Some Stapleites refer to them as “made to throw out.”  Others think that they are “salty with an ideal amount of flavor.”  But, Matt Smith ’13 believes that they are the perfect cargo for the trunk of his car.

Because Smith goes to Fortuna’s Deli at least four times each week with his friends, he ends up collecting several bags of the free potato chips that come with every sandwich.  However, Smith is not a fan of the snacks.

“I have tried to tell the employees not to give me any chips, but they put the bag down on my tray faster than you can say ‘kumquat,’” Smith said.

However, instead of wasting the chips, Smith and a few of his friends randomly decided to accumulate them in the truck of Smith’s car.

According to Alex Ludel ’13, a friend of Smith’s, the chip stockpile all started after the power was restored to Westport following Hurricane Sandy.

“We went to Fortuna’s a lot after we got back to school because Fortuna’s didn’t have power during the hurricane,” Ludel said.  “This is when Matt thought of his genius idea.”

However, Smith is not the only one using the chips for purposes other than eating them.

On the evening of the homecoming football game in Nov., Ludel decided to throw the chips out of Smith’s car window during the motorcade.  Smith wasn’t happy that his stockpile was being depleted.

Smith is sometimes aggravated by his friends’ wastefulness, however, his stepbrother, Sean Clarke ’15, feels differently when Matt’s friends grab a bag of chips from the stockpile.

“When people eat them or throw them at others I’m just like ‘ahhh, oh well, there are so many.  It’s whatever,’” Clarke said.

When asked if he had anything else to say, Smith grinned and said, “I would like to finish off by saying that rather than throwing out the chips later on, I am going to use them in a beneficial way.  The bags all expire in a year, so I plan on donating the supply to the Gillespie Center before I leave for college in the fall.”