Jussayin' wraps are smaller than tortillas. Hard to tell from that picture though.

(source: I eat a lot of tortillas)

Racism.

Anti-immigrant racism.

Wraps make me think of a salad compressed into an edible tube. And I think they're aggressively marketed as feminine. I feel like I've heard at least one comedian or TV show use the term "gay burrito" before.

Just riffing on geography...when I lived in Ohio, tortillas were only used in Tex-Mex restaurants. Other restaurants served "wraps" or "wrap sandwiches," and you bought wraps in the grocery store.
In Austin, Tex-Mex restaurants and taco stands abound. I can *probably* buy wraps in the grocery store, but I don't know. I've never sought them out. I do, however, buy 20-count, small tortillas. I don't buy the big ones, because I don't normally make wraps/burritos at home, but I do make a lot of tacos.

I think wraps are supposed to be "healthy," especially as an alternative to bread (though honestly, when comparing nutrition information to a slice of bread and a tortilla or wrap, I don't see a huge difference). Tortillas are for tacos, burritos, Tex-Mex, etc. -- aka, things that are less healthy. Even though tacos can be perfectly healthy, and wraps can be full of junk. 

I always wondered why "wraps" at restaurants weren't called burritos, even when they had traditional burrito fillings.  I do have a stereotype of what a person who'd buy a "wrap" would be, honestly, and it would be someone who'd pay extra money to avoid having "Mexican food" in the kitchen.

Am I hallucinating, or are the wraps also smaller in size than the tortillas?

First, I would examine one piece from each package and make sure that the "wraps" aren't actually thinner than the tortillas—the places I've seen wrap sandwiches, the shell looks thinner than a normal Mission tortilla. Second, my first theory would be that "wraps" appeal to a white, higher socioeconomic shopper who might associate tortillas/burritos with people who provide their gardening or housekeeping service, if I may be so blunt.

However, I too think burritos are the perfect food (referring to the bio at the bottom) and I've never understood nor been enthralled at all by "wraps." It's just a sandwich in a burrito, people! I like my sandwiches on bread.

I wouldn't say it's anti-immigrant racism. I see it the same way that UK shops sell small packets of basmati rice with the writing in English at a higher cost per unit than the larger Badshah brand rice - they can exploit the ignorance of the English while also selling to immigrant families. Same here: they are exploiting the fact that some people are aware of 'wraps' but not 'tortillas'.

Wraps make me think of bland, overpriced and ostensibly "healthy" food. I'm German, however, so that may affect my associations with the word "wraps".

It's not uncommon that smaller sized packages are more expensive per item or by volume but that the sticker price is higher for a smaller package is interesting. Would be interesting to know if the two products are in fact exactly the same or just similar.

I don't think this has anything to do with not wanting to purchase Mexican food products. That is crazy. People who see racism in everything belittle actual racism and must live terribly unhappy lives. This is a simple tactic for health nuts. When you hear wrap, you associate it with a healthier choice. And everyone knows health food products get higher prices. It is health nut marketing, nothing more.

Obviously "tortilla" implies Mexican implies lower class implies negative. This makes people value tortillas lower than wraps. Just so we have that out of the way.

The thinking might also be that tortillas might appeal to the Latino population, who might hold a preference for Latino food over non-Latino food. Since these people are (presumably) poorer on average than the "standard human", they're priced lower.

Lastly, and my inner optimist hopes that this is the main thing at work here, the whole styling of a product is meant to create images in your head. A wrap is related to a sandwich, while a tortilla is related to burritos. They are perceived as different categories of meal (for small values of "different", I suppose), so they are marketed as different, so as to create (and then satisfy) a wider variety of desires.

I think of tortillas as heavier, and as a base to a "cultural food."

I think of wraps as lighter, and as a base to a "health food."

A wrap sounds healthier and like it has less calories. it's because that's what they call it in restaurants while targeting dieters. Started with Atkins diet, I think. And before anybody eats me alive, I, personally, check the info on the package.

