Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were invented by the cleaner
They’re incredibly popular in America: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The cheese puffs as we know them, but with a generous amount of hot pepper. And do you know who invented that bestseller? One of the cleaners at the crisp factory.
In the mid-1980s, Richard Montañez worked as a cleaner at the Frito-Lay factory in California. Not exactly a top job—he earned four dollars an hour—but he was happy with it. Richard wasn’t really the type for sitting in a classroom; he left school as soon as he could to start working. As a cleaner, he knew the entire factory like the back of his hand, and when the director called on everyone who worked for him to think about how the factory could run better, Richard walked into his office.
Chips for Latinos
The factory was forgetting an important target group, according to Richard: Latinos in America. It was a large group of people, but there were no chips specifically aimed at them. Smart! The director understood that too. He asked Richard to prepare a presentation and explain to the full board in two weeks how the company could win over the Latin American community.
Homemade chips
Two weeks later, Richard entered a meeting room with small bags of chips. He had adapted the factory’s cheese chips and tossed them with a homemade spice mix. They were now deliciously spicy. He had also designed bags for the chips himself, drawn a logo with a marker and sealed the plastic bags with an iron. The entire board immediately saw the potential of those spicy cheese chips. They developed Richard’s plans and added the hot chips to the product range.
Bingo, millionaire!
What do you think? Those chips became the company’s best-selling new flavor. And Richard wasn’t fobbed off with a gift voucher and a warm handshake; he was brought onto the board and has since earned 20 million dollars from his invention.
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Source: Upworthy
