THIS LITTLE THINGAMAJIG HAS A NAME

You have probably handled hundreds of them. They crack, they disappear, and when you set one down on the counter, it somehow becomes practically invisible.

But what is that little plastic thingamajig actually called?

The most common name is a bread clip. It is also called a bread tag, a bread-bag clip, or more formally, a bag closure.

One of the best-known versions is made by a company called Kwik Lok. According to the company, the story began in the 1950s when apple distributors asked engineer Floyd Paxton to come up with a better way to close bags. His simple little invention caught on, first for bags of apples and then for bakery products and other packaged foods.

More than 70 years later, that tiny closure is used all over the world. Apparently, more than a trillion bags have been closed with them. That is an impressive history for something most of us either throw away or lose before we are finished using it.

And what about those advertisements telling us to keep one in our wallet?

That is where the story gets a little ridiculous.

The supposed reason is that a bread clip can temporarily repair a broken flip-flop. If the toe post pulls through the bottom of the sole, the clip can be placed underneath it to help keep the post from pulling through again.

It might get you across a parking lot, but carrying a bread clip in your wallet for the rest of your life just in case your flip-flop breaks? That may be going a little too far.

Snopes investigated the claim and found that the emergency flip-flop repair was essentially the big secret buried inside those long, clickbait articles.

So now we know two things. The little thingamajig is called a bread clip, and you probably don’t need to carry one in your wallet.

You just need to figure out where it disappeared to when you set it down five seconds ago.

Sources:

Kwik Lok: https://www.kwiklok.com/about/

Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bread-clip-wallet/

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