Comments on: Grocery Shopping 101: Quantity Surcharges and 10 Products to Watch Out For

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:55:20 +0000

I always do my shopping by the unit, so I noticed this a long time ago (though I didn’t realize there was a name for it).

One other thing to pay attention to, though, is what unit you actually use vs. the unit prices at the store. With cheese, for instance, the brand I buy comes in two sizes, 8oz and 16oz. The 16oz is more expensive per oz, so you would think that the 8oz was the better buy. However, the 8oz has 8 slices while the 16oz has 24 slices. By figuring the price per slice instead, since we base our cheese consumption by the slice, no the oz, I find the 16 oz to be the better deal.

The same can be said for things like laundry detergent, which have their unit price by the oz, but we use them by the load. Those are the two best examples that I can come up with right now (but I think you pointed out something similar with coffee in a later post).

By: Lorian Rivers

Lorian Rivers — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:07:41 +0000

I figured this out several years ago. Even did a science fair project with my daughter, proving the “large economy size” was NOT necessarily the best deal!

Thanks for sharing the actual figures on this!

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:41:08 +0000

Great post!

I have seen example after example of this surcharge.

I shop by unit cost exclusively now since figuring this out a few years ago.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:26:36 +0000

A few things that came to mind whilst reading this:
* Price-per-unit as given in store for canned veggies etc doesn’t take into account the liquid – cans like that have two weights noted, one for the entire contents and another a drained weight. If you’re going to tip the liquid down the drain, it shouldn’t be included in the calculation, but many stores use the higher weight (looks cheaper per unit), which can sometimes tip the balance re the value of different sized packages.

* If the price-per unit is so small as to be negligible, then the psychological effect of using more of a product when it is in a larger package could actually make the smaller package better value in the long run, unless of course you routinely decant the product into a fixed-size dispenser/jar/bottle.

* Again, if the price-per-unit difference is small in the favour of the larger package, then even the slightest chance that you would end up wasting any by not using it up in time also plays a part.

Really great post, Trent! We don’t have so many coupon opportunities in Israel, but this type of post is a great help for any shopper.

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:59:46 +0000

I am definitely aware of this grocery store and manufacturer tactic to try to trick someone into buying more for less or a different packaging with a higher cost, but I don’t always keep my guard up on this one. It definitely takes the “10 second rule” that you talk about to make sure that you aren’t paying more than you need to.

By: Another Elizabeth

Another Elizabeth — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:30:01 +0000

Wow! I had noticed long ago that bulk flour cost more than regular sizes, but I didn’t realize it was so common in other staples. Thanks for pointing this out, Trent.

And that’s very cool that you read academic journals for fun. Sounds like something I’d do…

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:29:09 +0000

I’ve noticed this occasionally, but I had no idea the “quantity surcharge” was so widespread! Another fast food one I’ve seen is at Dunkin Donuts, where a dozen donuts costs more than two half-dozens.

Another consideration with coupons is that even if the larger item has a lower unit cost than the smaller item, a coupon can turn the tables to make the smaller item less per unit. For example, if a 10 ounce item costs $2 ($.20/ounce) and a 15 ounce item costs $2.70 ($.18/ounce), but you have a $1 off coupon good for either size, that makes the 10 ounce item $.10/ounce and the 15 ounce item $.11/ounce.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:51:03 +0000

Matt I’ve noticed the exact same thing about the select-a-size paper towels in my single person household. I use cotton kitchen towels for little things and have trained myself to only use 1/3 of a towel for greasy messes or kitty related messes.

By: dragonfur

dragonfur — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:04:13 +0000

Another thing I’ve noticed, this time in cat food, is an advertised price drop, then when you really look, you discover the package has less in it than before, so the price per unit (pound, in this case) is actually higher.

I found a Purina cat food variety, that was being advertised as a price drop of 50¢, but the bag was 14 lbs instead of 16. Some price “drop”!

Purina is going to hear about that from me (for all the good it will do! Corporate dishonesty is the norm, now.)

