Re: Target unit pricing - Here's the real point

"sarge137" <rbooth9858@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:a1919ffc-ab39-49d0-94cb-d1a9fb89bdc9@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Interesting.  We shop at two different stores on a regular basis.  A
> Kroger chain store and a military commissary. In both cases every
> beverage (water, soft drinks, fruit juice, etc) they sell is unit
> priced per ounce, regardless of the packaging or volume of the
> package.  In fact, I don't remember ever seeing a unit price shelf
> label that wasn't expressed per pound or ounce so long as the label on
> the product is expressed in those terms (which is pretty much
> everything on their shelves).  Even the OTC drugs they sell are unit
> labeled per dose.

I remember years ago, standing in the supermarket aisle, trying to decide
on
a container of furniture polish.  At the time, we used Pledge, there was
no
question about what brand I was going to buy.  But which size?  There was
an
assortment of sizes that were aerosol cans, and the unit price was given
per
ounce - easy enough to figure out which size was the most economical.  But
there was also another set of offerings that were not pressurized
containers - they had a pump sprayer, like what you see on a Windex
bottle.
The unit price for the pump sprayer was given in pounds.  Again, easy
enough
to figure out what was the most economical pump sprayer.  But impossible
to
tell if the pressurized can or the pump spray was the most better buy.  Up
to that point, I had thought that the point of unit pricing was to make
that
comparison possible - after all, what I was buying was furniture polish,
and
it was the same product in each container.

> I guess I don't understand the compulsion to buy what's cheapest visa-
> a-vis what's best (a matter of personal opinion).  In most cases you'd
> have to buy in pretty large quantities for the difference to matter
> much.  For example:  We eat canned albacore tuna packed in water.  Our
> regular grocery store carries three national brands.  We've tried all
> of them, and I personally see no difference, but my wife has a
> preference which happens to be the most expensive.  The price per
> ounce between the cheapest and most expensive is about 15 percent.
> Not enough to matter given the volume of the stuff we buy. She buys
> what she likes.

True.  I'll buy what I like - what I personally consider "best".  But I
don't see any reason to pay more for it than I have to.  For instance, we
use Minute Maid frozen orange juice concentrate - tried all the other
brands
available locally, and that's what we like the best.  But this stuff comes
in a variety of sizes, small cans and medium cans and large cans at least.
One week, the small can might be the best buy, another week it might be
the
large can.  I'll buy whichever size is the best buy that week.  If your
wife
likes a certain brand of canned tuna, there's nothing wrong with buying
that
brand - it's your money after all.  But if one size costs 10% more than
another size of the preferred brand, why not get the more economical size?
Maybe it doesn't make much difference, but it doesn't take any effort
either.