covered in Nutella.
03:46How can it be bad?
03:47It's so strange to me that we don't have a Nutella flavor of anything,
03:51of pretzel, of dip.
03:52I just feel like we like it so much here that I would expect it.
03:56But you know what?
03:57I'm not missing it.
03:58In the UK, we also have the option of pretzel sticks.
04:01That sticks with an X, not with a CKS.
04:03These come in three flavors.
04:04We have the classic version, cinnamon sugar, and vanilla.
04:08I've tried the cinnamon sugar.
04:09I've not tried the vanilla sugar yet.
04:10Let's give it a quick spin.
04:13It might lack that certain je ne sais quoi of a cinnamon,
04:16but still a very good option.
04:17In the UK, we also have two exclusive versions of the pretzel nuggets.
04:20Again, we have the vanilla sugar option,
04:22but then we also have a cheese stuffed pretzel nugget.
04:25These are quite exciting.
04:26I like these as a concept.
04:28It's kind of like, you know when you get a cheese stuffed crust pizza?
04:30It's kind of all the stuffed crust without the actual pizza in the middle.
04:35Yeah, they have that like satisfying rubbery cheese texture
04:39that you get from like a supermarket stuffed crust pizza,
04:42which personally I quite like.
04:43You guys might be missing out over there.
04:44We brought some heat with these.
04:46We have a serious lack of cheese and cheese stuffed items
04:49at our Auntie Anne's here in the US.
04:51It's very shocking to me actually, because we're obsessed with cheese.
04:54So why don't we have that?
04:56Let's get the Auntie on the phone.
04:59Auntie, we have to talk.
05:01The UK also has three exclusive flavors of pretzel dog.
05:04Here we have a cheese pretzel dog,
05:05cheese and jalapeno pretzel dog,
05:07and a cheese and pepperoni pretzel dog.
05:09Two forms of pork.
05:11Let's see how this goes.
05:15It's not as bad as I thought it might be.
05:18Auntie Anne's in the UK doesn't just offer pretzels.
05:20On the menu over here, you'll find pizza, breakfast items, and even gelato.
05:24Because Auntie Anne's in the UK runs on a franchise model,
05:26it's kind of up to the franchisee which of these things they stock.
05:29We weren't able to find the pizzas today.
05:30What we were able to get today, though, are pizza bakes.
05:33From what I can gather, the pizzas are on actual pizza dough,
05:36whereas the pizza bakes, they take pretzel dough,
05:38stretch it out into a kind of rectangular shape,
05:40and then add pizza toppings to it.
05:41The three that we found today are American Hot,
05:44which for the American audience is what Brits call pepperoni and jalapeno,
05:47a pepperoni option, and margarita.
05:50I'll give the pepperoni one a spin.
05:52I'm intrigued to see if pretzel dough is kind of a proper vessel for pizza toppings.
05:56Why not?
06:01It's a bit on the doughy, bready side,
06:03which is to be expected because it's pretzel dough rather than pizza dough,
06:06but, like, functionally, it's still doing all the things that I would like a pizza to do.
06:09Now, this is just getting unfair.
06:11Not only do we not have pizzas at our Auntie Anne's,
06:14but the UK has an American-inspired pizza.
06:17I feel like I'm being bullied.
06:19I'm being taunted.
06:21Now we're going to talk about some breakfast offerings.
06:23Again, the breakfast menu is not something you'll find everywhere in the UK
06:25because it is up to the franchisee.
06:27If you run an Auntie Anne's that's in a shopping center,
06:29you might not want to stock the breakfast menu,
06:30but if you operate one in an airport, you probably would.
06:33We've got three breakfast sandwich options today.
06:34Here we have the bacon, egg, and cheese.
06:36This is the sausage, egg, and cheese.
06:38Or if you're hungry, you can combine those into a bacon, sausage, egg, and cheese.
06:42The bun they use for these, you will be shocked to learn, is also pretzel dough.
