Heinz once paid workers in ketchup during a 1930s cash shortage

History Fact: During the Great Depression, the H.J. Heinz Company faced such severe liquidity problems at some facilities that it temporarily compensated workers partly in product. Employees received cases of ketchup and other Heinz goods as partial wages, which they could trade or sell locally.

It was an unconventional but documented arrangement that kept the factory running when cash was genuinely scarce.