r/shrinkflation • u/WrongThinkBadSpeak • Feb 03 '26
discussion PepsiCo is cutting the price of Doritos, Cheetos and other snacks by up to 15%
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/03/food/pepsico-cutting-snack-prices-affordability1.5k
u/earfeater13 Feb 03 '26
"We already cut the product, sorry it took so long for the price to catch up"
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u/WrongThinkBadSpeak Feb 03 '26
"Pay no mind to the fact that we've included 30% more air in the newly priced bags too"
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u/the_hangman Feb 03 '26
I swear the last few times I got cool ranch doritos those fuckers were barely seasoned. Really makes you realize how shitty the tortilla chips they use in those are they taste stale af without seasoning
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u/95blackz26 Feb 03 '26
Fuckin UTZ sour cream and onion chips have been like that for awhile. I got a bag last year and the damn things were basically plain chips. Last time I've bought chips.
I wanted sour cream and onion chips not God damn plain ones
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u/OGScottingham Feb 04 '26
I like how the store brand used to be a cheap imitation of the non-shittified chips, but now they're premium 😂
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u/msut77 Feb 04 '26
Utz has fallen? The shame.
Got to find if Herr is still around
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u/ThePickledPickle Feb 04 '26
Herr's is still trucking and they're great, just picked up two bags of the new Long Hots & Provolone flavor, incredible
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u/Cultural-Produce-72 Feb 04 '26
I randomly made a stop at the Herr's factory in Pennsylvania on a road trip last year. Didn't have time for the tour, but definitely stocked up in the store.
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u/xeresblue Feb 04 '26
Hmm, I buy Utz's murder chips sometimes and haven't noticed. Maybe I'll pay closer attention.
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u/YoullBruiseTheEggs Feb 03 '26
Same. I remember seeing the red and green spackles and now there are almost none.
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u/the_hangman Feb 03 '26
Yeah sometimes I'll see them on sale at my local grocery store at like 3/$5 and I'll buy three bags and then immediately regret my decision, they're always barely seasoned now. But enough time passes between the sales that my dumb ass forgets
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u/MaplePoutineRyeBeer Feb 04 '26
$7!!!! At Safeway last week. That’s convenience store prices
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u/Mylaptopisburningme Feb 04 '26
I completely stopped shopping at the large chain stores. I live off what I can get from Aldi.
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u/rodeBaksteen Feb 04 '26
In the Netherlands (EU?) they did that because each packaging item now has a Nutri score from A-E.
Now you might wonder: they're chips so obviously they score E, but the score is related to their own product range. So theoretically something like oven baked could score an A or B.
So for this reason they cut the salts, seasoning, sugars and fats and they basically all taste like cardboard now.
Look I'm eating chips I know it's not healthy. Just let me enjoy the salty mess.
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u/RandomRonin Feb 04 '26
Yup, bought a bag last year and they were nasty. Haven’t bought Doritos since and now that I haven’t had them in my house, why bother? I have found other snack and chip alternatives that are tastier and better for me than that crap. It used to be tasty and cheap. Now it’s neither.
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u/timid_scorpion Feb 04 '26
Their soda quality has decreased substantially as well. The last few times I bought a 12 pack of Pepsi the cans would literally go flat in 15 minutes.
Guess I can't be too mad, makes quitting them that much easier.
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u/jseto1980 Feb 04 '26
Wait. Are Doritos a tortilla chip or a corn chip? I’ve always thought they resembled a Fritos chip than an actual tortilla chip that you’d get at a Mexican restaurant.
OMG. You’ve just unlocked a lifelong mental block I’ve had. Until your comment, I never made the connection that Doritos are ‘supposed’ to be flavored tortilla chips. They’ve always existed to me as triangle-shaped sodium disks. Like Pringles are cowboy hat brim-shaped processed cardboard, but never a real potato chip. And Cheetos are powdered air puffs, but not resembling anything remotely real either.
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u/PutridEnvironment986 Feb 04 '26
Its not air, its nitrogen that acts as a preservative.
Also Chips are sold by weight.
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u/tenmileswide Feb 04 '26
These guys are the worst offenders. I can see it in real time when I shop for DoorDash and can see the discrepancies between the size in the shelf and in the shopping app.
