Why does PepsiCo’s (PEP) Frito-Lay feel it is ok to sell consumers air with their purchase? The Frito-Lay isn’t selling air, but yet every bag you buy, every bag you open, the first thing that happens when you open the bag, is all the air lets out and your chips or snacks are in the bottom maybe only filling have the bag.
One would think if the company were going to just fill it with air, why not make the bags smaller? Well, that’s not really what’s going on. The sealed air in the chip and snack bags is actually kind of a cushion for the chips. If the bag was filled to the brim, by the time the end consumer bought it and opened it, all the chips would just be crumbs. The air in the bags help keep the chips or snacks from getting completely broken during transportation. Consumers may or may not like that answer, but they’d be less pleased with a bag full of chip crumbs, so the unsatisfying answer will have to do.
One chip that seem to have mastered the packing and transportation problem has always been a Kellogg's (K) brand, Pringles . The cylinder-shaped packaging allows for maximum chips in a small container, with little room for air.
Frito-Lay North America
New Size, Same Great Taste
"They say great things come in small packages and consumers will see how true that statement really is when they try the brand-new Frito-Lay Minis," Stacy Taffet, senior vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay North America, said on Nov. 1 in a company statement. "There aren't many canister options out there, so we're bringing more variety and flavor to the snack aisle with this new product line, helping our fans enjoy their favorite snacks from Doritos, Cheetos and SunChips in a fun and shareable way."
The snacks now coming in bite size are Doritos Nacho Cheese, Doritos Cool Ranch, Cheetos Cheddar, Cheetos Flamin Hot, SunChips Harvest Cheddar and SunChips Garden Salsa.
New Shape, New Size, New Possibilities
The smaller version of these snacks may seem oddly familiar. If it does, it's because in the early 2000's Frito-Lay had mini-Doritos and Mini Cheetos, although the packaging is quite different now. The canister with the lid is a bigger package than what Frito-Lay offered before, so more mini chips will be in the canister.
The cylinder snack canister travels well, as it fits in a majority of car cup holders and can be reused for lots of other projects. The snack bags are not recyclable, and the canisters are not 100% recyclable, but they are reusable, if Frito-Lay follows the same packaging as Pringles that is.
While Pringles invented the best packaging, it was the inventor of the cylinder-shaped chip package that decided to take it to the next level. Frederic Baur was an organic chemist, a Navy aviation physiologist and the inventor of the Pringles canister. Baur was so proud of his chip canister that when he died, he had requested that his ashes be placed in nothing other than a Pringles canister. His family thought it was a joke, but when he died, his family honored his wish.
