• AdT (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    Over time, those extra nuggets cost $40,000 for two bypass surgeries rather than $20,000 for one. How much are you really saving?

    He'll eat even more of them, so that's $0 for surgery and only $2,500 for the funeral.

    What a bargain!!!

  • AdT (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    I had a girlfriend who stopped at a country roadside produce stand. A sign said "Pecans $1.00 per sack or all you want for $5".

    GF filled up one sack and took it to the register, where the lady asked, "Do you want any more?"

    "No", said GF, and the lady said, "That'll be five dollars."

    Seems like the or operator didn't shortcut.

    I have seen several examples of bigger packs being more expensive relative to smaller packs in supermarkets, something like 300g for €1.49 and 500g for €2.69. In many cases, the pricing seems to be aimed at fooling people who make rough calculations. E.g. 500g is a bit less than 2x300g, and the price for the larger pack is less than twice that of the smaller pack, so hey, it must be a good offer.

  • (cs) in reply to KNY
    KNY:
    I was in a grocery store recently buying soap, and you could get a single bar of soap for something like $0.99, or a pack of six for $8.99. (My numbers may be off, but that's the general idea). I was amazed at the bargain I had found!

    I see this kind of thing all the time. Never assume the "bulk pack" is a better value....

    -Me

  • (cs) in reply to RobertB
    RobertB:
    Also, look at the pricing for packages of indivdually-wrapped cheese slices at the grocery store. The smaller package is almost always a better buy, at least per slice. I noticed, though, that sometimes one size has 3/4 oz slices, while the other has 2/3 oz slices. Now *that* is a WTF situation.

    The real WTF is buying individually-wrapped cheese slices. If you buy a large hunk, you can get slices that are thick enough to actually taste.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to FredSaw
    FredSaw:
    I had a girlfriend who stopped at a country roadside produce stand. A sign said "Pecans $1.00 per sack or all you want for $5".

    GF filled up one sack and took it to the register, where the lady asked, "Do you want any more?"

    "No", said GF, and the lady said, "That'll be five dollars."

    The problem here is that your idiot girlfriend didn't notice the sacks of pecans next to the register with $1 stickers on them, picked up the 'bags' which were intended to be used for collecting "all you want," went and got all she wanted (an amount much greater than the amount in the $1 sacks) and then was surprised when she was charged (appropriately) for the amount she had gotten.

  • AC (unregistered) in reply to Tom Parker
    Tom Parker:
    Search for "This American Life". You can get one episode for 0.67 or "Find out how to get this for 7.95".

    worth it at either price! Great show.

    CAPTCHA: "wigwam" i helped make one of those

  • iMalc (unregistered)

    Whenever my partner and I go to a fast food place, we always get two burgers and make one of them a combo (We split the fries and drink). We always work out whether it is cheaper to get the combo with one burger or the other one. It is almost always a different price, for basically getting the exact same thing.

    The 300g for $1.49 vs 500g for $2.69 thing is really annoying though, at supermarkets. In this case, you simply work out the cost of $100g for the first one and it is pretty obvious the the second is dearer. However it can get really tricky in some cases, without a calculator on hand.

  • (cs) in reply to Mike

    That was a limited time offer. The 4-piece McNuggets are no longer on the dollar menu.

  • (cs) in reply to iMalc
    iMalc:
    Whenever my partner and I go to a fast food place, we always get two burgers and make one of them a combo (We split the fries and drink). We always work out whether it is cheaper to get the combo with one burger or the other one. It is almost always a different price, for basically getting the exact same thing.

    The 300g for $1.49 vs 500g for $2.69 thing is really annoying though, at supermarkets. In this case, you simply work out the cost of $100g for the first one and it is pretty obvious the the second is dearer. However it can get really tricky in some cases, without a calculator on hand.

    To make it easier, in many UK supermarkets they have the price per 100g. KG, Litre, appropriate unit, listed under the price on the label. Its printed small, so people who don't realise can still get screwed, but it takes the guesswork (or the need to carry a calculator around the supermarket) out of finding the best value products.

  • Sven (unregistered)

    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.

    Captcha: that's for me to know and for you to totally not care about.

  • AC (unregistered) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    Joe McCarthy:
    HEY!! You're no computer geek! You bought SOAP!
    It could have been a gift. Giving gifts to the woman in your life is perfectly allowable. Helps cut the rent on the basement too. (The RWTF! is that there was a grocery store involved, an action which involves going outside...)

    He didn't specify if he actually bought the soap or if he was just looking at its price.