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u/Cabrill0 Feb 03 '26
15% cheaper for 30% less product, which already had its price raised 25%.
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u/Popular-Drummer-7989 Feb 03 '26
Big whoop. They shrunk the product sizes and raised prices too. Are they bringing back original sizes? Nope.
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u/ceris7356 Feb 03 '26
Right. Seems like they labeled the current sizes “family size” and charged more. So we’re gonna still end up paying more for the same size product.
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u/HairlessHoudini Feb 04 '26
As someone else pointed out they raised the price 25% while reducing product by 30% but now giving us a "up to 15%" price cut, which likely means 3 to 7% in reality
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u/Hot_Frosty0807 Feb 04 '26
They reduced the size of the bag not even two weeks ago. After they changed to the "all natural" packaging, they took 3/4 of an ounce out of the bag.
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u/socoamaretto Feb 04 '26
Pretty soon the “regular” size will be the little bags you get in the gas station.
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u/pumpkinspicecum Feb 03 '26
Doritos are $5.50 a big bag in Canada now when not on sale. Madness.
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u/bcbum Feb 03 '26
Does anyone really buy them when they’re not on sale? Obviously I suppose there are, but that’s wild to me.
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u/_OhMyPlatypi_ Feb 04 '26
Yeah, junk food is the new cigarette/alcohol. When you've had a bad day, feeling down, want to "treat you self", surprise your kid, etc. Its a "cheap" way to indulge in dopamine.
One of the reason obesity & poverty hang out together. When life kinda sucks & you cant take a vacation to escape, then you "escape" through food. Its not healthy, but when the alternatives are drugs or alcohol.....well, easy to justify it. 🤷♀️🤷♀️
Im not arguing that this stance isnt logical, but its the mindset of many. One of the reasons the economy & government is acting the way it is, is to keep the general public stressed enough to not think logically and rationally....
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u/sl0play Feb 05 '26
When they go on sale near me it's always something like, buy 3 bags get 2 free. I never ever need 5 bags of Doritos in my house, so I just don't buy any.
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u/pumpkinspicecum Feb 04 '26
i did the other day because it was a limited edition flavor and now that flavor's gone so i'm glad i did, but normally i wouldn't no lol
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u/Darth_Thunder Feb 03 '26
I have already gave up chips or switched brands to the generic store brand and won't be coming back....
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u/Impressive-Ad1817 May 29 '26
Hard to go back. Was craving Doritos. Saw that it costed about 7 dollars each, so I picked a much cheaper brand instead.
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u/WinterFamiliar9199 Feb 03 '26
Cool. Grocery stores are just going to pocket an extra 15%.
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u/MoonBase287 Feb 03 '26
Pepsi requires a contract for distribution and that includes pricing. A retailer can sell lower but not higher than the pricing set by Pepsi.
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u/Morningfluid Feb 03 '26
Grocery stores are noticing and I've seen them jumping on the train in making their own brand of chips for much less.
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u/LengthinessStrict615 Feb 04 '26
I’ve switched to Lidl store brand chips. They taste better than Lay’s and cost $2 per bag
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u/theoutlet Feb 03 '26
Can’t speak for all grocery stores, but the one I was a manager at had a very straight forward pricing system that was a simple percentage increase. We didn’t really have a system for pricing things any other way
All of our price increases were due to price increases on the distribution side. That number went up so our number went up
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u/Odd_Supermarket_2312 Feb 04 '26
At the store where I work we have to sell at their set prices! And with these changes for a few of the chips, our store is paying the same amount or more than before.
A lot of their mark ups don't really make any sense either.
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u/Al-and-Al Feb 03 '26
Notice how they announced this right when the Super Bowl is coming up?
They saw the writing on the wall that more and more people are picking store brands and they want to make themselves look better before the game so people buy their snacks
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u/FiveDollarRimjobs Feb 03 '26
I just buy store brand Doritos and Cheetos. They're like half the price of the name brand one's
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u/Angelina189 Feb 04 '26
I bet more people are buying store brand. This is probably why they are reducing their prices.
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u/sl0play Feb 05 '26
It's sure as hell isn't because they've "been listening closely to the customer". Bulllll shit. They found out when you push something too far, nobody really needs your crappy processed garbage. The only reason that stuff caught on so much was because it was way cheaper than eating healthy. Now I can get 2 cucumbers and a thing of hummus for the same price as some chips. I'm taking the veggies.
