Relative prices - a maths question
A multi-pack of 6x200g yoghurt pots normally costs £2.96, but has been specially reduced by 50p. An individual 200g pot of yoghurt normally costs 54p, but is on a special 'Buy one get one free' offer.
Roughly what percentage of shoppers at this store will still pick up the multi-pack being under the impression it must be cheaper?
Okay for those without the mathematics gene prior to the special offers the multi-pack comes in at a snip over 49p each, with the offer they're 41p each exactly. So with the individual pots at 54p the multi-pack is cheaper; except they're BOGOF. Six individual pots costs £3.24, with the offer half are free so it comes to £1.62.
So the in this instance the multi-pack, which offers you limited choice of flavours, costs 84p more then buying the yoghurt pots separately. How many people are going to spot that?
4 comments:
The sales promotion that irritates me most is that of bananas. Offer one is so much per kilo alongside offer two which is so much per banana or a pack of seven with no weight but sometimes on BOGOF. Most of the time I have no idea which is the better buy, Organic or Fairtrade, because there is no scales on which I can weigh the bananas and compare on a price per kilo basis.
Indeed, to put prices on these items I see loose bananas at 77p/kg and a pack of 8 for £1 with no weight indication.
The law in this instance is an ass, the standard measurements are metric, but an exception is made for those goods "sold by number".
In this example the loose bananas are sold by weight, which makes sense otherwise all the larger bananas would go before the smaller bananas, but the packaged ones are being sold by number so they don't need a weight indicator.
To be blunt everything should be sold by weight/volume/length with scales provided for customers for loose items; I have to wonder why this exception exists at all.
Here's one for you: Loss aversion.
This is a scientifically verified tendancy for people to choose avoiding loss over aquiring gains.
“Buy one, get one free” sounds like you're getting something “for free”.
However, “buy one for the price of two” (which is what you're really doing) sounds like you're loosing something, and customers would highly avoid this.
Psychologically, it really makes that much difference. And that's even before we start with the tricky maths problems…
Yeah "buy one for the price of two" does sound like a really bad deal :-P
Seriously I understand your point, it's similar to the 'nonsensical' practice of pricing everything in 99p
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