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When preparing for a backyard barbeque, an office potluck party, a birthday party, or a back-to-school party at the end of the summer, getting the right amount of chips per person can often be a difficult task. You don’t want to get too many or too little, so how do you know how many bags to buy?
When purchasing chips for a group, the host should assume each guest will eat 2 servings, which is 36 chips. If each guest has 2 servings, a party-sized bag of chips can feed 7 people. Meanwhile, a regular-sized bag of chips can feed 4 people. In addition, more bags will be required for long events.
Although you may be worried about how many bags of chips you need to buy for your group, you no longer need to worry! Below is a detailed description of the amount of bags you will need, depending on the size of your group.
Pro Tip: Take the chips from the bags, and put them into serving bowls. You can fit more chips in a smaller area and if you add tongs, you won’t have people reaching their hands in. Here are the bowls you can use!
Regular sized bag of chips
The typical size for a regular bag of chips is eight ounces. The serving size for chips has recently been changed to one ounce, however, this serving recommendation is rarely followed by Americans. Frequently, individuals have more than one serving of chips, which makes having more than one serving per individual essential when it comes to your gathering.
As one serving of chips is one ounce and a regular-sized bag has eight ounces, that means a regular bag can feed up to eight people. However, as this serving size is only followed by a limited number of people, having at least two servings per person is important. Assuming every individual eats two servings, then a regular-sized bag of chips can only serve four people.
Below is a chart to aid in determining how many regular sized bags are needed for your group, assuming each guest will eat two servings.
| Group size | Bag size | Amount of bags needed |
| Five people | Regular bags | Two bags are needed |
| Ten people | Regular bags | Three bags are needed |
| Twenty people | Regular bags | Five bags are needed |
| Fifty people | Regular bags | Thirteen bags are needed |
| One hundred people | Regular bags | Twenty bags are needed |
Individual bags of chips
Individual bags are very common for a group of guests. Having individual bags of chips for your guests provides the most variety out of any other option. Check out this variety 50-pack of individual chips which is perfect for a big group gathering.
Individual bags are common because the host assumes each person will only take one bag of chips. As has been previously discussed, serving size recommendations are rarely followed, and this applies to individual bags of chips as well.
Many individuals at a party will take more than one bag of chips, especially if the gathering is over a long period of time. It can be assumed that each person within the gathering will eat at least two individual-sized bags each.
Below is a chart to aid in determining how any individual-sized bags are needed for your group, assuming each guest will eat two bags
| Group size | Bag size | Amount of bags needed |
| Five people | Individual bags | Ten bags are needed |
| Ten people | Individual bags | Twenty bags are needed |
| Twenty people | Individual bags | Forty bags are needed |
| Fifty people | Individual bags | One hundred bags are needed |
| One hundred people | Individual bags | Two hundred bags are needed |
Party sized bags of chips
A party-sized bag of chips contains thirteen ounces. This means that each party-sized bag ideally can serve thirteen people. Grab a 3-pack of restaurant style tortilla chips for your next party here. However as said before, this serving recommendation is rarely followed.
As this serving size is rarely followed, it is important to remember that on average, each guest will eat two servings. This means that a party-sized bag can serve seven and a half guests.
Below is a chart to aid in determining how many party-sized bags is needed for your group, assuming each guest will eat two servings.
| Group size | Bag size | Amount of bags needed |
| Five people | Party-sized bags | One bag is needed |
| Ten people | Party-sized bags | Two bags are needed |
| Twenty people | Party-sized bags | Three bags are needed |
| Fifty people | Party-sized bags | Seven bags are needed |
| One hundred people | Party-sized bags | Fourteen bags are needed |
What size is best?
When you are serving a small group of guests, regular-sized bags are the most cost-efficient. Regular sized bags will be the most cost-efficient if the host does not want any chips leftover. Although regular sized bags would be the most cost-efficient, they provide little variety for the group. With a small group of guests, assuming the group size is ten people or under, only three bags of chips need to be purchased.
With only three bags of chips, little variety is given to the guests. Although regular sized bags may be more cost-efficient with little leftovers, individual-sized bags will provide more variety but with more leftovers.
For a medium-sized group, the most cost-efficient with little leftovers will be to purchase party-sized bags. However, As with the regular-sized bags, these party-sized bags provide little variety.
For a large group, the most cost-efficient to purchase would be a box of individual bags. A box of fifty individual-sized bags of chips costs about thirteen dollars. This would serve about twenty-five people, assuming everyone eats two bags. This means it costs about fifty cents per person with individual bags.
How many bags for different events
The amount of bags of chips needed varies based on the event.
For events such as pot lucks, fewer chips may be needed. This is due to having a variety of options at a potluck, making fewer people choose to eat chips. At an event such as a potluck, chips are less likely to be eaten, and therefore less of them are needed.
At events such as a birthday party, more than usual may be needed. This is because there is likely not going to be a large number of options available. As there is little variety to choose from, more people will choose to eat chips.
For something like a tailgate party, you can plan on buying an average amount of chips if you’re also serving a main course like burgers. People will eat the chips like a side instead of the main thing, so you might not need as many.
Events that last a long amount of time will require more bags of chips than events that are short. People will continue to eat the chips throughout the duration of a long event, requiring more bags.
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