Here in Spain,  I'd think "wraps" are more popular than "tortillas", mainly because here tortilla means an omelette. There's also the qualification of "tortillas mexicanas" as an alternative.

As someone who comes from a culture that also has flour wraps, I would be more inclined to buy the wraps, not the tortillas...unless I knew that they were exactly the same thing.  Tortilla is a foreign word to me.  A flour wrap sounds more generic, like it could adapt to the food that my culture eats.   If one is not familiar with Mexican food, how would they know that the tortillas and flour wraps pictured here are exactly the same thing? 

On that note, while I understand the power of marketing, sometimes it really baffles me.  It's strange that people outside of Greece are more inclined to buy something that is labeled "Greek yogurt", rather than "strained yogurt", even though the latter is way more descriptive and accurate.  People are speaking of racism here, but it is not applicable to a lot of ethnic groups in the U.S. who also consume "tortillas", albeit with a different name.  In a similar vein to the Greek yogurt phenomenon, I would ask why and if people might feel more inclined to buy "tortillas" rather than flour wraps?

For me if you want my associations, the first thing for me of tortilla vs wrap debate, is that I'm of part Spanish descent. Anything that isn't an omlette labelled as a tortilla causes a slight nervous twitch for me because I did not grow up with a flat bread being called a tortilla. I am not saying that I think my reaction is fair, this is the legitimate name for the food in parts of the hispanic speaking world, but it will always slightly make me twitch. Childhood instincts say a tortilla is an omlette, particularly one with onion and potato.

After that tortillas makes me think of tortilla chips like Doritos, and only lastly does it make me think of a wrap for food, most likely because that is the order in which I learned the extra definitions of foods called tortilla.

After that, I have to confess the first thing I thought of with this article, was exactly what the article proved true about at least the Mission ones. That a tortilla was going to cost more because when I think of things specifically labelled tortillas they're normally part of kits for making fajitas in the supermarket in the world foods aisles, rather than in the bread aisle with the non branded cheaper stuff, although I couldn't say for sure as I don't examine what it's called as you can see what it is through the packaging in that aisle.

Wraps is also the term used when you go to Nandos, which until I googled it I thought was Mexican but apparently it's a South african community serving Mozambiquan-Portuguese food.

SO all in all for me the associations are a bit confusing if you call something a tortilla. I would say in this context a tortilla gives a sense of the exotic and classy and unusual. But that's a Brit perspective I guess

I think there is a legitimate market for "wraps" for people who have had wraps in a restaurant, would like to make them at home, but have not made the connection (for themselves) between the thing that is around their wrap and a tortilla.  I know a lot people who aren't good at that kind of lateral thinking, sadly. 

honestly, I have the HARDEST time locating wraps OR tortillas at the grocery - sometimes its in "hispanic foods," sometimes its with bread, sometimes its in a weird section all by itself. so i buy whichever ones i find first! 

Remember: "Follow the money. "

With the exception of a food desert, identical foodstuffs (from canned to fresh produce) are less expensive in ethnic markets. This is not an isolated phenomenon with tortillas; check out tofu and naan. The internet is full of helpful hints about significant savings available to the careful shopper who dares to stray from the chain supermarkets.

Imho, the vendor is charging MORE for the wrap, not LESS for the tortilla. Because they can. Because they can take advantage of the unsuspecting consumer- no matter their cultural heritage.

Well, as someone who worked at Taco Bell when they used to serve "steak fajitas" (long before the popularity of fajitas in chains like Applebee's or TGI Friday's) instead of "steak soft tacos" (granted they don't have the sauteed onions and peppers on the current incarnation), I know that there was a big push away from the "f" word because many of the customers couldn't pronounce it correctly.  I would assume that the "wraps" sell better in places like Arizona where there is a pushback against Hispanics...?

