Monday, April 30, 2012

It's Simple Math

    On a "quick" shopping trip to our local big box store I was reminded just how sales and marketing prey on us not paying attention and even worse, hoping we have lost our ability to use simple math. It all started in the first aisle while grabbing a bottle of mustard. The 16 oz. bottle at $1.38 and the 12 oz. bottle at a $1.52. Now this one was a little tricky because the smaller bottle did have a $.50 off of an additional Honey Mustard. So I guess for those extreme couponers that's a deal, but for us in a hurry people it means nothing. Now mind you, this store even has those handy little shelf labels that show you (in very fine print) what your cost per oz. is. So I quickly point this out to my son and we resume our shopping.  Almost to the end of our list and we have eggs. Now todays family usually consumes more eggs so they answer our needs with a dozen and a half eggs in one handy carton for the price of $2.48. Sounds great right? Well, next to that they offer a dozen for $1.19. Now I'm not the best at math (I'm being honest here) but I can quickly round that up in my head and figure I can get TWO dozen for $2.40. So again, I quickly point this out to my son and the funniest thing happens, the 4 people waiting to grab the 18 eggs carton put them back and gather behind me to see if I'm correct. I grin at my son and walk away telling him "it's simple math son". He never looked so proud, yet so embarrassed...

3 comments:

James Higham said...

Funny you should say that because a similar situation occurred at my supermarket the other day with containers of beans. It only took some maths [or math, as you guys call it].

Lord Nazh said...

People pay no attention; the math isn't hard, it's the caring :)

Lady Nazh said...

Well I have always looked for stores who cared enough to post the cost per unit labels as my everyday store for my larger shopping trips. It is one reason I used to love Kroger. They have been doing it for many, many years. Walmart only started using the labels in the couple years. But even without them, most products are easily calculated if you round up/down...

Warzone

 Recently played a few games on Caldera (warzone) and then... Lots of luck in this one, but satisfying