Extruders lay rows of 24 across onto proofing belts, and you can follow their progress through bathing, salting, baking, drying and packing. At least as impressive are the human details. Machines sort pretzels into bags, but women load the bags into boxes - and dump out the contents if a seal breaks. Big and bountiful - both the factory and the store. The halls don't follow the most logical route, though, and the guide's words can get lost in a crowd.
People wash down gleaming fryers.
Gloved women grab defective chips. The tape not only tells you why they are bad but where they go next, why it takes 30 minutes to turn spud into chip, and how nitrogen gets oxygen out of those bags. You follow chips to salting, inspection, cooling, weighing, packaging, storing and loading. Bobby Nester greets groups of 10 or more, and everyone gets a fresh bag of samples and maybe even a magnet from the nice guys at the display area. It's all low-key, friendly and thoroughly professional.