By: Terri

Terri — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:37:42 +0000

Great article, “food for thought” (excuse the pun)
Most frugal way to buy groceries:
Buy the size you need, when it’s on sale and use coupons!

By: tightwadfan

tightwadfan — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:14:38 +0000

Corporate Barbarian, I think a lot of times people go for the larger package without even looking. That’s what almost happened to me with the rice, I automatically picked up the bigger bag, then happened to glance at the price of the smaller bag next to it and noticed it was way cheaper unit-wise. Since stuff like milk and eggs are usually cheaper in the bigger containers you start thinking everything’ll be like that.

By: S

Thu, 28 May 2009 19:52:36 +0000

at my local safeway, this happens with yogurt, something i used to eat every day. it is frustrating because the individual servings are always (literally always) on “sale” and therefore come out to half the price per ounce of the big tub. we can’t recycle yogurt tubs in my city, and i don’t want to make my own. annoying.

By: SpendSmart at ISU

SpendSmart at ISU — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:39:15 +0000

Just as the bigger packages are always cheaper, using coupons doesn’t always save either. There are a series of posts on coupons on our web site such as: coupons and vegetables, coupons and biscuits, breadstick and cookies.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings

By: Louise

Louise — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:13:34 +0000

Since our kitchen is only 6 ft x 8 ft, smaller packaging is important and quantity surcharging often works in our favor. However, we have to store trash and recyclables in that same space, so the type of packaging therefore becomes the higher priority. Sometimes it is tough to balance the two!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:50:16 +0000

I have noticed the bulk surcharge myself, but I think we need to look at our efficiency of use of the products we buy in addition to whether it is in fact the lowest price. What I mean by efficiency is that our ability to get the full value out of a product is more important than shaving pennies of the unit price because I’ll save more in the long run. An example is the kinds of paper towels I’ve bought over the past year. Earlier this year I bought an 8 pack of the bulk paper towels from Costco which were about $0.002 cents cheaper per towel than the super market variety. However, each towel was 12 in. X 12 in. causing my family to use whole towels for clean up of trivial messes (on a side note, I’m trying to replace paper with re-usable cloth, and it has been a slow process thus far due to conveinence). We burned through the 12 pack in about 3 months. However, more recently I purchased an 8 pack of select-a-size towels that were about $0.004 more per sq ft than the bulk . It has taken us a month to use one roll of these because we use them much more efficiently to clean up small messes.

By: Corporate Barbarian

Corporate Barbarian — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:24:47 +0000

I noticed this over the weekend. The smaller sized Heinz ketchup had a lower unit price. I thought it was a mistake. I’m surprised that people buy the larger size when the unit price is listed right next to the item price. You can’t blame the lack of a calculator for this one.

By: Gregfox

Gregfox — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:35:35 +0000

My favorite example of this: At McDonalds, a 4-piece chicken nugget is $1 and a 6-piece is $2.40. That gets me every time.

By: tentaculistic

tentaculistic — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:11:19 +0000

Good information, I wasn’t aware of this!

I save money grocery shopping by going to Peapod before I go to the grocery store (I work on a computer so it’s easy to find time to update my grocery list, and it works as my ongoing grocery list as I think of inidividual items I need). Then when I go to the grocery store, I know how much the item available on PeaPod was, and am usually delighted by the cheaper options available in the store (usually store brand). Plus that way I stick to my grocery list.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:54:00 +0000

I have been married and grocery shopping for almost 29 years, and I have always bought the smaller packages of the food you mentioned. I guess in the beginning I noticed it was cheaper and just went with that. Guess I did okay, raising 3 kids on a bare bones grocery budget.

By: Oskar

Oskar — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:53:56 +0000

Anyone know how much of this difference i price is due to the fact that the most common size package probably is the best deal for the store given the faster turn over time? E.g. if you sell 100 units of ketchup of the smaller size a day and only 10 units of the large size I would argue that the larger size bottle is probably a loss for the store even at a slighly higer price per oz….