Houston is giving international travelers one last taste of America’s ranch obsession. Yes…ranch dressing.
Now, Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport is feeding into the craze with a solution: Just buy it after you clear security.
In a viral TikTok posted by @alex.anywherebuthome Tuesday, a display outside City Point in Terminal A is stacked with World Cup shirts, scarves soccer balls and several bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch.
“You have spoken and we listened! Ranch dressing sold in stores for the remainder of the World Cup,” a sign on the display reads.
And it’s not just for show. The video shows bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch throughout the store, shelved alongside World Cup mugs, hats and other tournament merchandise.
IAH isn’t the only airport carrying the ranch dressing brand for World Cup fans.
After TSA’s post poking fun at tourists traveling with ranch dressing, Paradies Lagardère, which operates airport retailers, announced that some shops in Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport would also be carrying full-size Hidden Valley ranch bottles for a limited time.
“While ranch isn’t an official retail category for us, we’re always looking for ways to meet customer demand and have a little fun with global events like this,” Justin Marlett, the company’s director of strategic marketing, reportedly told Business Insider. Marlett said the idea came after the company noticed ranch dressing was becoming an unlikely obsession among World Cup fans.
One of the most viral posts about the ranch fandom came from a Swedish tourist who hyped it up after a visit to an Indiana diner, posting “Why did no one tell me ranch sauce is like crack? EUROPE WE NEED RANCH ASAP.”
In another (much lengthier) viral X post, another user wrote “USA. There is a white sauce here that the people pour upon everything, with the devotion of a sacred rite. I have become a believer…So tell me, America. You call it ranch. A condiment. A thing on the side. I call it the one sauce a whole nation agreed to love together—and I dip, with all of you, gladly.”
Paradies Lagardère’s post didn’t say how long Hidden Valley Ranch bottles would be sold at the major metro airports, but did say that “Once they’re gone, they’re gone!”