Andrew writes in to let us know that he’s started to look more carefully at prices when shopping at Target… and so far it’s saved him $0.61 on ketchup…
I was in the grocery section of my local Super Target today and noticed the pricing for Heinz Ketchup. They had a 2 for $4 “deal” for the 32oz bottles (64 ozs total) which I almost just threw right into my cart until I saw the 64oz bottle for $3.39. The exact same quantity of ketchup, but one is $0.61 cheaper. Had I not been an avid reader of this site, I might have been suckered into the 2 for $4 deal without even looking at the prices. Thanks Consumerist! Every penny counts these days, and you just save me 61 of them!
If you spot any deals that aren’t really deals, snap a picture and send them to us at tips@consumerist.com.
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Target is famous for this. I spotted the same thing with trash bags a few months ago. It was 2 for $11 for some smaller count box, while the larger count box was $9-ish.
I’d say, blame John Kerry . . .
But seriously, I rarely use ketchup and keep it mainly for guests. I’d probably buy the smallest bottle possible to avoid staring at the thing every time I open the fridge for the next five years.
But that’s the trade off – a monolithic bottle stealing valuable door space better used by something else, or $0.61 extra in your pockets. The important part is to be aware. I’m certainly not embarrassed about doing math in store aisles.
@afrix: It drives me crazy when stores do that. I should have taken a picture of the candy/breath mints being sold at the counter of some store I went to once … it came out to something like thousands of dollars per some inappropriate unit of measurement.
Bah. I don’t shop at Target, and can only go to smaller supermarkets. I’m usually buying Heinz at that price anyway, considering the 64oz is about $5 here.
@KatieKate93:
Blame his wife, she’s the one that did it.
So someone comes over to your house, do you say “Good to have you over! Can I take your coat? Would you like a drink? Some ketchup?”
Target is notorious for that. I always check the prices on similar items because generally, at Target, buying the bigger size does not save money
@timsgm1418: I think almost ALL stores do this. But I’m already POed at Target for last week’s soda/ice cream deal. They offered free icecream with the purchase of 3 12 packs… but they had almost no ice cream to begin with and never restocked (according to my 4 trips to the the local store and the CSR that I talked to about it) Even if they advertise “quanities limited”, they need to bring in proper amounts to satisfy demand for a front page ad IMO… so I’ll just on the band wagon. Booooooo Target!
@steveliv: I try to check the price per unit at Dillons (also part of Kroger). The problem is that my local stores make it very difficult to compare prices. Some sausage is $0.182/ounce but other packages are $2.75/pound. If I’m going to have to figure it out myself anyway, why even list the price per unit?
Maybe Kroger could look at some type of standardization? Of course, this would help the consumer and possibly cost the store so it’s understandable why they do it this way.
@LordieLordie:
Aha! But you could also just get those little packs from the local fast food place and get all your ketchup for FREEEEEE! Talk about really saving money then.
@parad0x360
I don’t see how that’s deceptive. They only claim that it’s lower than advertised, which it is.
If they DON’T put a sign up, people get upset because 1) there’s no sale sign on something they saw in the ad, and 2) they don’t understand that the scenario even exists in the first place.
I’ve never done this before, but this really isn’t new. It’s like buying soda pop, 2 Liter bottles are ALWAYS cheaper than buying cans (using per unit pricing), but I only buy cans because the servings are manageable and it stays fresher longer. Even if cans are on sale and bottles aren’t, cans will still cost more.
The only thing this doesn’t apparently apply to is tuna fish cans, since I always see that the bigger cans cost less than the smaller ones.
In the time I spent reading this at my desk, I earned more than 61 cents.
WTH?!?!
So first when larger items cost more per unit, Consumerist claimed people typically buy larger items and made a big deal out of it. Now, the larger item is actually cheaper than the smaller items per unit, and once again Consumerist is making a big deal out of it.
When would you actually be satisfy? Only when the cost/unit of the large and small are the same? I have hunch you’ll just end up saying they shouldn’t even display the larger item.
@edicius: The lower price for buying the 2-pack is to get you to buy it over a single. You end up saving a dollar, and the store gets more dollars from you in a single shopping trip. Everybody wins. Yes, you might have purchased your next body wash at the same store and they would have gotten the dollar, but you might also have bought it elsewhere and the store would have lost that sale. They’re happy with as much of your money as possible as fast as possible.