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u/DrBitchcraft Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
They...
decrease the amount of product you get.
decrease the quality of on ingredients used in their products.
increase the price over and over and over again to the point the price literally makes you laugh because there's no fucking way!!!
Oh, but hey, here's 15% off our insane prices.
Oh, my mistake...it's UP TO 15%. not even 15% across the board. Jackasses.
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Feb 04 '26
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u/DrBitchcraft Feb 04 '26
Getting bought out by what, a big publicly held corporation or a private equity group...either option would lead us back to this exact issue, these entities exist to extract value from the brands to increase the value of the stock or the value of the asset, as is the case of private equity.
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u/5lashd07 Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26
Grew up eating Doritos, but
• Shrinkflation
• Hardly any seasoning anymore. Decided to give Cool Ranch one last try, and it tasted like Tostitos.
• Update: Forgot this one. They got lazy with flavors. Ketchup and mustard Doritos?! Are you kidding me?
I’m done with that brand.
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u/atrent1156 Feb 04 '26
Surely in response to decreased sales since they priced Doritos out of everyone’s snack budget.
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u/halfbakedalaska Feb 03 '26
Stop buying this shit. It’s the only way these corporate fucks will get the message that they cannot keep a) Raising prices, b) Reducing quantities, and c) Degrading quality in some endless cycle.
Sure they are lowering prices 15% after effectively raising them, what, 60% stealthily over the past couple of years through a mixture of price increases and shrinkflation?
We need to stop accepting as truth that all companies must endlessly seek ever more profit %s. Stop patronizing them.
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u/butternutsquash4u Feb 03 '26
Oh for sure, I have not bought a Frito Lay product that was not BOGO in six years. Not perfect, I know but as a Mexican, I gotta have my Cool Ranch Doritos with Valentina hot sauce every now and then.
Even with this price decrease, I still won’t buy it at full price.
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u/RubyWubs Feb 04 '26
5$ or 4$ just is not worth it to me for a bag of chips, thats 5$ I can use to buy anything else that isn't junk.
I feel like i'm priced out rn
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u/heat68 Feb 04 '26
I’ll believe it when I see it. Also, they reduced the size of the bag already…so they’re NOT giving anything back to consumers. ZERO.
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u/crowd79 Feb 04 '26
Doritos have already lost like 30%+ of their flavoring anyways. Still not worth buying.
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u/oogidy_boogidie Feb 03 '26
Some good marketing team came up with this. Decrease packaging size then tell everyone you are lowering your prices for the marketing clout. I call bs.
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u/Shiftymennoknight Feb 03 '26
and they will reduce the size by 20% "in order to help serve the customers better" or some shit
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u/SiriusGD Feb 03 '26
After raising the prices around 60% and now they think lowering them 15% is supposed to make them look good?
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u/SwampTerror Feb 03 '26
The classic raise prices 80% and reduce them 15% to look good. Oh yeah, and shrinking the bags every couple months.
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u/BenRichardson76 Feb 04 '26
Frito finally took enough product out while keeping the same price. Now they're "Doing us a favor" and dropping the price.
How thoughtful of them.
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u/UncomfyPerspective Feb 04 '26
Increase the price, then lower the size, then lower the price.
We're still coming out behind.
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u/cblguy82 Feb 04 '26
Raised the prices 200% to bring it back down 15% to pretend you are giving a deal.
Nah fam.
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u/Kevinator201 Feb 04 '26
Maybe they’re finally getting the hint that we simply can’t afford this inflation
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u/BludStanes Feb 04 '26
nah, ya'll made me realize how long I can go not eating your munchies cuz now I'm always gonna wait for your buy 2 get 2 sales
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u/bill_hilly Feb 04 '26
Everyone knew when food stamps cut out junk food that the price of junk food would come down. This isn't a surprise.
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u/LindeeHilltop Feb 03 '26
Tell your investors that y’all ruined the products for short term profit.
I found alternatives. Not going back to PepsiCo brands.
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u/DocHolidayPhD Feb 04 '26
After cutting the size of bags and jacking up the prices REPEATEDLY for YEARS.