06:47It's not bad.
06:50I like the sausage.
06:51Some Auntie Anne's locations in the UK will also have a gelato menu.
06:54The one that I went to today did have the gelato menu,
06:56but I did have to drive like an hour and a half to get it,
06:58so I didn't see much point in just bringing back melted ice cream.
07:01I definitely don't think it's unusual for Brits to see gelato,
07:03or at least ice cream, in what is effectively a dessert shop.
07:06Now it's time for Sauce Talk.
07:08Even though these are technically dips,
07:11I'm not really sure what the difference is.
07:13Sauce Talk.
07:14Here in the US, we've got sweet glaze, hot salsa cheese, honey mustard, which we could not get,
07:21and the light cream cheese, which we also could not get.
07:24I do want to break into both of these.
07:26I'm very interested in this hot salsa cheese dip.
07:30It says heavenly hot salsa cheese dip.
07:33This smells exactly like those little snack packs that came with a side of breadstick crackers
07:40that you dipped into a cheese.
07:41It smells exactly like this.
07:43It kind of looks like it too,
07:45except this has some added jalapenos, bell peppers, all that good stuff.
07:53Absolutely not.
07:54Oh, that's actually really spicy.
07:56I wouldn't call that heavenly.
07:58Oh, I don't like that.
08:00It's a no.
08:01All right, now let's try the sweet glaze.
08:07That is so sweet.
08:08It's a sweet glaze, for sure.
08:10Not for me.
08:11It's too much, but it's good.
08:13Auntie Ads in the UK offers a wide range of sauces and dips for your pretzels.
08:17Firstly, we have tomato ketchup.
08:19Surely you don't need to be trying ketchup.
08:21I've got to try them all, Charlie.
08:24There might still be people out there who don't know what ketchup tastes like.
08:30Yeah, I love that stuff.
08:31There's like almost no tomato in there.
08:32It's mostly vinegar and sugar.
08:34Pretty good.
08:35Then we have English mustard.
08:36Mustard and pretzels go way better than ketchup and pretzels,
08:39so this one makes way more sense in my head.
08:42It's that English mustard, so it's got a bit of a kick to it.
08:45Bit of heat.
08:46That works.
08:46Sticking with the savory options for the time being,
08:48we have another tomato-based dip.
08:49I actually think this might just be the kind of like marinara pizza sauce
08:53that they use for the pizzas.
08:56Yeah, it is.
08:58I put this here because I wasn't sure if it was barbecue sauce or chocolate sauce.
09:01One sniff has confirmed.
09:02It's barbecue sauce.
09:04Again, I think mustard and, to a lesser extent, the marinara sauce
09:07are much more logical pairings with pretzels
09:10compared to like ketchup and barbecue sauce.
09:14It's got a real tang and smoke to it, which is interesting,
09:17but, again, just not sure that's what I want with my pretzel.
09:20So if that one was barbecue sauce, I'm hoping,
09:23I'm guessing by the texture, that this one might be chocolate.
09:26There we go.
09:28That's what we wanted.
09:31Chocolate sauce.
09:32Fantastic.
09:33Quite gloopy.
09:33Got like a nice thick texture to it.
09:36Good amount of chocolate flavor as well.
09:37I like it.
09:38Going to give myself real whiplash here
09:39because straight from chocolate,
09:41we're going to what I think is nacho cheese.
09:43I do like nacho cheese.
09:48Yeah, I mean, it's nacho cheese.
09:52It's pretty good.
09:53This looks like a caramel,
09:54or it also could be a peanut butter or maybe a Biscoff.
10:00Biscoff.
10:01I've said it before.
10:02I'll say it again.
10:03Not the biggest Biscoff fan.
10:04However, I don't think I've had the spread version of it before.
10:08And that with the kind of like salty pretzel
10:10actually does go quite well.
10:12There's so many dips.
