Frito-Lay Just Launched Miniature Versions Of Your Favorite Snacks
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In 1932, C.E. Doolin began producing Fritos in his mother's kitchen in San Antonio, Texas. As if those humble beginnings aren't obvious enough, it might also surprise you to learn that he started selling the popular chips out of his Ford Model T. While Doolin was busy building the foundations of his chip empire, Herman W. Lay started a snack food delivery company approximately 1,000 miles away in Nashville, Tennessee.
Although the two did not know each other at the time, it wouldn't take long for their paths to cross, and when they did, the two would make history. In 1961, the two companies merged and became the familiar Frito-Lay company.
90 years since the two companies were founded, Frito-Lay still sticks to an old-fashioned recipe for its main brand of chips. In fact, it will probably surprise some readers to learn that there are fewer ingredients in Fritos than you might think. But the company has also branched out over the past nine decades. In addition to its classic curly-cue corn chips, it now includes nearly 30 additional brands, including Funyuns, Smartfood popcorn, and Stacy's pita chips (via Frito-Lay).
Starting this fall, Frito-Lay will be taking a shrink ray to three of those iconic brands.
Mini chips coming soon
Frito-Lay will soon begin offering miniature versions of some of their most popular snacks: Doritos, Cheetos, and SunChips (via Twitter). These tiny chips will come in two of each brand's most popular flavors: Cool Ranch and Nacho Cheese Doritos, Regular and Flamin' Hot Cheetos, and Harvest Cheddar and Garden Salsa SunChips.
Some skeptical customers could understandably wonder if this is an example of shrinkflation's impact on packaging at work. However, we're pretty sure these new offerings are just tiny and cute, not evidence of inflationary pricing techniques. All brands promise to deliver all the flavor of the original at a fraction of the size. The new miniature snacks are available at Target, among other retailers. Currently, the two offerings of Doritos are selling for a cost of $2.79 per 5.12-oz canister. Similarly, Target will sell 3.63-oz Hot Cheetos canisters for the same price. For help identifying where you can get your hands on the tiny products, check out Frito-Lay Minis' official website.
Luckily, the diminutive Doritos and other snacks will be available in easy, reclosable tubes like a Pringles container with a snap-top lid, making them great for snacking on the go. This is not the first release of mini Doritos, which have previously been offered as a Halloween hand-out for Trick-or-Treaters in mini bags (per Reddit & BJs). And for something like a Dorito or a Cheeto, where the flavor comes largely from the coating and not from the chip itself, the smaller size may actually mean more flavor as the coating-to-chip ratio increases. We'll just have to try it and find out.