CATEGORY
The United States snack-food industry recorded retail sale of $37 billion in 1990 representing a 5 percent increase over 1989. Dollar retail sales of snack chips consisting of potato, corn, and tortilla chips, pretzels, and ready-to-eat popcorn were estimated to be $9.8 billion – a 5 percent increase over 1989. A major source of growth in the snack chip category results from increase per capita consumption. In 1990, consumers in the United States bought 3.5 billion pounds of snack chips, or nearly 14 pounds per person; in 1986, snack chip per capita consumption was slightly less than 12 pounds.