Calories vs. money Mr. Tidbit had been thinking lately that the rush of new 100-calorie products was coming to a well-deserved end: Most of them are hugely overpriced when compared with regular-size boxes or bags of the same product -- and many aren't even the same product, but are, for example, cracker-like versions of the named cookie.
Naturally, Mr. Tidbit was wrong. It seems that the 100-calorie floodgates have opened even wider, as he recently found new 100-calorie versions of snacks from Frito-Lay and General Mills. To preserve everyone's sanity, he will discuss only one of each.
Doritos
At one discount supermarket, a 12-ounce bag of Frito-Lay's Doritos brand tortilla chips is $3 (25 cents an ounce). A five-pack of new 100-calorie bags of Doritos, which contain 0.68 ounces each, is $2.19 (64 cents an ounce) -- an unbelievable 156 percent more per ounce!
OK, the 12-ounce bag isn't convenient for lunch-packing. But Doritos also come in a 12-pack of 1-ounce bags for $3.59 at that store -- that's just 30 cents an ounce. Yes, each 1-ounce bag has 140 calories, not 100. But if that's what this is really about, you could open each 140-calorie bag, throw away 30 percent of the chips and clip or tape it shut, and you'd still be at only 44 cents an ounce.
Chex Mix
If you are familiar with General Mills' various Chex Mixes, you might be interested in Chex 100-calorie packs. (But if you think that Chex 100-calorie Cheddar is just Cheddar Chex Mix in bags smaller than the 8.75-ounce regular bag, you'd be very wrong: They're very different products. For starters, the big bags of regular Cheddar Chex Mix contain pretzels and peanuts; Chex 100-calorie Cheddar bags don't.)
Anyway, the big Chex Mix bag at one discount supermarket is $2.28 (26 cents an ounce). The 4.9-ounce six-pack box of Chex 100-calorie bags is $2.29 (47 cents an ounce) -- 81 percent more per ounce.
