A while back, I tried all the Atari-branded hot sauces from a UK-based company called Sauce Shed. I really enjoyed them! I even made a video on the subject.
Since I enjoyed making this video — and one of my work colleagues is always referencing my delayed response to the Haunted House-branded sauce — I thought I'd order a selection of the Street Fighter II-themed sauces that the company had put out. This was back in February.
I remembered that the Atari sauces took a while to get to me, but were worth the wait, but this is getting a little ridiculous at this point. Then I happened to see this story shared — the company has apparently been hit with a "winding-up" petition from a client who paid them a substantial amount of money and never got what they ordered… and they weren't the only ones, either. So it looks as if the company may be in trouble, and I probably am not going to get my Street Fighter II hot sauce. This is both a shame, and £45 down the drain that I probably won't get back — but I have sent an enquiry, at least, to see if they'll provide a refund. I'm not holding my breath.
All this is a real shame, because the Atari sauces were really delicious. They covered a wide range of different sauce types, but there wasn't a single one among them that I thought was unpleasant. Some, like the Yars' Revenge hot sauce, I wish I had ordered more bottles of while I had the chance, because that one was really nice, blending the sharp kick of a hot sauce with a pleasantly fruity afterglow. Sauce Shed aren't going under because they were bad at making sauce. It does, however, appear that they may have been bad at business.
I'm not angry at them. Shit happens, particularly in the volatile world in which we live today, and I can't imagine it's easy running a niche business like a hot sauce manufacturer that specialises in custom branding deals. I just wish that they had bothered to communicate, like, at all. Maybe take down the websites that allow you to purchase things if they knew they weren't going to be able to fulfil orders — or at the very least, mark the products as "unavailable" so people don't pay up for them and then end up disappointed.
Because that's what I am, more than anything. Like I say, I'm not mad. £45 is not chump change, but it's whatever — particularly these days, when a trip to Tesco to get a few snacks can easily end up costing more than a brand new video game. I'm mostly just disappointed that I don't get to try a new selection of delicious hot sauces that are tenuously linked to some sort of video game.
But oh well. Another day will come, and there will be more hot sauce. Not just yet, though, it appears.
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