Here’s Why Target Refrigerates Their Doritos And Locks Up Cheetos

As one of the most well-loved retail stores in the country, Target sure knows how to make our hearts skip a beat. The major chain has cheap wine, Starbucks kiosks, and every useful (and not-so-useful) knick-knack under the sun. Plus, Target recently raised their minimum wage to $13, which is pretty cool, too.

However, when the retail giant decided to refrigerate Doritos a few years ago, everyone scratched their heads.

In 2014, Target customers were very confused when they found bags of Doritos next to products like raw ground meat and sour cream. Eventually, the store explained and told The Huffington Post they were promoting a concept called the “walking taco.” The store encouraged customers to dump taco ingredients into a bag of Doritos and… well, walk.

But what about their Cheetos? Target has been known to lock up the cheesy snack, and people were confused about that too.

At least from 2012 – 2016, certain locations stored Cheetos in locked cases beneath several video games.

Locking up Cheetos may seem ridiculous, But, turns out, the stores had a pretty legitimate reason for their actions.

In 2014, Redditor qwertyuioas8 posted a photo of the oddly-stored chips in a local Target.

Target has locked up their Cheetos from r/mildlyinteresting

Redditor 1stobject2urleft explained that those particular Cheetos bags had special codes on them.

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In particular, the codes included digital content for the Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare video game.

Allegedly, the code also gave players a $10 discount off the game.

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Redditor conspiracy_thug claimed, “People [were] taking the codes and selling them online.”

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Another Reddit user mentioned that some gamers did the same thing with another video game, Halo 4 Double XP. There were codes for it on bags of Doritos.

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In other cases, fans could get a free bag of Cheetos with the purchase of a game.

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When you consider how snacks and video games go hand in hand, this type of marketing is pretty brilliant.

Hide your Cheetos , hide your kids , hide your wife ! Lmao was target afraid someone would steal their Cheetos ? pic.twitter.com/GipALe0R

— LuvlyDragnfly (@HCrossno) October 8, 2012

It also makes sense that Target locked up their precious Cheetos.

Apparently the North Hayward Target has a Cheetos theft problem pic.twitter.com/lhCz6owVuy

— Michael Mayo (@greenisus) March 5, 2014

If you don’t play video games, though, how would you know?!

Those must be the most delicious Cheetos ever, they gotta lock em' up!!! #ItAintEasyBeingCheesy pic.twitter.com/QXw9v9iSi6

— Chip Dilling (@TheChipD) March 3, 2014

Now, for the next installment of Target mysteries…

The Target by my new place is really nice, but I do wonder why these Funyuns and Cheetos are being so artfully presented near the front of the store. pic.twitter.com/xRNVStf1lR

— The Gauntlet (@GauntletRPG) November 9, 2018

Why is Target artfully displaying their Funyuns and Cheetos?

We’ll report back as soon as we find out.