10:13This one I'm really not sure on.
10:15It looked like a lemon curd at a distance,
10:17but then I smelled it and I was getting more like custard from it.
10:22So I think maybe this is like a kind of vanillary dipping sauce.
10:26Very good though.
10:27But I really like that.
10:28It tastes a lot like sort of just an ambrosia custard, you know.
10:30Next up we have powdered sugar.
10:33Yeah, it's definitely powdered sugar.
10:34Pretty good.
10:35And then we have three sauces,
10:36which I feel like I've seen in like kebab shops in the UK before.
10:39It's these Harrison's brand dipping sauces.
10:41We have garlic and herb,
10:42a honey mustard dressing,
10:43and sweet chili.
10:45We don't have as many pretzel options in the US,
10:47but we do have some exclusive drinks.
10:50We've got frozen lemonade,
10:53mango lemonade mixer,
10:55watermelon lemonade mixer,
10:57frozen watermelon lemonade,
10:59and watermelon lemonade frost.
11:00Even though all of these drinks are very,
11:03very melted and old,
11:05I do still want to taste the watermelon lemonade frost just to see what's up with that.
11:11Oh,
11:11this looks bad.
11:13I made it chunky.
11:15Oh,
11:16I'm making it worse.
11:17Here's what this is actually supposed to look like.
11:21I'm just going to take a small sip.
11:25It's not that bad.
11:26It actually looks way worse than it tastes.
11:29It kind of tastes like melted Jolly Ranchers.
11:31Now we're onto the exclusive drinks found at a UK Auntie Anne's.
11:34We'll start with the cold drink options.
11:35Now,
11:36one thing that kind of bamboozled me was Dutch ice.
11:38So Auntie Anne's in the US,
11:39they have a thing called Dutch ice.
11:41I do not know what a Dutch ice is,
11:43but I do know what a slush puppy is.
11:45So here is a Dutch ice,
11:46as Auntie Anne's would say,
11:47or as most Brits would say,
11:48a slushie.
11:49The one I went to today had the blue raspberry.
11:51They had a strawberry,
11:52a tropical,
11:53a frozen lemonade,
11:54and also an apple one.
11:55Auntie Anne's in the UK also offers Coke products.
11:57So we have a Coke Zero and a Fanta Orange.
12:00And then again,
12:00because it's a franchise thing,
12:01you might have slightly different soft drink options elsewhere.
12:03So we have these simply fruity drinks in apple,
12:08orange,
12:08strawberry,
12:09and blackcurrant and apple.
12:10In the UK,
12:11we love our hot drinks and our espresso-based coffees.
12:13Auntie Anne's in the UK has capitalized on that
12:15and has a bunch of hot drinks available.
12:17Of course,
12:17we just have an English breakfast tea,
12:19but you can also get a hot chocolate,
12:21an Americano,
12:22a cappuccino,
12:23as well as a flat white,
12:24and an espresso.
12:25Then we're onto the milkshakes,
12:26which we have a lot of in the UK.
12:28I just got three of the more interesting ones today
12:30because I didn't want to carry about 20 milkshakes home in the car.
12:33Not only do we have Nutella on the menu as a pull-apart,
12:35but we also have a Nutella milkshake.
12:37This one really intrigued me slash terrified me.
12:39This is a bubblegum milkshake.
12:42Oh, man.
12:45It tastes like bubblegum.
12:46I don't know about you guys,
12:47but whenever I taste something that's bubblegum flavored,
12:49I have a real like instinctive feeling that I shouldn't be swallowing it.
12:53I think just from years of chewing bubblegum and being told,
12:57do not swallow this.
12:57So even now edible bubblegum flavored products,
13:00my brain is just like,
13:01no, no, no,
13:02do not eat,
13:02do not eat.
13:03And then I was also able to get a banoffee milkshake.
13:05Banoffee is one of those things that I always assume is universal,
13:07but I think actually it doesn't really exist that much outside of the UK.
