A red Pringles can pulled from a grandfather’s basement looks like something from another era because it is. The old mascot, typography, and bilingual “Potato Chips / Chips de patates” packaging have long since disappeared from store shelves. Turn the can over and the date stamped into the metal bottom makes the find even better: it expired in 1996. The chips are long gone, but the container never left the family.
Reddit user canadian_blueberry shared the old can in r/GrandmasPantry after finding it among items from their grandfather’s basement.
Unlike many decades-old food discoveries, nobody was considering opening this one for a taste. According to the post, the chips disappeared long ago.
The can survived because someone found another use for it.
The bottom reveals how old it is
The clearest clue is stamped onto the metal base.
It reads “EXPIR/960306,” indicating an expiration date of March 6, 1996.
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That puts the expiration date more than 30 years before the post.
Time also shows across the container itself. The red printed surface has scratches, creases, and worn edges, but the graphics remain easy to recognize.
The old Pringles design looks very different
The front carries an older version of the familiar Pringles mascot with dark hair, rosy cheeks, and a large curled mustache.
Below it, PRINGLES appears in yellow lettering across a black background.
One side says “Potato Chips,” while another uses the French “Chips de patates.” The 200-gram container also carries English and French nutrition information.
Even the chip illustration and yellow script near the bottom give the package a look far removed from current supermarket cans.
The chips disappeared, but the can stayed
The best part of the find is what happened after the food was eaten.
“The chips are gone but it has been put to good use for many years as a storage container,” the poster explained.
Over the years, the tall tube held toy cars, wooden dowels, and assorted small objects.
That helps explain why a disposable food package survived for so long. Instead of being thrown away when the chips were finished, it became part of the household storage.
One detail brought back memories
The old branding was enough to catch the attention of another Reddit user.
“I miss that old Logo,” one commenter wrote.
Packaging is often redesigned so gradually that it’s easy to forget how different a familiar product once looked. Put an older container beside its modern counterpart, and those changes become hard to miss.
This Pringles can should have been trash sometime around 1996. Instead, someone kept filling it with whatever needed a home, and three decades later, the container itself became the interesting thing inside the basement.
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