Food / Business & brands
Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano
· snack-food makers, founders of Better Made Potato Chips
Sicilian immigrants who founded Better Made in 1930, Detroit's hometown potato-chip brand, still made on Gratiot Avenue.
- Also known as
- Better Made founders · Cross & Peters Company
- Detroit years
- 1930–1980s
- Field
- Food, Business & brands
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano, immigrants from Sicily, bought a small potato-chip operation on Detroit's east side in 1930 and named their business the Cross & Peters Company. They launched the Better Made brand in 1934, and by 1937 their workers had unionized. After World War II the company moved in 1955 into a larger plant on Gratiot Avenue, where it still fries chips mostly from Michigan-grown potatoes. The company added flavored chips in the 1970s, beginning with barbecue, and merged with Bay City's Made-Rite in 1994. After both founders died in the 1980s their heirs ran the business, and the Moceri family's stake was bought out in 2003. The red-and-yellow bags have become a Detroit icon, as much a part of the city's food identity as the Coney dog.
Highlights
- Founded Cross & Peters Company in Detroit in 1930
- Better Made brand launched in 1934
- Gratiot Avenue plant opened in 1955
- Last surviving Detroit-born potato-chip brand
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Founded · 1955–
Better Made Snack Foods
The Gratiot Avenue plant in use since 1955, with a factory store open to visitors.