13:10For the uninitiated,
13:11banoffee combines banana and toffee.
13:13Banoffee pie is the most common like delivery vehicle,
13:18I would say for this one,
13:19but it turns out the milkshake,
13:20pretty tasty.
13:21The only reason I'm not so upset that the UK has way more food options than we do at our Auntie Anne's
13:30is because usually where you'll find an Auntie Anne's, like a mall,
13:34you'll find a bunch of other food options.
13:37So if I wanted to get gelato with my Auntie Anne's, I could.
13:41If I wanted to get a pizza with my Auntie Anne's, I could.
13:45Just not at the same stall.
13:47So there's that.
13:48Auntie Anne's doesn't list their ingredients on their website,
13:50but we pulled them from their DIY at-home pretzel kit.
13:54The dough mix contains wheat flour, sugar, yeast, dextrose, salt, sodium bicarbonate,
14:02cornstarch, molasses, sodium aluminum sulfate, and acid phosphate of calcium.
14:08Sodium aluminum sulfate is a slow-acting leavening acid.
14:12It helps the pretzels rise.
14:14That one sounds so much scarier than it actually is.
14:17According to its box in the UK,
14:19the DIY dough mix contains yeast, wheat flour, calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, thiamine,
14:26baking soda, sugar, malt extract, salt, and cane molasses.
14:30However, Auntie Anne's did confirm to me via email that the ingredients are the same globally.
14:34So there might just be some differences in how local markets require ingredients to be written out on boxes.
14:38The dough Auntie Anne's uses is actually made on-site by the employees.
14:42It's not shipped to stores frozen like I assumed.
14:45Stores receive a signature flour mixture, and that gets mixed with yeast and water.
14:50Once the dough rises, it gets turned into fresh pretzels.
14:53A former Auntie Anne's employee claims that freshly baked items get replaced every 30 minutes to ensure freshness.
14:59I can neither confirm nor deny that.
15:02Instead of using baking soda in the actual dough,
15:04apparently Auntie Anne's uses a mixture of baking soda and water to brush their pretzels before baking.
15:08This supposedly helps to give the pretzels that nice crust.
15:11After baking, they're also topped with butter to give them that nice shine.
15:14Auntie Anne's claims that it has a secret ingredient for its pretzels,
15:16which is still kept tightly under wraps.
15:18Anne Baila, the founder of Auntie Anne's, has said that the secret ingredient was a makeshift substitute
15:22used by her husband when he got the wrong ingredients for making pretzels.
15:26But apparently it turned out pretty well.
15:27Some people allege that the secret ingredient is just sugar,
15:30but that doesn't seem like something you'd really have to try that hard to keep under wraps.
15:33We weren't able to find the ingredients for the plain pretzel,
15:35but we did for the pepperoni pretzel.
15:38Here, a pepperoni pretzel contains 480 calories,
15:4217 grams total fat,
15:44760 milligrams of sodium,
15:46and 66 grams total carbs.
15:48A pepperoni and cheese pretzel in the UK contains
15:50458 calories,
15:5215.6 grams of fat,
15:541,800 milligrams of sodium,
15:57and 63.5 grams of carbs.
15:59Our pretzel dog contains
16:00350 calories,
16:0220 grams of total fat,
16:04800 milligrams of sodium,
16:06and 33 grams of total carbs.
16:08And our pretzel dog contains
16:09449 calories,
16:1230.4 grams of fat,
16:141,800 milligrams of sodium,
16:15and 26.8 total carbs.
16:17Next, we have a medium lemonade.
16:19It contains 250 calories,
16:210 grams total fat,
16:2320 milligrams of sodium,
16:25and 64 grams total carbs.
16:27A regular lemonade in the UK contains 122 calories,
16:310 grams of fat,
16:3240 milligrams of sodium,
16:3331.1 grams of carbs,
16:3531.1 grams of carbs,
16:35of which 29.2 grams are sugars.
