Potato chipsFollow

So, I get a craving for potato chips, and buy a bag of them from the snack vendor.

It was one of the bigger snack size bags, ya know, the ones that are about a foot long and hold (supposedly) 2.75 ounces.

I open the bag... and what do I find? The fricking bag was 3/4 air, 1/4 chips! Why in the world would it be packaged like this? Wouldnt it make more sense to make the bag smaller?

Is this another of lifes greatest mysteries, or a conspiracy theory by the manfuacturer against mankind?


(Yes, marketing ploy, but still... )

Well, in all honesty, no, it isnt. I dont eat chips often though, and when I do, its usually from the bigger bags, like grocery store size. So I dont really notice the "air gap"... it was a tad surprising though to me for the little bag to have so much... air... in it.

Plus I am extremely bored at work and felt the need to post.

^^Or Cow Chips!

Those bags have a lot of air in them to act as a cushion for the chips or something. Otherwise, you wouldn't be getting chips, but a whole bunch of crumbs.

Those bags have a lot of air in them to act as a cushion for the chips or something. Otherwise, you wouldn't be getting chips, but a whole bunch of crumbs.

They just like to tell you that. Last time I checked, Pringles weren't all crumbs. They stack, and other chips would too, if they bothered to mold them a bit. The way that bagged chips are packaged, you get crumbs according to how well they're handled. The bags don't have enough air in them to prevent the chips from being crumbled. I'm sure you've bought a bag of crumbs before, thinking it was chips.


The fact is, the air does act as a cushion....for the vendor's pocketbook. Perceived value has been a big selling point for chip vendors for as long as I've been alive. I can recall at least 2 instances where it was reported that a vendor decreased the amount of chips while increasing the size of the bag and the price.

I always thought the air was due to the packaging, like the chips settle to the bottom. If they tried to force em all to the bottom, they would break so we get a big bag o'factory air.


Pringles dont count cuz thats like one big sold chip.... with too much salt..and they come in big tubes