Good Question: Did they stop making Grandma Brown’s baked beans?

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — This is the top story we’ve done while answering your Good Questions for two years in a row. It’s not even close.

Where can I get Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans?

It’s the number one issue News10NBC’s Brennan Somers still hears about every week from people here and even around the country.

Somers spent weeks recently trying to get ahold of Sandra Brown, the granddaughter of the company’s founder Lulu Brown. She’s a hard interview to get, partly because she doesn’t like talking and she’s so busy.

Finally, just days ago, she picked up the phone.

Somers and Brown talked for less than a minute. She told him they’ve had to stop production again at their home base in Mexico, NY.

We knew they had issues two summers ago in the middle of the pandemic but what’s going on now? A labor shortage.

Brown says they need at least three more production workers to get the processing plant going again. The jobs are posted online and they’ve had interviews. However, Brown says they’re still looking for the right hires. That is why it is still so difficult to find the famous beans anywhere.

Somers has also had local store managers tell him about issues with Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans, like trouble getting a piece of equipment from Europe for the supply line.

Somers wanted to ask Brown about that but as he said, she’s a busy woman. Brown told him "I’m in the middle of something. I have to go."

She hung up.

You can check out this story and look at the other top 10 Good Questions of the year.