16:37An original pretzel from an Auntie Anne's in the UK will cost you £4.80.
16:41And our original pretzel costs $6.99.
16:45That feels astronomical to me for a soft pretzel.
16:49A portion of pretzel nuggets in the UK costs £5.70.
16:52A regular cup of pretzel nuggets will cost you $9.99 in the US.
16:57Earlier we counted that you get 10 nuggets in a portion,
16:59meaning that on average it's 57p per pretzel nugget.
17:02That comes out to about 47 cents per nugget.
17:05If you wanted to get a pretzel,
17:06a dip,
17:06and a lemonade in the UK,
17:08it would come to a total of £8.70.
17:10Although it's worth mentioning that in the store I went to,
17:12they had a combo deal,
17:13which gave you these exact three items for £6.80.
17:16And in the US,
17:16a pretzel with a dip and a medium lemonade comes out to $13.46.
17:22Seems a bit steep for a pretzel and a drink,
17:24considering you can get a Big Mac meal for $10.19.
17:29Auntie Anne is actually a real person.
17:31Anne Byler created Auntie Anne's
17:32after a pretty tumultuous period in her life.
17:34Using money that she borrowed from her husband Jonas' parents,
17:37the two of them set up Auntie Anne's.
17:39The original location was a concession stand
17:40in Downington, Pennsylvania Farmers Market
17:42all the way back in 1988.
17:44Apparently for them,
17:45it was their way of providing for the community.
17:47Auntie Anne's would eventually become an international franchise
17:50with over 2,000 stores in over 30 countries.
17:52The UK and Ireland specifically have 38 locations.
17:57I wouldn't say Auntie Anne's is a household name in the UK,
17:59but it is something that I would say most Brits
18:00probably have a vague or maybe even subconscious awareness of.
18:04This is because many of their locations
18:05are located in big shopping centres
18:07or shopping malls here in the UK.
18:09At some point or another,
18:10it's pretty likely that a Brit will have walked past
18:12an Auntie Anne's and smelled the pretzels being made.
18:14I think my first introduction to Auntie Anne's
18:16was on one of these shopping centre visits
18:17where they were handing out free samples.
18:19I remember eating a nice warm bite of cinnamon sugar pretzel
18:22and being pretty impressed,
18:23although I think I'd probably looked at the menu
18:24and thought that's a bit pricey for me
18:26seeing as that I'm 12 and I have no pocket money left.
18:28Auntie Anne's does seem to be making an effort
18:30to expand its UK presence.
18:31In a recent LinkedIn post,
18:33they said that they are pursuing an ambitious growth strategy
18:35over the next 10 years
18:36with plans to open 100 new stores
18:38across the UK and Ireland.
18:40This includes a new international store design in the UK
18:43featuring a fresh, vibrant look.
18:45Even if they're not a household name yet in the UK,
18:47in 10 years' time, they might be.
18:48We have Auntie Anne's in all 50 states.
18:51There are 1,347 locations in the US alone.
18:56I cannot believe we have so many Auntie Anne's
18:59and yet so little menu items.
19:01It's so much smaller than the UK's, it's crazy.
19:04I think most of us in the US
19:05would associate Auntie Anne's with malls.
19:07I was always at the mall as a kid
19:09and I can still remember the smell of Auntie Anne's pretzels
19:12just wafting through the air.
19:14Hello, we're filming from my home
19:18because in the middle of making this video,
19:21Auntie Anne's decided to release this,
19:23a pretzel scented perfume.
19:26And of course we have to try it.
19:27I also got some Auntie Anne's pretzels
19:30so that we can do a little smell comparison,
19:32see if it's just like the real thing.
19:34Auntie Anne's releasing this makes a lot of sense to me,
19:37honestly, not just as like a funny little marketing ploy
19:40and getting people to talk about them,
19:42but also because they are so known
19:44for the smell of their stores.