    Sven:
    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.
    Must be EU-wide regulation, same here in germany.

    Captcha: Boom! Splash! Crumble!

  • AC (unregistered) in reply to AC
    AC:
    dkf:
    Joe McCarthy:
    HEY!! You're no computer geek! You bought SOAP!
    It could have been a gift. Giving gifts to the woman in your life is perfectly allowable. Helps cut the rent on the basement too. (The RWTF! is that there was a grocery store involved, an action which involves going outside...)

    He didn't specify if he actually bought the soap or if he was just looking at its price.

    And ... woman? You mean, real? Not katie22_hot.jpg? Now tha would be The Real WTF!

  • Charles Duffy (unregistered) in reply to Joe McCarthy
    Joe McCarthy:
    There are hate groups all over the country, not just in the south. Please be mindful of your sterotyping.
    Perhaps so, but I've certainly met far more unabashed bigots after moving from California to Texas -- and I don't know of any West Coast equivalent to Vider.

    The generalization is not entirely untrue.

    (If you're inclined to respond, btw, I'm cduffy at spamcop dot net; I may not see in-forum followups).

  • slamb (unregistered) in reply to AC
    AC:
    Sven:
    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.
    Must be EU-wide regulation, same here in germany.

    I've seen that at a couple chains in California, and to the best of my knowledge it's not required by law. I think in general the supermarket's markup is set such that they make roughly the same money when you buy the same amount of stuff, even if the manufacturers have made strange pricing decisions. So they are just concerned about attracting people to their store, and easy-to-understand prices are a good way to do that.

    On the other hand, supermarkets here do one thing that's a bit deceptive: they'll have yogurt or something with a "$1" tag, and below it a "special (expires May 1st): 10 for $5" tag. You'd generally assume that you have to buy multiples of 10 to get the deal price. But when I've bought less than that, I've always gotten charged $.50/unit anyway. So they suggest a certain amount to buy, and unless you've looked at the receipt after buying less than that, you probably think it's a better deal to do so. I guess it's like coupons: a way to maximize profit from both the people who put a lot of effort into getting the best deal and the people who don't pay as much attention.

    The funny thing is that their deals are usually good enough that it is worthwhile to buy more while the sale's on and store it for later, if not actually use more than you would otherwise. But apparently they need this deceptive strategy to make people actually do it.

  • None (unregistered) in reply to Carnildo
    Carnildo:
    RobertB:
    Also, look at the pricing for packages of indivdually-wrapped cheese slices at the grocery store. The smaller package is almost always a better buy, at least per slice. I noticed, though, that sometimes one size has 3/4 oz slices, while the other has 2/3 oz slices. Now *that* is a WTF situation.

    The real WTF is buying individually-wrapped cheese slices. If you buy a large hunk, you can get slices that are thick enough to actually taste.

    What's even better is that it will actually be cheese and not just "processed cheese food".

  • vDave (unregistered) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    (snip)

    For some reason this all reminded me of a local overstock store that was selling IBC Cream Soda for $5 per case (24 bottles). That was a good deal to begin with, but it was in Michigan and they weren't charging the deposit. So you got 24 bottles of IBC for $5 minus $2.40 when you returned the bottles to the grocery store.

    The best 'deal' i ever got on soda was a local store selling 2 liter Dr Pepper for $0.99 (yes, way back then), at the time that dr pepper had $0.40 coupons behind the label.

    This particular store had a 'triple coupon' policy. I'd walk in with a stack of coupons and no money, and walk out with a pile of Dr Pepper 2 liter bottles and some cash.

    Confused more than one cashier. =)

     -dave-
  • vDave (unregistered) in reply to AC
    AC:
    dkf:
    Joe McCarthy:
    HEY!! You're no computer geek! You bought SOAP!
    It could have been a gift. Giving gifts to the woman in your life is perfectly allowable. Helps cut the rent on the basement too. (The RWTF! is that there was a grocery store involved, an action which involves going outside...)

    He didn't specify if he actually bought the soap or if he was just looking at its price.

    Sven:
    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.
    Must be EU-wide regulation, same here in germany.

    Captcha: Boom! Splash! Crumble!

    It's called unit pricing and is available at all quality supermarkets here in the states and (apparently) overseas as well.

    -dave-

  • vDave (unregistered) in reply to AC
    AC:
    dkf:
    Joe McCarthy:
    HEY!! You're no computer geek! You bought SOAP!
    It could have been a gift. Giving gifts to the woman in your life is perfectly allowable. Helps cut the rent on the basement too. (The RWTF! is that there was a grocery store involved, an action which involves going outside...)

