I typically prefer to make jokes at Wal-Mart’s expense. Target, however, is forcing me to make a joke with Target as the punchline. Every time I go into the store, I have to stand and gawk at the point of purchase Red Bull display. A 4-pack is $5.89 and the 12-pack is $19.99. Seems to me that you could just get three 4-packs for $17.67 and save yourself a cool two dollars. Also, this is Target’s standard pricing for these items as I check every time I go in Target to see if they have wised up. Also, it saddens me to say that I have seen customers purchase the 12-packs. So maybe Target has it figured out after all?Grey
Hey, Target just wants to keep you on your toes. Those who pay attention will be rewarded. Or something.
Why do I keep seeing “3 for $12″ signs in stores and under the big print in teeny print it says “Reg. price $4″? Seriously. I know people hate to add, and I’m no math whiz myself, but that’s just dumbing things down too much.
This is a pretty common occurrance with many things at the grocery store. Non-story.
@backbroken: My brother thoroughly confused the folks at Kristal one time. The have their tiny sandwiches for $0.33, or 3 for $1.00. He asked them to ring up 3 individual sandwiches rather than the 3-sandwich $1.00 price. (Not that he cared that much about the penny, he just didn’t like to pay the extra on principal.) They told him they couldn’t.
So he ordered 2, paid for them, and ordered a third with the change . . . .
Bah, Red Bull is better in glass bottles than aluminum cans anyway.
@Raiden47: “Why did this story make the front page?”
Not everything here has to be scandals. Sometimes a “consumer tips” item comes along…
@JD: I think it’s just a subtle encouragement for the customer to buy more. My grocery store does that too, but I can’t say it’s ever caused me to buy more than I needed just because it’s on sale…
I love Target, but I find not only the issue described here, but also significant price discrepancy among Target stores within a few miles of each other. I have 5 Targets within 8 miles of my house.
Same items, same day — very different prices. Toothpaste Sonicare toothbrushes, Mach3 razors, various groceries….even the items on markdown with different markdown amounts in different stores.
These are not weekly specials or promo prices, these are the everyday yellow/white Target shelf stickers.
Best thing is to learn which stores have the best prices on what you buy and pick up when you are passing the Target with the better price.
I see the same thing at Fry’s Electronics with regard to the pop machines. You can get a smaller can for 65 cents or something, or a plastic bottle for $1… but if you work out the cost per ounce, the can is cheaper. It doesn’t work out exactly even… you can’t get two cans and have the same amount as a bottle for less (it will be more)… but still….
Go to the supermarket and look at the different sizes of Heinz ketchup. The biggest bottle is not the cheapest, ounce-for-ounce. Companies love to make a buck off the consumer’s misconception that buying in bulk always saves money. This is how Sam’s Club stays in business. Their prices on most items are no better than anyone else’s.
At my local asian supermarket, one bottle of Ramune costs less than a 6th of a Ramune 6 pack.
@ALGORMORTIS: Just really, really curious how you feel after the 20-pack of 5 Hour Energy er, nutritional supplements.
My morning Pepsi Max/Anacin cocktail isn’t cutting it.
I saw this at Target ages ago, right when they first came out with the 12-packs. I’m awful at math, so I didn’t trust myself, and must’ve stood there 45 minutes calculating and recalculating because I was sure it was my own math that was wrong. I couldn’t believe the difference would be so significant.
But I stopped buying the Red Bull at Target anyway, because since Shoprite started carrying the 12-packs, they are pricing them lower than Target – 19.56, or 1.63 a can.
Target only beats that when it runs a special on the 4-pack, which they do occasionally.
@jenl1625: Your brother is my new hero!
Years ago when I worked for Red Bull the price was set by Red Bull. We didn’t sell to Target at the time, or have such fancy things like sugar free, but that was the way business was done. Could be different now, but I don’t drink the stuff so I never pay any attention to it.
A friend of mine has worked his way up in the Target Corporation. His entire job is setting the prices on drink products. He has a degree in economics and makes $150k a year. He’s 35.
Pricing like this is not an accident, nor is it an entirely new concept.
This is the same at Wal-Mart for Redbull. As soon as the price dropped from 6.89 per 4-pack to $5.89, I whipped out my phone, did the calculation, and since that day many many months ago, I haven’t bought a 12-pack of Redbull.
Hp did this with a lot of their ink for a while. Their combo packs actually ended up costing like 15 cents more to buy then if you bought them individually. now I think they fixed it.
Where is the mistake? If a retailer chooses to sell something that is in bulk for more then a smaller amount I don’t see the problem with it. They can charge whatever they want to the items, it’s the consumer that has to make the choice.
@DanGarion: You’re right, there’s no mistake here. It’s not even a scam. But I have to say, I am not the kind of person who pays attention to prices, and I would probably go with the bulk item. This article has shown me that I need to check prices all the time!
My wife and I shop for groceries at the Super Target a couple miles from our house. I can’t tell you how often this happens. They also mislabel regularly. I won’t let them start to ring my stuff up until it’s all on the belt and i can watch each thing go over the scanner. I save an average of $3-4 each time i go just by paying attention to prices that ring up much higher at the register.
If you tell the clerk that the price was actually something else, they usually won’t even check. They just fix it on the register and keep scanning.
In college I used to get 2 22oz of malt liquor for less than the price of a 40, plus 4 ounces!
Then Safeway got smart, those bastards…
You’re paying for the convenience of carrying twelve at once, rather than finding a way to carry three packs of four at once.