Why are snack chips getting so expensive? A dollar for a bag of frito lays is ridiculous--- 1.29 is REALLY ridiculous. Some things feel like they should always sell for 69 cents.

@meg9: Well, instead of governments instituting snack food "fat" taxes, the companies are doing this for them through greater-than-inflation price increases.

But then again, an addict will get what an addict wants.

@meg9: I think it's just because people buy them without much thought as to VALUE. A bag of chips from a vending machines are a great example. 1-1/2 ounces of chips for 90 cents. That's $10 a pound for potato chips more or less.

You could eat steak or lobster at that price. Go buy your chips at Big Lots or something; they may be off brands but they're plenty cheap and bursting with your RDA of fat and salt.

Value, value, value. Three words to keep in mind.

I wonder how many people get these still expecting to pay only 99 cents and don't notice that they're being charged $1.29 for them.

Walmart Lays variety packs FTW.

5x Lays Classic

4x Doritos Nacho ,4x ranch

4x Cheetos

5x Fritos
__

$6.24

I used to work at walgreens. This is not a big deal.
The chips will ring up for 99 cents unless this is Hawaii where everything is more expensive.
The manufacture lowered the price and the store did not get around to update tags yet.
The price will still be correct in the computer regardless if they printed out new tags or not.

@qwerty001984: Walgreen's is absolutely horrible about accurate price tags. Everytime I go there for sales items, I have to price check about half of the stuff to see it it's real the sale item at the sale price.

they will still sell for price on bag if prepriced like that no matter what shelf price says

@Dondegroovily:
Walgreens makes the cashiers, photo, and cosmetics do everything in their spare time. So if the store is busy the extra work like replacing tags never gets done.

I worked there for years. It was very rare where the computer rang up the wrong price, but tags were wrong all the time if no one was able to get to replacing them. The larger sale tags that stick on top of the regular price tag were always correct, they had to change those every week for the next weeks sale.

You would think that by now they'd get smart and put electronic tag system of some sort on the shelves.

@qwerty001984:

The manufacture lowered the price and the store did not get around to update tags yet.

So $1.29 may be the new, current price, and those bags in the photo may be old stock that they're trying to sell at the new price. Of course they can't, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next batch of bags to come in have no 99 cent price on them and they sell for $1.29.

Ahhhhah! I finally understand why you cannot buy chips at the movie theater - They are prepriced! If they can't get away with jacking the price up 500% they won't bother

@wcnghj: But the same size bags as the ones in the picture? They're usually smaller sizes (like half ounce bags) in the variety packs.

Hmm... maybe that's a $1.29 surcharge on top of the $0.99.

Just wait until a CEO from the airline industry comes over to retail........

@holytrainwreck: 'Addict'. Ha! Good one!

Do I get devil's horns? Because Consumerist SUCKS. Yep Target invented all pricing errors and its funny to constantly pick on them when I've seen errors at all stores I've been to in my life.

It is also Walgreen's right to price things as they want. They aren't cheating you either, the price is clear as is the MSRP. I've never thought drug stores or convience stores as place to get great deals on groceries minus the few items they advertise on sale.

@qwerty001984: Walgreens makes the cashiers, photo, and cosmetics do everything in their spare time. So if the store is busy the extra work like replacing tags never gets done.

That's a good plan because when customers got sick of the shoddy pricing and disorganized state of the store, business will drop off and the clerks can catch up with their other chores. It's sort of self-leveling. Smart. I guess. Well, if you don't like prosperity.

It doesn't matter what price the tag says, it just matters what price is rang up.

But why do people even bother sending these pictures in, you think that's gonna fix anything, go and tell someone at the store that it's wrong instead of saying it on here.

So they miss a couple tags, out of hundreds or thousands of items, that's less then a 1% mixup.

@qwerty001984: Well, good for them, but then there are going to be customers (like me) who will see the price on the bag, the price on the shelf, and go away in disgust without even bothering to bring it up to the register. Maybe they should stop being lazy and fix it.

A display like that tells me right away that a store is trying to rip me off. The MSRP should be providing the retailer with plenty of profit. If not, they should stop selling chips and find something that will suit their bottom line better.

Is there a convenience food more profitable than chips?

That is nothing.

If you ever get a chance travel through Navajo Nation in Northern Arizona, the typically priced 99 cent Arizona Iced Tea (ironically is not made in Arizona) is sold at $1.90 there.

When I went through there in end of June, the store cashier even stopped to inform me this before scanning items.

@qwerty001984: Nope. They rang in at $1.29. I sent in the picture.

@yevarechecha:
It will scan correctly.
Even if the bags are wrong, the cashier will just modify the price for those that complain even though the price error is not Walgreens fault.

@bennilynn:
If you complained the cashier would have modified the price even though it was not walgreens fault.

@Tian (www.tian.cc): at least he/she told you before the purchase. that's pretty cool and probably because they had many complaints before.

Not a big deal that an THINKING employee could put bags that say .99 cent in front of a shelf tag that clearly says $1.29?? The fact that this was not immediately fixed by the employee or manager is not acceptable.

Eventually you're going to realize that this happens at all stores, not just Target

@qwerty001984: They just put those labels up. That is the correct price, according to the cashier.

