Attention conservation notice: the LA Times says this story is untrue. (I’ve only skimmed that article but it has some more details and corrections, both wrt reality and wrt what PM reported. For example, his name was Richard, not Robert. h/t Money Stuff, when I listened to the episode I remembered seeing it link to this.)
Robert? grew up in a family of farm workers. He was bussed into a previously all white school, sat with the other Latin Americans, and all the white kids were like wtf at his lunch burrito. He asked his mum to make him a sandwich next time. She made him two burritos, one to share, and soon he was selling burritos at school.
He joined a gang for a bit but sucked at it, kept getting arrested. When he turned 18 his girlfriend said it was time to get a real job. She wrote him a fabricated resume and he got work as a janitor in a chip factory. This was the early 80s?
He thought he was doing great, then someone called him in and said they’d have to let him go, he had no initiative. He blustered his way through, got them to give him another chance. Went home, then went to the library with his girlfriend and they looked up the word in a dictionary. Oh, that thing? I can do that.
So he started learning to do like everything. He’d sit in on sales meetings, and take over for people on the factory floor when they went on breaks, and was still being a janitor. At some point the company instituted a “give us an idea, we’ll give you a dollar” policy, a dollar was decent compared to his wage, so he submitted loads. (Not clear if the idea had to be adopted?)
At some point he and his girlfriend decided to make hot chips. Decided for whatever reason that cheetos would be the kind of chip. He took a bunch home with him one day and they experimented, eventually getting something good, sharing it with friends. He went back to work, looked through the company directory and called the CEO. Got past the secretary, who was a bit confused—you work at the ___ factory, like you’re the regional manager? Head of sales? Oh, you’re the janitor? Um, okay, sure. CEO said he was going to be there in two weeks, he liked to tour his factories, and wanted to meet then.
So two weeks later he was in a room with the CEO and a bunch of other bigwigs pitching his hot cheetos. Latin Americans like spicy stuff, this is an underserved market. How much of the market can we capture, you ask? Thiiis much, opening his arms wide. Whoops, that’s not the kind of thing you do in this kind of place. But it’s okay, the CEO saves him: gentlemen, do you realize Robert just told us we can capture thiiis much of the market? Opening his own arms wide too.
So they like the idea, and their techies go away to develop hot cheetos. Robert doesn’t get in on that, but it’s based on his girlfriend’s recipe and they don’t get any payment for that. And they become a big deal. Later Robert moved up and on and became a manager or exec type at Pepsi, and there’s a movie in the works about the story.
Sidenote that there were already hot cheetos on the market, but (I forget the but). Also sidenote that they couldn’t verify most of the story, the factory in question didn’t keep good records and the CEO passed away (they did speak to the secretary).
Planet Money (13 May 2021): Hot Cheetos
Attention conservation notice: the LA Times says this story is untrue. (I’ve only skimmed that article but it has some more details and corrections, both wrt reality and wrt what PM reported. For example, his name was Richard, not Robert. h/t Money Stuff, when I listened to the episode I remembered seeing it link to this.)
Robert? grew up in a family of farm workers. He was bussed into a previously all white school, sat with the other Latin Americans, and all the white kids were like wtf at his lunch burrito. He asked his mum to make him a sandwich next time. She made him two burritos, one to share, and soon he was selling burritos at school.
He joined a gang for a bit but sucked at it, kept getting arrested. When he turned 18 his girlfriend said it was time to get a real job. She wrote him a fabricated resume and he got work as a janitor in a chip factory. This was the early 80s?
He thought he was doing great, then someone called him in and said they’d have to let him go, he had no initiative. He blustered his way through, got them to give him another chance. Went home, then went to the library with his girlfriend and they looked up the word in a dictionary. Oh, that thing? I can do that.
So he started learning to do like everything. He’d sit in on sales meetings, and take over for people on the factory floor when they went on breaks, and was still being a janitor. At some point the company instituted a “give us an idea, we’ll give you a dollar” policy, a dollar was decent compared to his wage, so he submitted loads. (Not clear if the idea had to be adopted?)
At some point he and his girlfriend decided to make hot chips. Decided for whatever reason that cheetos would be the kind of chip. He took a bunch home with him one day and they experimented, eventually getting something good, sharing it with friends. He went back to work, looked through the company directory and called the CEO. Got past the secretary, who was a bit confused—you work at the ___ factory, like you’re the regional manager? Head of sales? Oh, you’re the janitor? Um, okay, sure. CEO said he was going to be there in two weeks, he liked to tour his factories, and wanted to meet then.
So two weeks later he was in a room with the CEO and a bunch of other bigwigs pitching his hot cheetos. Latin Americans like spicy stuff, this is an underserved market. How much of the market can we capture, you ask? Thiiis much, opening his arms wide. Whoops, that’s not the kind of thing you do in this kind of place. But it’s okay, the CEO saves him: gentlemen, do you realize Robert just told us we can capture thiiis much of the market? Opening his own arms wide too.
So they like the idea, and their techies go away to develop hot cheetos. Robert doesn’t get in on that, but it’s based on his girlfriend’s recipe and they don’t get any payment for that. And they become a big deal. Later Robert moved up and on and became a manager or exec type at Pepsi, and there’s a movie in the works about the story.
Sidenote that there were already hot cheetos on the market, but (I forget the but). Also sidenote that they couldn’t verify most of the story, the factory in question didn’t keep good records and the CEO passed away (they did speak to the secretary).