PepsiCo Puts More Chips in Certain Bags After ‘Shrinkflation’ Outcry

Big Chip has capitulated to the public will, with several brands agreeing to put more product in select bags. CNN reports that, amid complaints about companies charging higher prices for smaller sizes, PepsiCo—which owns Lay’s, Ruffles, Doritos, and Tostitos—will sell “bonus bags” with 20 percent more chips than standard bags, for the same price. It will also add two extra bags to its single-serving variety pack. According to CNN, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta attributed the concession to “football season” during a recent earnings call, but the move also mitigates a recent trend toward “shrinkflation,” through which companies quietly raise the price per unit on familiar items, leading to consumer angst. In short, it's “charging more and more for less and less,” as President Joe Biden put it in this year’s State of the Union address: “The snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer—same size bag—put fewer chips in it.” Well, America noticed, PepsiCo’s snack sales declined (1 percent last quarter, per CNN), and now we get several more chips in certain bags. Democracy is working?

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