Kelley's Korner in Santa Barbara was the first store to sell the packaged mix. The packages sold out so fast that Lloyd Kelley, store owner, thought his staff was stealing it. Within no time, Hidden Valley Ranch became transformed into a salad dressing center.

The name Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing was originally trademarked by Henson. Henson's trademark has since expired, but Hidden Valley (#1307312, reg 1984), owned by Clorox, continues.

The Hidden Valley “dude” Ranch was sold in the early 1970s. By October of 1973, Henson sold the brand and product to Clorox for $8 million.

The change of ownership changed the prepackaged mix. It was relatively popular even though consumers had to go out and buy buttermilk to add to the mix, but Clorox decided to make it easier. They re-evaluated the mix by adding buttermilk flavoring, so regular milk could be used instead of buttermilk.

The dressing really took off in 1983, when, despite high dairy content, Clorox came up with a shelf-stable bottled version that was good for up to 150 days.

In the late 1980s, Ranch started to appear as a dip and in 1992 Ranch overtook Italian as America's most popular salad dressing.