Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #451

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New York Is Literally Running Out Of Cheetos
By Clint Rainey
Had your junk- food cravings stymied lately by an empty bode- ga chip aisle? Blame Frito-Lay: Corner stores around town are reportedly run- ning out of everything the company
makes — so Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, Lays and Ruffles chips, Rold Gold pretzels, Cracker Jacks, Grandma’s cookies — after the PepsiCo subsidiary cut the pay of its delivery drivers byasmuchasa third, prompting many to quit.
The Post reports that Frito-Lay has tried spreading
remaining driv- ers through New York as evenly as it can, but bodega owners say that in some cases they’ve seen nary a Cheetos bag in over three months. “I call the distribution center and no one answers,” one operator tells the paper. Another who owns 33 Gourmet Delis in midtown says he’s fed up at this point, and is just “done with them.”
According to
the Post, 35 of 140 drivers have quit Frito-Lay’s Brooklyn depot (whose zone extends to lower Manhattan and midtown stores), and 12 of 105
have quit in the Bronx. The pay change affects drivers nation- wide, and appar- ently consisted of swapping a “more salary- driven” structure for a commis- sion-based sys- tem in which some drivers in bodega-dense urban cores reportedly used to make almost six figures. The company argues that drivers around the U.S. have seen “an increase in over- all compensa- tion” on aver- age, but that calculation includes the ones in Wyoming, where it’s 50 miles to the next Flying J truck stop. (The new salary is said to be
around $50,000.)
Some drivers say they’re now doing freelance delivery for Amazon, or driv-
ing for Uber on the weekends. Of the ones still delivering Cheetos,
the Post adds that some espe- cially desperate
store owners, meanwhile, have resorted to ambushing them on their routes to try to bum chips or pret- zels.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine