Potato Chip Bag Size Comparison

Today I wanted to write about something a little different. Comparing the bag sizes internationally. I personally prefer to buy bags in the individual or 2 serving sized bags because if it's a flavor I don't like, then I don't feel bad throwing away a huge bag. And even if I do like it, many times the bag is just too big for me and will go stale before I finish it. But, I know chip addicts can demolish bags, so I know that my preference isn't the norm. Still, buying the small bags make them easier for me to sample and import. For that reason, I thought I would show you some different size bags from different countries, these bags are all considered personal sized bags, but are all different dimensions. Check it out...

Here we've got a 34.5g bag of "Walkers Salt & Vinegar" from the UK alongside 3 25g bags: "Lay's Arabia French Cheese","Chili", and "Salt", followed by another "Walkers" bag.  The US "99 cent" bag is ~42.5g and bigger than the Walkers bag. The US mini bags that come in the variety pack boxes are about 28g. I would say that the 3 Lay's Arabia bags are the same size packaging as the US mini bags, they just have a few less chips inside. However the Walkers bag is shorter and narrower compared to the US equivalent. And while here we can hit up a sandwich shop and get around 43g of chips with our sandwich, in the UK, sandwich shops only offer the smaller ~34g bags.

Then we have Israel's 40g "Tapuchips", Mexico's 40g "Sabritas", UK's 32.5g "Walkers", and the Emirates 25g "Lay's Arabia" chips. The American 42.5g equivalent would fall right between "Tapuchips" and "Sabritas" here. Those two bags match the height of the US bags but the Israeli bag is much wider and the Mexican bag is much narrower. It's interesting that the Sabritas are actually narrower than the Walker's bag.

The last bags I want to talk about come from "Lay's Thailand", while the bags are big and match up with some of the above sizes, they are lighter. The larger gold "Hot Chili Squid" is 80g and much larger than the Israeli "Tapuchips" in the photo above (Tapuchips are about 3/4 the size of the Squid bag). This bag here is in-between the American 99 cent bag and the Supermarket size bag of 10oz aka 283g. I could see the gold bag lasting even an avid chip lover 2 eating sessions. Next is the small "Extra Barbeque" bag, which is about the size of the 25g Arabian chips or the 28g US mini bag... but for some reason, it's only 14g. Which probably means It has 3 chips in it or something. Then there is the "Hot and Spicy Crab" bag, which is almost identical in size to the American 99 cent bag, but instead of the US's 42.5g, it's only got 27g inside. The last bag in this set is the "Nori Seaweed" bag... it's is just a bit smaller and narrower than the gold squid bag, yet compared to the 80g in the gold bag, the Nori bag only has 57g. If you think that the Crab flavored bag next to it is the size of a US portioned bag, that would make a lot of sense, since that size bag can hold 42.5g and the Nori bag is slightly bigger with 57g. It's crazy to me that the Gold Spicy Squid bag is larger. All the various sizes carried in Thailand seem to be able to sit on the same small shelf. The crazier thing is that I think their are more sizes in the range than just these. So while we have about 5 sizes to choose from here in the US that offer more Party sized options, Thailand has about 5 or 6 sizes to choose from that offer more personal snacking options.

Every region is different and they are all going to offer up what appeals to their clientele. These little baggies are a crash course on portion sizes and eating habits in other countries. Fascinating. But. I have to say, I find it really stereotypical that the US has the largest chips to bag ratio, lol, not that I'm complaining.