Why would anyone buy Lays when Utz exists, is cheaper, and better?
$7 bag?!
Their chips kinda suck ass though
I notice all the brand name chips are $6-8 but the off brands and Walmart brands are like $2-3…
It’s just pure greed, plainly blatant.
Yup quit buying their stuff a while back. Insane prices and less product. Only a clueless idiot would think that would attract customers.
I have so many local brands over here, I don’t worry buying PepsiCo.
Attempts to win back consumers through smaller package sizes and promotional deals went nowhere.
What kind of consumer would be won over by smaller sizes? Savvy consumers know the best deals usually come from the larger sizes, which tend to have a lower price by weight. I don’t even look at the tiny bags. Or are they seriously trying to frame shrinkflation as somehow being for a customer’s benefit?
are they seriously trying to frame shrinkflation as somehow being for a customer’s benefit?
In the age of MBAs, I would bet on that 9 times out of 10.
Yeah they are attempting to frame it that way. Here’d the logic in their muddled heads.
“We’ve increased the price of a 250g pack to £2 and people have stopped buying, so we’ll reduce the price to £1.50”
“Yeah but you reduced the size to 100g”
“But the price !!!” Waves hands confusedly.
“Well, at least you’ll have a side dish to eat shit with”
I used to only buy name brand snacks. I like the consistency, and I can afford it, so I’d spend the extra few cents. And honestly I just didn’t even pay attention to the price.
But $6 for a bag of Cheetos? I can still afford that, but I won’t because fuck them. I’m buying store brand for life now. If they put the price lower than it was before and fire someone for being so disrespectful to their customers, I’ll give them another shot, but that’s not going to happen.
I’ve not yet found a single good store brand here in Estonia.
I have however resorted to eating significantly less of that shit and preferring Taffel (Finnish), Estrella (part of German company Intersnack) or Balsnack (Estonian) when I do.
I enjoy a ball snack once in a while myself.
Can’t even count to ten without kaks teist…
There is a Frito-Lay factory in my home town. It absolutely stinks. At certain times of the year, it’s worse and the odor just lingers in the air.
What is the smell if you don’t mind me asking?
The one near me just kinda smells like a McDonalds, it does mostly potato chips
It’s grease and rotting potato skins, but not like French fries. I haven’t live there in a very long time, but from accounts of friends and family, the smell hasn’t gone away at all.
From all accounts, it’s a pretty fucking terrible place to work too.
I’m a Frito-Lay Factory Worker. I Work 12-Hour Days, 7 Days a Week
Lawsuit alleges culture of racial harassment, discrimination at Topeka Frito-Lay plant
Frito-Lay had workers move the dead body of a coworker and keep working, claims striking employee
Frito-Lay pledges to reduce smell problem around Topeka plant.
The article doesn’t mention it, but at least here in Europe, one big issue is that they changed all their products to be tasteless.
Because of the ‘healthy foods’ grading we have here, they took out a lot of what made their chips tasty. Resulting in very bland products. We personally haven’t bought any of those brands for a few years now because of it. Because I don’t want a ‘healthy’ chip - I want a tasty snack.
It’s definitely noticeable in Dutch supermarkets that many people are ditching those brands because of the lack of taste. And the price increases just accelerate that.
Can you mention specific regulation? I’m not sure what you’re saying is correct
In the Netherlands and a few other countries we have the Nutri-Score
https://www.rivm.nl/en/food-and-nutrition/nutri-score
This ranks a food from A (best) to E (worst) based on how well it fits into the dietary guidelines.
Important thing to note: it’s a ranking that compares foods in that same group. So it’s not ‘vegetables are A, pizza is E’, but rather ‘this Doritos has less salt than this bag of Lay’s’.
Now, this effectively caused companies to make their products blander in order to avoid a worse score. It also happened to save them money - you use fewer ingredients.
End result: chips now appear healthier because they have a better score… while also tasting like cardboard.
And how did that go over with consumers? See article. And you can read numerous complaints about it on social media.
Ironically, this also means that the Nutri-Score sorta works. Why eat chips when they are tasteless? 😂
I bet it will become like the Parental Guidance symbol. People will buy products with a low Nutri-Score because that (for junk food) symbolises quality.
I remember one chef giving the very specific critique that America doesn’t add nearly enough salt to its foods. Seems that’s a very tense cultural thing.
I think that chef might have had a sodium deficiency
Alright, I thought you were saying evil EU laws make our food suck but it’s actually good old corporate decisions to maximize profit. I’m Dutch as well so I know about nutriscore. I don’t see that clear line between an advisory traffic light system on packaging and Lay’s making potato chips worse than they already were. It’s up to Lay’s, don’t blame the nutriscore.
“We’ve spent the past year listening closely to consumers, and they’ve told us they’re feeling the strain,” said Rachel Ferdinando, CEO of PepsiCo Foods U.S. “Lowering the suggested retail price reflects our commitment to help reduce the pressure where we can. Because people shouldn’t have to choose between great taste and staying within their budget.”
Um, you forced them to do that, you tone-deaf son of a bitch.
Because people shouldn’t have to choose between great taste and staying within their budget.
Thankfully that doesn’t apply to PepsiCo, because 90% of their snacks are the most mid shit on that shelf coasting off brand recognition and shelf space. If I want cheap, I get generic; if I want great taste, I get some other brand. If I want somewhere in the middle, I get Utz. If I want medium–high cost for medium–low-quality flavor and texture, I buy a PepsiCo product. And if I want to make the right choice, I don’t get any of those.
The only thing keeping them afloat is pure market penetration- it’s hard to not maintain volume when you’re the only one on the shelf of every mini mart.
that was some salty snack of a roller-coaster.
My favorite chips are store brand. Whatever store. They taste better and are cheaper. This started with Blue Bell BBQ chips. Long gone, but so good.
Great taste? Lol. K.
oh, no! looks like all that greedy shrinkflation blew up in your greedy faces! boohoo!
Every time I get in my hands a bag of 110g Doritos, I simply laugh and put it back.
Oh no poor people are our biggest market. How else will people in food deserts get their calories.
The CEO talks about their products like the McDonalds CEO.
holds bag of Doritos I just want you to know, I will be having this for my snack.
To be fair, it’s more accurate to call chips product
Like if I’m going to pay $9 Canadian for my chips anyway, I might as well buy the locally made brand or other premium chip.
If you’ve found one, do you have any leads on a Canadian brand that makes good All-Dressed chips? I’d definitely pick them on my next trip north.
My rec is Hardbite Chips.
- But honestly try any Canadian product you see available.
Hardbite is the best option in Canada, no contest. The prices are quite fair too given the current market.
I don’t think Old Dutch is a Canadian brand. Their headquarters are in MN.
Oh yeah you may be right. They have a way larger presence here so my impression was it’s Canadian, let me fix that.
Minnesotans are as about as close as you can get to a Canadian so…
My rec is Hardbite Chips.
Awesome! These look like they’re available local to me only a couple miles away here on the wrong side of the border.