Good question. I'd include some consideration of how they're displayed, too. In my grocery store, there's a shelf on the end of an aisle where they all basically end up in a heap. I bought some today, and I honestly can't tell you whether they're labeled as wraps or tortillas. I usually grab the first wheat one I see and run away from the pile that looks like it's about to collapse on me.

Anyway, are the wraps and tortillas sometimes separated? If so, where do they end up? If they're set up together, are they displayed in a way that marks them as alternatives to each other? I know this is more about individual stores' choices than Mission's, but I'd be interested in the answers.

You're going to laugh : in France, burritos, tortillas, wraps and tacos are usually displayed on the same shelf of the supermarket. Also, they're usually sold by the Old El Paso company which, as the name may tell you, sells only Tex-Mex ingredients in flamboyant Tex-Mex packages, complete with cactus and desertic mountains. Their website is here, for those who wish to check : http://www.oldelpaso.fr/produits

Till this day I had to learn the difference between the seemingly traditional stuffings of a wrap and a tortilla.Oh, I *must* remember to take a photo next time I go for groceries.

To complicate things even further, here in Germany we have an identical product being marketed as not two but three different things - the "wrap" (healthy, exotically American), the "tortilla" (exotically Mexican or Tex-Med), and the "Durum" (specific to the large Turkish minority, a very popular wrap used for Durum Doner Kebab, a local adaptation of a dish that traditionally uses Lavash flatbread). Of the three, the "tortilla" is most expensive, and the "Durum" cheapest.

The prices generally relate to sales volume; Durum flies off the shelf in Turkish groceries and has to be sold cheaply to maximize turnover and competitiveness, whereas the preservative-loaded "foreign" foodstuffs can afford to languish in their specialized ethnic aisle of the chain supermarket.

Mission Tortilla is most likely following a similar trend. They're at a competitive disadvantage in Hispanic grocers, who can source cheaper, fresher tortillas without the added expense of brand marketing campaigns, so in the US they must train their focus on mainstream supermarkets, where fewer consumers would consider the tortilla/wrap enough of a dietary staple to be aware of the differences in quality and price. 

A Mexican cook would be the first to tell you that Mission tortillas are doughy, overpriced crap, regardless of what they're called. When competing against smaller, fresher tortillas, their only hope is to be in the same price bracket. However, if your expectations are based on the "wrap" (a food I associate with airport delis and hospital cafeterias more than anything), then chances are you've never been to a tortilleria and don't know what you're missing. And in that case, the rubbery "Wrap" will actually be a better fit for your expectations than a fresh corn tortilla, which falls apart the minute you overload it with fillings and sauces. And with that in mind, you might be more willing to pay a bit extra for it.

Based on all of this, I propose that the cost discrepancy is not a racist ploy to devalue Hispanic Americans (enough of those are out there already) but rather a profitable way to exploit the less tortilla-oriented culinary culture of non-Hispanic Americans. I'd note that, when you're selling the same product in multiple markets, different marketing strategies are a win-win situation.

Wraps generally get soggy and nasty and are almost always disappointing. Burritos, on the other hand? Amazing. If you make it right you don't even need to get a plate dirty.

Could it also be that the simple term 'wrap' as a verb suggests that these can make very easy and quick meals? ... Literally just 'wrap' your food and bam you're done. I agree that they could also appeal to a wider range of people - no connotations of food for a specific culture or cuisine - sounds very accessible to all.

The wraps also appear smaller, wish I could see the weight listed on the wrap package, the tortillas show 20 ounces. Price per ounce is likely even higher than per piece.

Wraps make me think of a salad wrap, or a chicken (and vegetable) wrap.  Healthy.

Tortillas make me think of burritos, tacos, chips etc.  Unhealthy.

People pay more for more healthy things.  Just like the skinny cans of coke -- they cost more per ounce, still have the same per-can cost for recycling, yet they sell because people feel better buying that instead of the less expensive version of the exact same thing.