    He didn't specify if he actually bought the soap or if he was just looking at its price.

    Sven:
    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.
    Must be EU-wide regulation, same here in germany.

    Captcha: Boom! Splash! Crumble!

    It's called unit pricing and is available at all quality supermarkets here in the states and (apparently) overseas as well.

    -dave-

  • Ishai (unregistered)

    I can honestly swear that in bolivia I once haggled with a woman over a bunch of bananas, and she insisted that they are 1$ each, or 15$ for a bunch of 10. I ended up buying 10 single bananas at 10$.

    it's craaazy - just like my captcha.

  • (cs) in reply to mallard
    mallard:
    iMalc:
    Whenever my partner and I go to a fast food place, we always get two burgers and make one of them a combo (We split the fries and drink). We always work out whether it is cheaper to get the combo with one burger or the other one. It is almost always a different price, for basically getting the exact same thing.

    The 300g for $1.49 vs 500g for $2.69 thing is really annoying though, at supermarkets. In this case, you simply work out the cost of $100g for the first one and it is pretty obvious the the second is dearer. However it can get really tricky in some cases, without a calculator on hand.

    To make it easier, in many UK supermarkets they have the price per 100g. KG, Litre, appropriate unit, listed under the price on the label. Its printed small, so people who don't realise can still get screwed, but it takes the guesswork (or the need to carry a calculator around the supermarket) out of finding the best value products.

    "The Real WTF" is not having a calculator function on your cell-phone!

  • Curtis (unregistered)

    My favorite package i saw that this reminds me of was a 36 pack of Mountain Dew, which said: "50% more than a 24 pack"

  • Jacques Troux (unregistered)

    The WTF is why anyone would buy anything by Ricky Gervais.

  • csrster (unregistered)

    It's because Ricky Gervais is such a genius that some people are willing to pay extra just to reward him for existing.

  • hmmmm... (unregistered)

    ol'

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered) in reply to Sven
    Sven:
    This is why it's nice that in Dutch supermarkets, the price per kilo/liter is always listed. So if the pack of 6 pieces (of whatever) is a better deal than the pack of 10, you can immediately spot it.

    Since it's the same in Germany (and judging from the comment directly above the one I'm quoting from, the UK as well), I assume there is some EU directive forcing the retailers to do this (I don't think they would do this out of the goodness of their hearts). That would be a WTF all in itself - EU legislation that is actually pro-consumer, and not just pretending to be.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Jacques Troux
    Jacques Troux:
    The WTF is why anyone would buy anything by Ricky Gervais.

    No. The WTF is that you have to rely on calculators for such simple calculations.

    Why can't people simply do more exercises on mental calculations, and be less dependent on calculators?

  • burned (unregistered) in reply to KattMan

    Maccy Ds use to sell hot apple pies for 45 pence. It was also part of the "99p menu" when you could get two for the great value price of 99p.

  • (cs)

    Around here (Southern USA), McD's Apple Pies are $0.99 for 1 or $1.00 for two. Sort of the opposite WTF.

  • AdT (unregistered) in reply to Joe Luser
    Ishai:
    I can honestly swear that in bolivia I once haggled with a woman over a bunch of bananas, and she insisted that they are 1$ each, or 15$ for a bunch of 10. I ended up buying 10 single bananas at 10$.

    1$ for a single banana? Those Bolivians sure know how to rip off gringos.

    Joe Luser:
    "The Real WTF" is not having a calculator function on your cell-phone!

    I have a calculator function on my cell-phone, but I'm too lazy to use it... :-)

  • AC (unregistered) in reply to Curtis
    Curtis:
    My favorite package i saw that this reminds me of was a 36 pack of Mountain Dew, which said: "50% more than a 24 pack"

    24 * 50% = 12

    So, 24 + 50% (or 12) is 36.

    That's your favourite? I don't get it.

  • (cs) in reply to AC
    AC:
    Curtis:
    My favorite package i saw that this reminds me of was a 36 pack of Mountain Dew, which said: "50% more than a 24 pack"

    24 * 50% = 12

    So, 24 + 50% (or 12) is 36.

    That's your favourite? I don't get it.

    I'd say that it was Curtis' favourite, because it's such a Duh!-moment.

  • bigbluealien (unregistered)

    At a tombola I helped with we decided to get more money by selling tickets 1 for 30p or 3 for £1 MOST people asked for 3 for £1

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