I went to both Dollar Tree and Aldi one day, and completely forgot to buy chips at both of them. This wouldn’t be much of an issue, had my wife not made (literally) three pounds of pineapple salsa the night before; if you’ve never had fresh pineapple salsa, then you have not lived a complete life.

Not wanting to make the five minute trek back to Aldi, nor the roughly ten minute journey back to Dollar Tree, I instead opted to take a three-minute drive to Big Lots, figuring they would have some form of tortilla chips. I had only two rules, laid on me by my picky wife: No yellow corn chips (fine by me, as I don’t like them, either), and no round chips (also fair enough, as I tend to equate those with cheap gas station food anyway). I was really hoping Big Lots would have another option, as I was not going to make a trip anywhere else.

After scanning the chip aisle for a few seconds, I started to get nervous, as I had not seen a single bag of tortilla chips. Of course, there was the usual collection of misguided chips, and failed experiments, but nothing so straightforward and plain as a tortilla. Then, right in the middle, I spotted the small section of tortillas. My options were either a small bag of round tortilla chips, for a dollar, or a larger bag of “dippable” tortilla chips, with the large crater in the middle to hold a generous helping of whatever you‘re going to dip them into. Since that was the only kind that met my wife’s stringent criteria, I “scooped” up a bag of Fresh Finds Dippable Tortilla Chips, Fresh Finds being, as far as I can tell, Big Lots’ own house brand.

I’ve been pretty impressed with the small handful of Fresh Finds items I’ve tried before, but these chips have to be their best product yet. They’re surprisingly light and crunchy, with a corn flavor that’s not too strong, but not too light, either. Even more importantly, they’re not doused in a heavy helping of salt, something that tends to happen with many bargain brands.  Because of this, the chips actually fed off the salsa surprisingly well, by allowing the sweetness of the pineapple to really shine, only throwing in a little bit of sodium to create the perfect counterbalance. My wife also enjoyed them, to the point that we declared these to be our new go-to tortilla chip.If that doesn’t say it all, well then I don’t know what will.

Overall: 8/10. Fresh Finds products are Big Lots house brand, and the handful that I’ve had have all been at least good. But these are the best of the bunch: They are surprisingly light, yet crunchy, and don’t compromise the taste of your favorite dips or salsas with an overabundance of salt, like some brands have. And for the standard Fresh Finds chip price of $1.90, it’s light on the wallet, too. Give them a try