Crunching munchie numbers

Salty snacks, like human beings, are often more alluring with their clothes on.

Take tortilla chips. Some sultry packages tempt you with a night of bliss, practically offering to pour you a margarita to wash down that cheese dip. Others -- the store brands we tend to buy -- wear the packaging equivalent of stretch pants.

Strip them of their vacuum-sealed duds, though, and the differences disappear. We’ve done this type of research at our house, using four brands and one giant chip bowl. Only one chip seemed to distinguish itself from the others, only two of us perceived the difference before it was called to public attention, and even then, once its identity was revealed, there was disagreement among the testers as to whether this pricier chip was, in fact, superior.

In short, the test only buttressed my resolve to never pay more than 10 cents an ounce for salty snacks. Here’s a shortcut to in-store calculating: Note how many ounces the package contains, then add a zero, and that’s your target price measured in cents. So a 10-ounce bag of tortilla chips should cost 100 cents, or a dollar, whereas a 15-ounce bag should cost $1.50.

Note: You can't always find tortilla chips at this price, even store brands, so when you do, stock up.