I don't know a great deal about Mexican food and/or how it is perceived and eaten in the US, but here in the UK we use tortillas for a variety of Mexican-style foods like quesadillas, enchiladas and fajitas. In the US, are tortillas automatically equated with burritos? People only seem to be talking about burritos here. 

75 comments already. I'll say it anyway:
- wraps are seen as classy food
- burritos is mexican food
imho

This is a very funny discussion for me. I'm French so its is even more complicated :) I've seen :
_galette de maïs ("corn pancake", if I should translate) used for the wraps/tortillas, ie just what is shown on the picture
_tortillas used both for the product in the picture and what I guess is called "burrito" in the US, ie the "whole traditionnal Mexican meal", with chicken / beef / beans / spicy sauce / pepper / onion.
_wrap only used for whole sandwichs, usually classical (not seen as "Exotic") with just a product-shown-on-the-picture instead of bread. (For instance, with peas and goat cheese).

I hope it makes sense ?

Anyone ever heard tortillas called "roll-ups?" I encountered this in a chain restaurant in New England & had to ask for clarification.

"You mean, like tortillas?"
"Yeah!" the server replied. "Roll-ups!"

I know that marketing is always trying to come up with new, fun ways to sell products we are familiar with, and perhaps that really is all that's happening with this kind of thing. I'd genuinely like to see it that way. However, I have trouble not seeing it partly as an extension of a larger discomfort with the presence of Mexican culture in our everyday lives. That discomfort can come from a lot of different places besides straight-up racism (for instance, maybe you're just worried about seeming insensitive or foolish when dealing with a culture that is not your own). But the xenophobia is definitely out there, and it only increases, I think, as the majority group feels more threatened -- which seems to be happening now. My mother wasn't allowed to speak Spanish at school, not even on the playground. That wasn't so long ago, and although things have improved so much, I worry we're backsliding in all kinds of ways, large and small.

To me, a wrap is a type of prepared food made using a tortilla as the outside, much like how a sandwich is made with slices of bread. 

"wraps" makes me think of organic food (expensive upper middle class veganism) while "tortillas" makes me think of Mexicans, which are often poor, and stereotyped as having unhealthy food. 

'Wraps' make me think of bad burritos.

This is an easy question, it basically says to most people, "this is white people food".  I've started cooking ethnic food and I notice that some of my roommates will eat when I don't name it, but when I say "I'm cooking Indian food" they won't touch it.  

Yep...

Is this a bad time to point out that the price discrepancy was based on only one data point? In this case, it was the prices at Netgrocer, a fairly unpopular  delivery service. Some "sleuthing," as Lisa put it, would have at the very least entailed collecting a representative sample of prices of these items at supermarkets, where consumers are far likelier to encounter them. We know that small variances in price can occur somewhat arbitrarily at the retail level, beyond the control of manufacturers or the influence of marketing. A 6.75% difference between two apparently identical items counts as a small variance, as compared to the much larger variance in price that often occurs between indistinguishably similar items from different suppliers (100% is in the normal range there). 

We don't actually have enough info here to determine the wholesale price that Mission charged retailers for each item, nor whether the Wraps were invariably costlier at each retailer. And yet we have over 100 comments, many of which are extrapolating racism, cultural biases, consumer naivete, dubious marketing strategies, and broad attitudes toward health, based on one single data point.

On a typical ranting-raving blog site, I'd take this with a grain of salt, but I'd like to think a bunch of professional sociologists would step in and remind us not to take our science hats off just because a single observation appears to confirm a bias or generalization that we already held. Instead, I see them falling in the same trap and baiting their audience with it.

We buy them in the Mexican food isle, but call them wraps.  In part because "wrap" is quicker to write on a smartphone-based shopping list.

So we do have the incongruity of using "wraps" to make burritos.

