Walking through Disneyland in the early 1960's, Archibald West noticed that workers at the Casa de Fritos (now Rancho Del Zocalo) Restaurant, using discarded surplus tortillas (and taking the original idea from the traditional Mexican snack known as totopo), the company-owned restaurant cut them up, fried them, and added basic seasoning, resembling the Mexican chilaquiles, but in this case being dry. West was the Vice-President of Marketing at Frito-Lay and was impressed by their popularity. He made a deal in 1964 with Alex Foods, the provider of many items for Casa de Fritos at Disneyland, and produced the chips for a short time regionally, before it was overwhelmed by the volume, and Frito-Lay moved the production in-house to its Tulsa plant.

Doritos were released nationwide in 1966, the first tortilla chip to be launched nationally in the United States. Now in many flavors, Doritos make billions of dollars and comprise almost a third of Frito-Lay's income.

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