You Can Finally Make Your Own Frito-Lay Variety Packs Online

If there's one thing that's changed about our consumer habits in 2020, it's an increased willingness to shop for groceries and other everyday essentials online. At the same time, we've all had so much time to snack at home that our usual choices are starting to feel a little stale.

With all that in mind, it sure seems like Frito-Lay's newly launched plan to let eaters customize their famous Variety Packs couldn't have come at a better time. Over at Snacks.com, Frito-Lay's direct-to-consumer website, you can build your very own fully bespoke variety pack, mixing and matching to your heart's content.

There are 32 different bags of Lay's, Cheetos, Doritos, Ruffles, Fritos, and more to choose from in the 20 slots you have. If the math is right, a website I used to calculate the total number of possible combinations tells me there are more than 225 million possible ways to create your own variety pack, so for all intents and purposes let's say your options are pretty much limitless.

Speaking of numbers, survey data from Frito-Lay suggests there's ample reason to believe that buying snacks online is the way of the future. They found that 50% of Americans were willing to shop for holiday groceries through an online retailer in 2020, up from just 15% in 2019. A full 77% of consumers say they're likely to buy snacks online for the holidays, making it the category most likely to be sought online.

In other ways, the realities of 2020 play into Snacks.com's hand. 66% of those polled say they keep more snacks at home amid the pandemic than they had previously, with salty snacks making up the fifth most stockpiled product category. At a time when a third of Americans say they're trying new snacks, the chance to customize your 20-pack of chips would seem to hit all the right notes.

The program is rolling out carefully, however. For now, 24 states (mostly concentrated in the east, plus Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas) can have these custom variety packs delivered through snacks.com, with a broader, nationwide rollout expected in early 2021.

So whether you have a family of disparate tastes to please or you just want a whole bunch of individually-sized bags of dill pickle-flavored Lay's chips, that power is now (or will soon be) at your fingertips. Choose wisely.