Conventional thinking says that you should buy based on better unit price, but Target knows this and has figured out a way to trick you. On the left is a name brand joint-strengthener, on the right, Target’s generic. Going just by unit price, Target looks like the better deal. But let’s see what’s going on on the back label…
They’re not the same after all. The Target generic on the right is 1/2 the strength of the name brand on the left. How? Check the dosing…your recommended intake of the generic is twice as much as the name brand. So in this case, the generic is not only cheaper, it’s inferior.
It’s not enough to just read the price tags, also check out the product labels to make sure you’re really comparing apples with apples.
(Thanks to Bruce!)
@NinjaMarion: And Costco.com’s generic Claritin (Loratadine)is 300 tablets for $11 (and I think it’s even cheaper in the stores). I was shocked at the huge savings on some common drugs at Costco. And no, I’m not a shill.
@NinjaMarion: Actually, I think you _do_ have to do the math most of the time because of the following situations:
- not carrying the generics in the same exact formulations as the name-brands (namebrands in 1x, 2x, 3x strength, generics only in 1x (most common)
- different strength pills (75mg / tablet vs 150mg, even if all desired forumlations are available)
- different numbers of pills per bottle (100 pills vs 120 vs 30 vs 85, and those “20% more free” packages)
Sometimes the generics are 1x and the pills in multiples of the dosage to compare with the name-brands’ “extra-strength” formulations (60 pills of generic 1x vs 30 pills of name-brand 2x). But more often than not, I’ve found 100 pills of generic 1x for &8 vs 60 pills of 2x name-brand for $11.
It’s not always clear which is the better value. I’ve seen times the name-brand higher-strength pills are a better value than the generics, but there are also times when I don’t WANT the higher-strength dose (because I want to take only as much as I need). Ranitidine at Costco is an example — they stopped carrying their own brand in 75mg pills and now only carry 150mg pills. There are times I only want 75mg of the stuff.
So I think math is required more often than not. The math isn’t difficult, but it’s usually more than I can do in my head.
Isn’t it possible that the generic box was in the wrong shelf location? I would have checked the SKU on the box versus the SKU on the shelf-tag, especially because the box has no mention of being triple-strength.
It would be fine if the generic was half-cost. Seeing as the generic is only ~25% cheaper, this is a blatant rip-off. For shame, Target. Is there no 2-for-1 “deal” or generic pricing you can’t screw up?