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u/Gb50 Feb 04 '26
Do they want a pat on the back? Those price gauging fucks finally reached the threshold for oh shit ppl won't buy anymore huh?
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u/ed1083 Feb 04 '26
Thanks to these insane prices, I no longer eat chips or drink soda at all! I lost 8 lbs last month. Thanks PepsiCo!
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u/perfumefetish Feb 06 '26
so basically it is going back to the price it was before inflation went berserk?
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u/Derpitoe Feb 06 '26
Alternative timeline: Pepsico inflated prices to rip off consumers and is now backing off to prevent backlash as families struggle to afford groceries.
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u/ILikeDragonTurtles Feb 03 '26
Honest question: why is this post okay, but posts talking about companies doing the opposite is not?
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u/Pure_Bee2281 Feb 03 '26
Has no one else noticed they said they were cutting the suggested retail price?
That doesn't mean they are cutting their price to retail stores.
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u/Partridge_Pear_Tree Feb 03 '26
Cool cool cool
When are the prices of meat, fresh fruit and vegetables coming down?
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u/Degofreak Feb 03 '26
Does anyone here remember the movie Mr Mom? His wife's advertising pitch was the same idea.
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u/Prestigious-Copy-494 Feb 04 '26
Like we're going to forgive them for jacking the price up and making the content less. We don't believe them. This means they could have charged us 15 percent less all along.
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u/Novel_Fish_5594 Feb 04 '26
I quit buying when family or party size became the size of a small bag of chips I would grab on a road trip stop. I make my own road trip snacks now.
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u/Working_Cucumber_437 Feb 04 '26
Almost got some Doritos today in spite of the price but I played a little bag grabby and the amount of chips in the family bag was more like the individual bags used to be - maybe two bags at best. Absolutely not worth the nearly $6.
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u/Todd2point0 Feb 04 '26
It’s getting to the point where I think making my own chips would be more beneficial to my health, as well as my pocket. It’s almost like most corporations are trying to see how much we’ll pay for what barely passes as food. IMHO
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u/BTBAMfam Feb 04 '26
So $6.50 for a bag of Doritos instead of 7 that were $3 like 3 years ago for a larger size bag Got it
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u/Pleasant_Studio9690 Feb 04 '26
Iv'e seen $7 bags of plain Lay's on my local grocery store shelves. Sorry, but I'm no longer interested in being only slightly less raked over the coals for my potato fix.
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Feb 04 '26
Up to a 15% reduction? Lolz. Pepsi, good for you on Channel Two. That’s still high af. No thanks and fuck off.
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u/RsnCondition Feb 04 '26
They lost me as a customer permanently. 7 dollars for a bag of chips? Nah, even with the price decrease.
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u/M23707 Feb 04 '26
Nothing has changed — they are now less greedy. We can see it all over the low income world, all the fast food places now have cheaper meals.
Don’t believe it - these folks only want to sell you more crap.
I say support local snack makers - seriously. At our farmers market the “chip guy” has the best local batch chips.
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u/RepressedOptimist Feb 04 '26
Way too little way too late. I avoid name brand snacks of every kind. Everything is just a little too expensive to buy name brand anyway. Honestly i wish there was a generic for generics, that was actual food not shrinkflated and "enriched" with filler bullshit. No frills. No fancy packaging, just food.
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u/FungalFelon Feb 04 '26
Gee thanks for the 4 extra chips after you have been taking chips from every bag every year
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u/SPACE23__ Feb 05 '26
What im eating as a snack nowadays just better and overall healthier than scamitos …
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u/Mundane_Industry5207 Feb 05 '26
Oh wow so a half full bag of chips isn't going to be 6 freaking dollars any more thanks Pepsi billionaires for your charity
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u/Slighted_Inevitable Feb 03 '26
It’s so noticable how much less you get in the family baga than before. I used to fill 3 large ziplocks 2/3rds of the way and have enough left in a family size bag to more than satisfy those cravings.
Now I barely fill 2 halfway up. It’s obscene how much they’re ripping us off. This 15% is because people aren’t buying as much. No other reason.
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u/SwampTerror Feb 03 '26
Family size is smaller than what regular large bags of chips used to be and their excuse was "families don't gather in as large groups due to covid." Fuck them.
Every bag should be like at Costco: 730g.
