Ruffles Potato Chips, Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored

Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream Flavored Potato Chips are made by:

• Frito-Lay,
• PepsiCo

So the full answer is:
👉 They’re produced by Frito-Lay (the snack division), which is owned by PepsiCo.

Ruffles itself is just the brand name, not the company. It’s one of Frito-Lay’s core potato chip brands, known for its ridged chips and flavors like Cheddar & Sour Cream, Sour Cream & Onion, and others.

Frito-Lay is one of the most important snack companies in the world, but its story actually starts with two separate small businesses that eventually merged.

🟡 The “Frito” side (Texas, 1930s)

The story begins with Charles Elmer Doolin, who founded Frito Company in the early 1930s.

• He bought a simple corn chip recipe from a small café
• Started producing crunchy corn chips called “Fritos”
• Sold them from the back of his mother’s kitchen
• The chips became popular because they were cheap, crunchy, and lasted longer than many snacks of the time (important during the Great Depression)

🟠 The “Lay” side (Tennessee, 1930s–1940s)

Around the same time, Herman W. Lay started a potato chip business that became H.W. Lay & Company

• He began as a delivery salesman for another chip company
• Eventually bought that route and started making his own chips
• Focused on fresh potato chips sold in the American South
• Built a strong regional distribution network

🔵 The merger (1961)

In 1961, the two companies merged:

• Frito Company + H.W. Lay & Company = Frito-Lay
• This combined corn chips + potato chips under one growing snack empire

P.S. This potato chips is sold at CVS which is from..

🟢 The beginning (1963 – Lowell, Massachusetts / Rhode Island roots soon after)

CVS was founded in 1963 by three partners:

• Stanley Goldstein
• Sidney Goldstein
• Ralph Hoagland

They started the company under the name “Consumer Value Stores” (CVS), focusing on health and beauty products like shampoo, toothpaste, vitamins and “Snacks”

🟡 The Rhode Island connection (1960s–1970s)

Very quickly, CVS expanded into Rhode Island, where it found strong success.

• One of its earliest major growth areas was Woonsocket, Rhode Island