19:46Like when you walk into the mall,
19:48that's the first thing you smell.
19:49So this is kind of funny, but also, yeah,
19:52I wanna smell like an Auntie Anne's pretzel.
19:55You know what I mean?
19:56Not only do I love the name Need,
19:58that is so funny to me,
19:59I also love that they matched the packaging on the perfume
20:02from their packaging in stores.
20:04Like this is so cute.
20:06This is so dumb,
20:09but it's also very necessary for me personally.
20:13Ooh.
20:15Oh.
20:22Okay, okay, okay.
20:24Yes.
20:25Yes, yes, yes.
20:26I totally smell Auntie Anne's pretzel.
20:28It's not in the authentic way you'd get the scent,
20:32like when it just kind of wafts up to you softly
20:35in the mall and just carries you towards it.
20:38It's more in your face and intense.
20:41Obviously it's a perfume.
20:42Okay, let's do the sniff comparison.
20:45I have the perfume on my wrist
20:46and I have a pretzel in my left hand,
20:49straight from the source.
20:50I definitely would say that the perfume smells like perfume
20:59and this smells like food.
21:00Shocker.
21:01But it just does come off as a more natural,
21:04soft, food-like smell off the pretzel
21:06and the perfume is just more in your face.
21:09This is the scent of butter and sugar and sweetness.
21:12It's a lot in comparison.
21:14It's not the same,
21:16but I can appreciate it for what it is.
21:21Okay.
21:23Go back to the video.
21:24Bye.
21:25I think that pretzels are just a good walking food.
21:29So it makes sense that they're so popular
21:31in places like malls and airports.
21:33But why are Auntie Anne's stores
21:35pretty much only found in malls?
21:37It all comes down to foot traffic,
21:39which malls tend to have a lot of,
21:41or at least they used to.
21:42There's been a decline in mall visitors
21:44since the 80s and the 90s
21:46when malls are at their most popular.
21:48The pandemic also really affected mall traffic,
21:51but it's slowly been rising back to pre-pandemic levels.
21:54The uncertainty when it comes to the longevity of malls
21:57is probably why Auntie Anne's has been experimenting
21:59with standalone drive-thru stores.
22:02Speaking of malls,
22:03let's check in with Joe,
22:04who is currently at the mall with some Auntie Anne's.
22:07Joe, is Auntie Anne's the perfect mall snack?
22:10Just got a pretzel right away.
22:12I think the bag, a bit of a misstep.
22:14I think just handing me that pretzel would have been better.
22:16I don't want to carry this bag around.
22:18Bag goes in garbage.
22:20Now we're talking.
22:21I'm currently walking around a mall with a pretzel, I have to say.
22:25Pretty ideal mall food.
22:28Makes it easier to hold.
22:30Nice thing to have in your hand
22:31when you're checking out what's going on in a wash.
22:33It is a little salty because it's a pretzel.
22:36I wasn't filming myself right now.
22:37I would also have a drink, but got to hold the camera.
22:39But as far as a pretzel walking around a mall,
22:43I think it's pretty ideal.
22:44Thank you, Joe.
22:45We can always count on you to get to the truth of a story.
22:48It's not the only pretzel franchise we have here.
22:51There's also Wetzel's Pretzels,
22:53which is equally good in my opinion.
22:55When I was little,
22:56I used to love watching the Auntie Anne's workers
22:59actually make the pretzels in front of you.
23:01They do this really mesmerizing fast movement
23:04to create the pretzel twist.
23:06Supposedly, the fastest Auntie Anne's pretzel roller
23:09can roll and twist a pretzel in 3.5 seconds.
23:13Hey, thanks for watching.
23:14If you liked this video, subscribe
23:16so you never miss an upload.
23:17We upload new episodes every Sunday.
23:20And leave a comment if there's a restaurant or food
23:22that you want us to compare next.