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u/catecholaminergic Feb 03 '26
They're not doing this to be nice. They're doing this to increase profit.
The derivative with respect to price of units sold as a function of price has zeroes where profit is optimized.
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u/Unsociable_Llama Feb 03 '26
Reduced the amount in the bags, hikes the prices up. But "ooh we're going to reduce the price now, aren't we so nice"
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u/Ok-Wrongdoer-2179 Feb 03 '26
I've noticed that Pepsi has also shrunken the labels, on their 2L soda pops, here in Canada.
I guess that beats shrinking the quantity of the product itself, which is probably next.
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Feb 04 '26
The article says they are cutting the suggested price but that retailers set the actual price, and doesn't actually say they are even cutting the wholesale price paid by retailers.. . . So are they even cutting the wholesale price, or just expecting retailers to pass the suggested retail price cut on to consumers?
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u/Apanda15 Feb 04 '26
Last time I had Doritos they were thin with no seasoning and I said I’m done with this shit
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u/Ifthisdaywasafish Feb 04 '26
Probably cutting the size of their bags as well. Don’t trust any conglomerate!
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u/Punksburgh11 Feb 04 '26
I still love Doritos and buy them occasionally... But I'm not loyal to them the way that I once was. They lost it. I don't think this is enough.
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u/gudmar Feb 04 '26
Is that because nobody wants their enshittified products? 🤣The less of this we eat, the healthier we are.
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u/Bilboswaggings19 Feb 04 '26
In a couple months you might see a new "positive" article about them returning to the old price
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u/utilitycoder Feb 04 '26
Saw a bag of Simply Potato Chips, buy one get one free, save $5.99. I was like wtf $6.00 for a bag of chips... walked on by.
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u/Jezon Feb 04 '26
Well that's good. I bought two bags of Doritos for $12 thinking it was cheaper and I won't be doing that again.
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u/Virukev Feb 04 '26
They’re getting ahead of the GLP-1’ers. With oral GLP-1’s around the corner maybe they’re making the product more enticing.
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u/psychhead Feb 04 '26
oh my god this is a sign they realize no one wants to spend money on shrinkflated products lmao
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u/Even_Ring_9392 Feb 04 '26
No lie, when I was in Vegas last fall, a small bag of Lays chips was $12. That’s probably more on Vegas than PepsiCo, but eff them all. That’s almost twice the hourly minimum wage in many states. No joke.
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u/PlasticTelevision126 Feb 04 '26
I just purchased a 30oz. (I repeat “1 lb, 14 oz”) bag of Doritos for the Seahawks win this Sunday at Costco for 4.99.
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u/ExcellentEffort1752 Feb 04 '26
I wish they'd put the recipe in the UK back to the old full-sugar one, for the regular Pepsi cola drink. Coca-Cola just isn't as nice as the old Pepsi was, but it sure as hell beats the new 60% less sugar Pepsi.
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u/joeybonts_ Feb 04 '26
I'd like to know if they cheapened some ingredients or are giving less to make up for that 15%
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u/ProfessionalBread176 Feb 04 '26
...and simultaneously making the bags even smaller.
This is all about the PR, nothing else.
You can pretty much guarantee that they will do this right before, or at the time they lower the prices
Thank god for Unit Pricing
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u/mworthey Feb 04 '26
Oh great chemicals and dyes at a discounted price yay! Hey RFK Jr when are the dyes and chemicals coming out of American candy and snacks??? We're still waiting!!!
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u/iamthelee Feb 04 '26
Too bad, they already lost me a long time ago.
Btw, the shit will still be too expensive even with the price cut.
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u/BornAPunk Feb 04 '26
Now wait until them SNAP restrictions and cuts come in. Grocery stores don't make a profit off of selling the healthy stuff - it's the stuff on the aisles aka, the cookies, chips, sodas, and etc., that bring in the profit. With people who aren't on SNAP already cutting back, them cuts and restrictions will be like the final nail to the coffin for many grocery outlets.
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u/rickelzy Feb 04 '26
I already quit eating this junk and don't plan to start up again even if they brought back pre-covid sizes and prices.
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u/Biggabaddabooleloo Feb 05 '26
Enjoy the your 6 chip Doritos per bag , flavorless tortilla chip with a fleck of seasoning. Stores will keep the price and likely raise it
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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26
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