$7 chips: PepsiCo’s price hikes backfire, dragging down sales.
Photo Illustration: Margeaux Walter/Bloomberg
Consumer
Doritos at $7 a Bag Ended Up Costing PepsiCo Billions
Frito-Lay’s resistance to cutting snack prices led to its first revenue decline in over a decade.
PepsiCo Inc.’s chips prices had gotten too high. Walmart Inc. had been telling the maker of Doritos, Lay’s, Cheetos and many other beloved snacks that was the case for more than a year.
Executives at PepsiCo knew it, too. Sales at Frito-Lay, the company’s snacks powerhouse, were plunging. Some of its chips cost more than $7 a bag; at Walmart, Doritos prices had jumped nearly 50% from 2021, according to Attain, which tracks consumer spending data.