@krunk4ever: When items are on SALE, they are usually considered the “best” deal by most. In this case, you’re getting jipped by buying the 2-4-1. Add to that, the over all amount is the same and you see why this is a big deal… (well maybe you don’t, but most others do…)
What kills me is when my friends/family talk about how great Sam’s is… “You buy in bulk and it’s cheaper…” They don’t bother checking that you can get a better deal at a normal store on sale. I’ve given up trying to tell them, and simply point out how they are wrong when they talk about the GREAT deal they got at Sam’s…
@Ash78:
Yeah if I were in the store and you pointed this out to me I’d maybe be interested. This is just common sense and wise shopping.
Slow news day. Sites need to learn sometimes no news is good news!
A few months ago, I went to purchase laundry detergent at Cub Foods. One bottle claimed to contain enough liquid for 24 loads; the bottle next to it was about 40 cents more and claimed to have enough for 32 loads. I’m kind of a laundry freak so I went to get the 32-load bottle.
Until I read the labels closely and noticed that they contained the EXACT same number of fluid ounces of detergent. How can the same amount of liquid cover 24 loads in one bottle and 32 in another? This was back in April and I’m still confused.
By the way, I went for the 24-load bottle. It lasted 30 loads.
This reminds me of a phrase I heard in one of Eliyahu Goldratt’s books: price per usable unit. It was brought up about the case of raw material or packaging/labeling and how purchasing departments were buying up huge quantities of labeling/materials to get the lowest cost/unit, although the marketing group would always make changes often enough to invalidate all the paid for in-stock material. Sure the cost accounting/statistics for efficiency looked good for the purchasing dept, but the budget took a hit almost every time for the actual group paying for the materials!
Some may merely do the math on purchases and buy the lowest cost per unit, give some common sense on the size of the package (buying the largest package of steaks, not a cow).
Others look at the amount of actual material they will use/consume in the product’s lifespan and purchase the best deal based on that, which is sometimes a lower priced purchase but on a higher cost/unit basis. Yet, when you factor in how much will be used, it’s a lower cost of investment or outlay overall. Like the example above about green ketchup still in the fridge a loooooong time later.
I like Safeway here in the SF Bay Area in that they post the cost/unit on the regular price stickers, although not always on the sale price stickers.
Oh and yes, you can “split” up the X for $Y and buy less than X units and pay the corresponding price ratio. But, they won’t cut a deal of say, 50% when it’s a buy-one-get-one-free if you only buy one. That’s a different deal type.
@ash78 : Amen. This story is just retarded. I rarely comment, and this one was so bad, I signed in just to say that.
@LatherRinseRepeat: What that is is a “As Advertised” sign. They look like their “Sale through Saturday” signs. So, no. They aren’t misleading you, you probably didn’t read the sign properly.
I love consumerist, but this one’s reaching into Hints from Heloise territory (“Sometimes when I have problems keeping may papers together, I use a clip to hold them in one place!). Maybe the medium size had better ketchup? As in, salmonella free?
Yeah, Target has some weird prices. Once, I noticed that it was actually cheaper to buy 12 separate string cheeses than to buy the pack of 12.
@rellog: “When items are on SALE, they are usually considered the “best” deal by most.”
People who think sale means “best deal” versus items in different sizes are idiots. If 20 ounce bottles of soda are on sale at something like 2 for $2.00, that doesn’t mean that soda should be (or si implied to be) a better deal than 12 packs, 2 liters, etc. It simply means that it is cheaper than the normal price of that same, exact item.
In this case, a 64oz bottle of ketchup is still a better deal, but that doesn’t mean Target is being misleading by marking down 32 ounce bottles to a lower price than what they normally cost and calling it a “sale”. That’s exactly what it is.
Target is potentially a great place to shop if you just read prices carefully. I probably saved at least $15 on my last trip by scrutinizing the tags. That’s not an exaggeration! Sometimes the same product would be cheaper on one shelf than it would be on the shelf below/next to it. Other times the same product would be scattered throughout the grocery aisles with different prices attached. In the instance of generic brand microwave oatmeal different flavors had different prices attached.