I buy tortillas because they seem more authentic to me. Not really sure what I'm getting if I buy a "wrap." I know I may be utterly wrong, but marketing is about perception, right?

Wraps are different than tortillas!! Try this for yourself: Try to fill a tortilla wrap style with sandwich fillings and eat it before it disintegrates. Then try the same with a wrap. The difference is in the elasticity, particularly when tortillas are not warmed and pliable. If you want a nice serve of fresh condiments in an off-the-shelf wrap that you can hold and eat, a tortilla will not work.

Now one can get chance to win $500 after taking Taco Bell survey.

According to historians (many of them, but if you need a name Ronald Takaki is just one) the Master Narrative of U.S history for centuries was that the U.S was settled by European Americans and that Americans are white. People of other races, people not of European ancestry, have been pushed to the sidelines of the Master Narrative. Sometimes, they are ignored completely. Sometimes they are merely treated as other, different and inferior. The Master narrative is deeply embedded in our culture.

In Mexico a borrito is considered TO GO food. Traditional your parent or family cooked a meal and if you had to run, you wrapped in a tortilla. So, the concept of a borrito being rice, beans, cheese and meet is WRONG. a borrito historically anything you wanted to put in it.

So if mom was cooking shrimp and salad and you had to run you simply wrapped it all up in a tortilla and off you went. It was only in the U.S that the borrito became a fast-food product. So, Mexican restaurants used rice, beans and cheese as a cheep filler.

This miss conception of what a borrito is reflected the confusion about the wrap and the influence of the the master narrative on the culture of the U.S.

Mexican food seen as unhealthy reflects the master narrative because of the stereotype of what Mexican food consists of but any culinary student of Mexican food will tell you that rice, beans, cheese and a (chicken or beef) that are called antojitos or cravings and NOT an exhaustive list of Mexican dishes.

Mexian tortillas come in a variety of shape and sizes. Take the tortillas of Sonora which a vary large but very thin (follow the link to see images) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/225954106274451979/?lp=true

Calling a borrito a wrap is putting the accomplishments of people that are non-European to the sidelines. Arguing that the wrap is healthier and thinner is ignorant of the fact that in Mexico tortilla come in a variety of choices. Saying that a borrito is just meat, cheese, beans and rice is ignorant of the historic concept of this Mexican fast-food.

After all can a repackage the sandwich? Imagine if someone decided that I sandwich was only limited to putting ham and cheese. So, if i decided to put tuna in between two slices of breed it is now called a squeeze. How about we call it a meet squeeze or peanut butter and jelly squeeze? A sandwich is anything you want to put between two pieces of bread just like the borrito.

A wrap is repacking the borrito to appeal to European-U.S-American since of superiority. After all, if it's healthy and creative and cutting edge it can't be Mexican.

Just read the above comments many people made. Instead of stopping and asking about the history of the borrito many assume that it is a limited concept.
Notice, no one ever questioned limiting the concept of the sandwich to ham and cheese because the sandwich is part of English culture. European-U.S-Americans believe that America was founded by them and that the culture should only reflect their contributions so the borrito must be repacked in their image. Otherwise, they would be incorporating ideas of an a culture they feel is inferior.

You see, part of racism is that European-U.S-Americans are knowledge makers and all others do not have that capacity.

In this way European-U.S-American can say "we invented the healthy wrap and they invented the unhealthy borrito?" "We are better than them."

And the othering continues

Sorry, READ WITHOUT typos.

According to historians (many of them, but if you need a name Ronald Takaki is just one) the Master Narrative of U.S history for centuries was that the U.S was settled by European Americans and that Americans are white. People of other races, people not of European ancestry, have been pushed to the sidelines of the Master Narrative. Sometimes, they are ignored completely. Sometimes they are merely treated as other, different and inferior. The Master narrative is deeply embedded in our culture.

