Earning Their Stripes

Art’s and Mary’s is a scrumptious staple in Wichita. But the owners probably aren’t who you would guess.

Sure, it’s just a bag of chips. But there’s a certain familiarity to it. Vertical stripes, a silver plastic shine and the words “Art’s and Mary’s.” It’s a simple design, even old-fashioned. But it’s that familiar packaging that so many locals, including the company’s owners Jeff Albers and Bret Albers, have grown to know and love.

The Albers brothers loved the chips so much, in fact, that during the 1980s they often stopped at a Fredonia gas station, the last place in Kansas that sold their favorite snack, to stock up during family trips to Oklahoma’s Grand Lake. “We used to buy up almost every bag in the store,” recalls Jeff. Back then, the chips were a well-known brand run by Art and Mary Kybruz, the company’s founders. By 1994, however, the company was staggering under back taxes, loan servicing and other expenses. Art and Mary sold the company in 1994, and the beloved chips went off the market in ’96. Suddenly, there was a void in Wichita’s potato chip market. That’s when Bret and Jeff stepped in.

Until then, the Albers brothers had helped their father run two Cheney pizza eateries, D’Mario’s and Gambino’s. But they saw an opportunity in Art’s and Mary’s. “With pizza you have a limited radius, but chips you can take as far as you want,” says Jeff. The only problem was the Albers didn’t know a thing about making chips. So they sought out advice from snack food experts and tracked down a small chip company in Wyoming for words of wisdom. For two years, they worked diligently to develop the flavoring, the thickness and the manufacturing process. “We had one chance to put it back in the market, and we didn’t want to mess it up,” says Jeff. Then there was the packaging. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they duplicated Art’s and Mary’s old design, so there wasn’t a gap in chip fanatics’ minds. “When people looked at it, they wouldn’t know if it was Art’s or us,” says Jeff.

Art’s and Mary’s returned to Wichita stores on September 1, 1999. It took about three months for them to catch on again, says Bret, but there was a snowball effect after they began showing up on shelves at Dillons. Eventually, the chip line expanded to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. At first, the Albers brothers didn’t know what to expect from other markets. “The chips were already popular around Wichita, but they were just another chip in other states,” says Jeff. “The chips had to speak for themselves.” They knew the chips were doing just that when they received a note from a man in Texas. It read: “I didn’t think anything from Kansas could be better than Texas. But I think we found something that is.” Today, the Albers still get fan mail on a daily basis. They proudly display a signed photo in their conference room sent from Art and Mary—not the actual founders, but a couple with the same first names who discovered the chips and thought it would be funny to send an autographed picture. Customers aren’t the only ones raving about the chips. Midwest Living magazine recently named Art’s and Mary’s the second best chip in the Midwest, lauding it as “a perfect balance of salt and grease.”

Still, Jeff and Bret are constantly tweaking the chips and testing new flavoring around the office. They’re currently working on a new flavor to add to the company’s existing seven types (they wouldn’t divulge any details when I asked). For now, jalapeño remains their personal favorite. Even after all these years, they still take the much-loved chips to Grand Lake with them when they go on vacation. Only now, instead of stocking up at a gas station in Fredonia, they load up their cars by the case.