@AngryK9: I noticed something along those lines at Kohl's a few years ago in the shoe department. All shoe spaces had a small digital LCD showing the price...found it kind of interesting. Don't know if they still use these or not..it is probably very costly to implement.

@qwerty001984: I once purchased a candybar from Walgreens that said 99c on the package, and it was also a different, higher price on the tag. The 99c price rang up.

@qwerty001984: It bugs me how you keep saying the Walgreens computer is correct. That may be, but the shelf-price is what really counts. I've been charged incorrectly at Walgreens more than any other store by far, and I usually don't notice until I'm out the door and I don't feel like going back for a few dimes.

Walgreens is bad at pricing, and that's not even including the annoying "2 for $1.49, or 1 for $.79" type sales.

Not a big deal? So, we are to just supposed to trust the lowest price is the correct one. Hey, you can be do that, the rest of us aren't that stupid.

Where was this taken? It could be that Walgreens was being nice and including sales tax in the price (rather than requiring you to calculate it yourself).

@mbz32190: Yes, we do still have those digital tags. We also use them for many household electronics, too. It makes things a lot easier. I rarely see any sign problems in the shoe department because of it. Too bad it's not practical to use on other merchandise.

@subsider34: Haha, which state has a 30% sales tax?

I stopped buying snacks ever since the prices went up, remember a few years ago when a bag that size cost 50 cents and the $1 bad was twice as large?

this problem is worst in my college, the $1 bag is nearly $2 in the store inside my college and students still buy it, stupidity drives up cost, if you are willing to pay $1 for the $1 item then they will charge $2

and on top of that, the college charges tax on top of the items price even though the item is not taxable

this goes to show how students don't pay attention in their law classes or businesses classes or economic classes

@scoosdad: The bag size is 1oz.

@witeowl: Well, that's very dramatic and sanctimonious, so A+ comment. But not based in reality.

@LJKelley: There are a lot of state laws that would say otherwise. That's a clearly labeled price, not an MSRP. It sucks for Walgreens, but you usually have to sell an item for the lowest labeled price. They could always label over the 99 cents (in most states) if they really wanted to sell them for more.

@qwerty001984: You're missing my point. It wouldn't scan correctly, because it would never be scanned. Because I wouldn't bring it to the register. Ditto for complaining to the cashier. The transaction simply wouldn't reach that point. I'd get annoyed and not even try to buy it. Maybe I'm some kind of freak and the only customer in the US that does this, but probably not.

COMPLAIN TO THE FRITO LAY DRIVERS THEY ARE THE ONES WHO STOCK THE CHIPS SHELVES. THEY DON'T INFORM US IF THEY HAVE SPECIAL PRICED ITEMS,WHICH AFTER LOOKING IN MY COMPUTER JUST NOW SEE THAT THESE ARE PROMOTIONAL VERSIONS OF THE REGULAR BAGS, THE OP SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR A PRICE ADJUST WHICH WALGREENS IS EXTREMELY LIBERAL ON, THE POLICY IS IF AN OLD OR OUT OF DATE TAG IS HANGING IN THE SPOT YOU GET IT AT THAT PRICE.

@notlupus:

oops sorry caps lock on didn't mean to "yell":

I love all of the Walgreens hate in this thread....boo hoo someone hadn't put a special tag on an obvious special promotion. boo hoo, I wasn't smart enough to ask for a refund or price adjust, even though walgreens has an extremely liberal price adjustment policy, and if I still had my receipt, or even went back and explained the situation to the manager in a civil manner, I could still get them to price adjust for the difference.

Jesus, people first you bitch out the cashiers when the price of the chips go up from 99 cents to 1.29 now your bitching because Frito Lay is having a special promotion, the 99 cents bags are a different UPC # in the system I just checked, and we don't waste time and supplies to put a special tag on it. The OP probably grabbed a normal bag with different UPC that was mixed in, in which case its still their fault because they should have caught the cashier on it, but the store should refund the difference if asked.

@notlupus: You're a very angry person.

I took the picture. The price listed on those chips was $1.29. The tag, which didn't come out clearly because I used my cellphone camera, indicates that the price is for the product indicated. In fact, it wasn't just the Cheetos. All the $0.99 products were listed as $1.29.

Upon taking my Cheetos to the cashier (because I do so love Cheetos), they rang up $1.29. I paid $1.29 with minimum fuss, because, yum. Cheetos. The cashier expressed some dismay over the fact that they'd raised the price, even though the bag said 99 cents. I wasn't the first person to notice the discrepancy. What the plan was to do about it, nobody knew.

Relax, friend. Go have some tea and take a deep breath. It'll be ok, I promise.

@Radi0logy: A company like Frito-Lay makes many different packaging variants, and in some cases that would mean identical sizes with and without prepriced cost. The theater would simply have the blank ones.

The real reason they don't sell chips is that the profit margin on popcorn is far higher than they could ever make on chips, and most people would rather have it anyway at the theater. Once you smell that hot fresh stuff, you got to have it.

@catastrophegirl: That is definitely the case, especially when the price of "99 Cents" is clearly printed on the can.

@notlupus: How could you not notice your capslock was on for a post that long?

@wcnghj: Yeah.. but Ranch Doritos are nasty..

Thankfully, I found a variety pack at Sams that doesn't come with those.

@Razor512: Or language arts.