Miscellany

Common Supermarket Trick

April 3, 2011

I took this photo last time I was out at the store doing some grocery shopping. It’s not obvious, so let me explain.

On the upper shelf, you can buy one 40 oz. jar of peanut butter for $4.08. On the shelf below it, you can buy a wrapped two-pack of 40 oz. peanut butter for $8.62. Same size, same brand, exact same product.

peanut-butter

When I was in high school, I spent about a year working at a local supermarket. We had a similar trick with Tastykakes, everyone’s favorite snack desserts.

We sold Tastykakes for 44 cents each, or two for 98 cents. I couldn’t believe how many people bought two at a time…..

1 Comment

  • Reply Phil R April 4, 2011 at 4:57 am

    Reminds of a post in Freakonomics, which of course I cannot find. Basically someone found that a bottle of chocolate sryup at, say, 33 onces was spotted one week… a week later, they had one with the information that it was now 1/3 less sugar!

    Why?

    Because it was now 22 onces in size.

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