In Mexico a burrito is considered TO GO food. Traditionally your parent or family cooked a meal and if you had to run, you wrapped it in a tortilla. So, the concept of a burrito being rice, beans, cheese and meet is WRONG. a burrito historically is anything you wanted to put in it.

So, if mom was cooking shrimp and salad and you had to run you simply wrapped it all up in a tortilla and off you went. It was only in the U.S that the burrito became a fast-food product. So, Mexican restaurants used rice, beans and cheese as a cheap filler.

This misconception of what a burrito is reflects the confusion about the wrap and the influence of the the master narrative on the culture of the U.S.

Mexican food seen as unhealthy reflects the master narrative because of the stereotype of what Mexican food consists of but any culinary student of Mexican food will tell you that rice, beans, cheese and a a meat (chicken or beef) are called antojitos or cravings and NOT an exhaustive list of Mexican dishes.

Mexican tortillas come in a variety of shape and sizes. Take the tortillas of Sonora which are vary large but very thin (follow the link to see images) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/225954106274451979/?lp=true

Calling a burrito a wrap is putting the accomplishments of people that are non-European to the sidelines. Arguing that the wrap is healthier and thinner is ignorant of the fact that in Mexico tortillas come in a variety of choices. Saying that a burrito is just meat, cheese, beans and rice is ignorant of the historic concept of this Mexican fast-food.

After all can I repackage the sandwich? Imagine if someone decided that I sandwich was only limited to putting ham and cheese between bread. So, if i decided to put tuna between two slices of breed it is now called a squeeze. How about we call it a meet squeeze or peanut butter and jelly squeeze? A sandwich is anything you want to put between two pieces of bread just like the burrito.

A wrap is repacking the burrito to appeal to European-U.S-American since of superiority. After all, if it's healthy and creative and cutting edge it can't be Mexican.

Just read the above comments many people made. Instead of stopping and asking about the history of the burrito many assume that it is a limited concept.
Notice, no one ever questioned limiting the concept of the sandwich to ham and cheese because the sandwich is part of English culture. European-U.S-Americans believe that America was founded by them and that the culture should only reflect their contributions. So the burrito must be repacked in their image. Otherwise, they would be incorporating ideas of an a culture they feel is inferior.

You see, part of racism is that European-U.S-Americans are knowledge makers and all others do not have that capacity.

In this way European-U.S-American can say "we invented the healthy wrap and they invented the unhealthy burrito?" "We are better than them."

And the othering continues

Hello
I am pleased to contact you from My Al Majed Canadian trading company my company working in Canada and I have my partner in Libya ,I wold like to marketing your different Tortilla products in Libya , I hope you send me your dealer price list for these products ,my request is for one container in the beginning and may be it will be two to three containers monthly,I want to work as your distributor there after we advertise the products and everything going well.
Regards
Majed Albaeity
2043901925
Waverley st Winnipeg MB Canada R3Y 0Y1

Just found this page at the supermarket in Australia trying to find out the difference between these very same products, 8 years later :). However the context might be a bit different and Tortilla sounds a lot more exotic than wraps and the wraps seems to be of a bigger size. I didn’t check the cost but I do think the marketing play is a common ploy.

I agree with the views expressed in the article. When i was in London, i used to eat lots of pitta bread, which is also a kind of bigger version of tortilla. I have also brought lots of wraps and tortillas, but had never thought of the actual difference between this two. The best wraps are being served in Taco Bell restaurants. Tellthebell

The article "Marketing Language: Wraps vs. Tortillas" sheds light on the subtle yet powerful influence of language in marketing. As professionals in SEO for gambling websites, we understand the significance of crafting compelling content to attract and engage audiences. This piece underscores the importance of language choice in shaping consumer perceptions and preferences. Just as the article explores the impact of terminology on food consumption, we recognize the role of persuasive language in driving traffic and conversions for online gambling platforms. By optimizing content with strategic keywords and engaging language, we aim to enhance visibility and attract high-quality traffic to our clients' websites.