A Math Puzzle: Something's Not Quite Right Here ...

1. elfi21
   August 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

   Save gas by driving driving to the store once instead of twice?!

2. Dave
   August 10th, 2008 at 3:10 pm

   Leave it to the way-too-happy yellow dot. My wife has seen similar inconsistencies at Sam's Club, where buying in bulk is naturally more economical, right?

   I once went to a local big-box lumber store to buy some nails for a project. I needed about five pounds, but noticed that the 1lb boxes sold for 99 cents, and the 5lb for $5.99. Guess which way I went?

   Quite a bargain, buying in bulk.

3. CheeseDuck
   August 10th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

   I think the picture makes perfect sense!

4. tankhard
   August 10th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

   there is a store in chicago called food for less and I needed milk the milk was two for three dollars and it had a sign compare to a competitor with was $2.50 each I told the manager and he didn't understand why that sign was wrong for there store

5. SenorMysterioso
   August 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

   I thought the one on the right may have more product because the package looks slightly larger but the price tags say they are the same

   66.46 cents per ounce for the two pack
   61.53 cents per ounce for a single stick

   I suspect that the singles are on sale though because of the star on the price tag, which, is not on the price tag of the two pack

6. martinjester
   August 10th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

   I have had this situation several times at WalMart. Their No-Rub Contact Lens Solution seems to switch back and forth between singles being cheaper and the two pack being cheaper. Everytime I go to restock I have to do some quick math to figure out which to buy.

7. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
   August 10th, 2008 at 5:24 pm

   They're betting that their customers can't do math.

8. Josh
   August 10th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

   That is quite common in Walmart. They do this likely to get rid of excess stock of a certain item. My deodorant will switch prices every so often so that the singles are cheaper than the double packs but most of the time the double pack is about $0.60-0.70 cheaper.

9. thomas
   August 10th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

   i don`t understand what tankhard is taking about. can anyone explain? it sounds like the store he buys milk sells a two pack for 3 dollars, while the competitor sells each individual unit for 2.50. you're saving 2 dollars shopping there so what's the problem?

10. red
    August 10th, 2008 at 7:55 pm

    It's actually against the law to lie in an advertisement (or packaging). Often you can catch an imminent "screwing" by paying attention to the wording on a package.

    "Buy two and save" is very different from saying "buy two and save X amount of money"

    The first is very ambiguous and could just as easily be sayind "buy two and save them on your shelf"

    Keep this rule in mind and you'll suddenly catch all sorts of things.

11. Johnny Cat
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:20 pm

    Red-

    Correct. Like those sweepstakes that have language like if your card has the secret code, you *could* win 1 million dollars. Didn't say you will.

12. Shelby
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:36 pm

    Can I figure it out?

    Yes!

    Retailers think we're idiots! I don't buy products whose marketers or packaging teams or retailers try to fleece me.

13. SenorMysterioso
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    re: thomas

    that is exactly how I read, erm... deciphered tankhard's post. It sounds like that store's sign was fine.

14. chris a
    August 10th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    That's the deodorant I buy and I saw it like that a couple months ago. I thought the same thing as someone above, that maybe they were just counting on consumers not paying attention to price and buying the 2 pack.

15. Liz
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm

    Yeah, I think tankhard might be confusing 3 with 5. And English with some other, previously unknown language.

    That might be a sale price for the one-pack, or it might not. At one of my local Wal-Marts, a small bottle of olive oil works out to be cheaper than a big one. I think they count on people assuming that bulk = cheap.

16. WordyGrrl
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    So many people still believe that "buy in bulk and SAVE!" stuff, that they automatically assume it's always true.

    One of the reasons I don't shop at Costco is because the price per pound on meats, for example is the same as my local grocery. But I don't have room to store 50 pounds of chicken breasts anymore than I want to burn up the gas driving across town to "buy in bulk."

17. WordyGrrl
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    Also, it's a sad sign that we are consumer whores when we can tell what store that is just by looking at the price label.

18. Amelyn
    August 10th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

    I've seen something similar in a store once. They were doing a clearance sale on Cadbury's Cream Egg. They labeled "3 candies for $4" and right beside they were selling a 4-pack of the same candies for $3.

    I'm wondering if this picture will end on FailBlog?

19. escapenguin
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

    I'm surprised the tags are even in the right place. Having worked as a vendor I found most Walmarts were understaffed, behind in setting up planograms and tagging because they were so busy restocking and cleaning up after the cretins that shop there. Things like this happen too. You have to really pay attention when you shop. They do prey on ignorance, I've heard them talk about it.

20. Brian Lutz
    August 10th, 2008 at 11:18 pm

    Here's one I ran into recently: A KFC coupon offering 5 of their Snacker sandwiches for $4.99, when buying them at the regular menu price would be only $4.95 for five of them:

    http://thesledgehammer.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/we-do-chicken-right-ma th-not-so-much/

21. heather
    August 11th, 2008 at 2:33 am

    Being a wally world peon, I recognized the tags immediately, and since I just got off of my last shift before my weekend, I am greatly amused.
    They do stuff like this all the time. A few weeks ago, a customer came up to me confused as to why a pink mp3 player was $34 while the same exact player in black was $44.

22. Tweeker
    August 11th, 2008 at 9:03 am

    Black > pink, it holds onto the bogomips better.

23. JME
    August 11th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    Only time I've ever encountered items in Walmart ending in $.00 was when they were on sale. It seems to me that the individual units are on clearance sale, and the two packs are just on promotional pricing. At full price, the two pack would be cheaper than buying two individual deodorant sticks.

24. Bonnie L.
    August 11th, 2008 at 10:11 pm

    That is why I always look for the price per unit that is usually found on the tag in the corner. If I can't find it on the tag, I pull out my cell phone's calculator and figure out the price per unit. It's a great money saving activity.

25. dee
    August 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

    Whatever the reason is, This is pretty funny.

26. Christophe
    August 12th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    The little devil on my left shoulder makes me do that in my store : it works!

    Promotion, end-stand merchandising, any sales, DOES NOT warranty a better price ; keep your eyes open dear consumer, and please come again!

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