In 1883, Oscar Mayer opened a meat shop in Chicago where he made sausages and ham. By 1919, the Mayers’ meat business had gotten so big that the company bought a slaughtering plant in Madison, Wisconsin. #

The news, though somewhat expected, has been hitting Madison residents hard. Madison’s mayor Paul Soglin estimated that the economic impact will be at the cost of “hundreds of millions of dollars. #

The Oscar Mayer closure is part of a bigger Kraft Heinz downsizing plan to save $1.5 billion in the next two years. #

The backdrop for these changes is that Americans are now wary of processed foods. One report found that the market shares of packaged-food companies have dropped by billions as consumers drift towards “natural” offerings.  #

But Americans still love hot dogs, consuming close to a billion packages a year, and summer barbecues and sports venues continue to be responsible for massive sales numbers. #