At my Walmart, a five pound bag of name brand Imperial sugar is almost a quarter cheaper than the Walmart brand. I see people buying the Walmart brand with the assumption that it must be cheaper because it is a store brand.

They would have been much better off if they hadn't put them right next to each other. But I guess if you're going to think this through, you're not going to tell people to compare it to the cheaper one.

You would be surprised how often this happens, but its usually when theres 2 or 3 name brands competing as well as the store brand.

If I am reading those tags correctly, it looks like the store has helpfully decided that the "unit" here is "a box" not "a bag."

@Yossarian: THe probably decided that a unit is 100 bags which just so happens to be the size of the box.

@We needa more Lemon Pledge.:
So it would seem. At least they were consistent with the units. A lot of times I see comparable products listed in different units, which makes comparison more difficult.

When Duane Reade started expanding in NYC many years ago, it brought new large stores, better merchandise selection and lower prices than the neighboorhood drugstore. They kept opening new locations and eventually put most smaller drugstores out of business. I think we have 5 DR's within a ten minute walk of where we live.

Once they owned the market, they reduced their selection of merchandise and raised their prices. There are many products that are hard to find because DR doesn't carry them; much of what they do carry is fully priced. By now, many of their stores badly need complete refurbishing.

As a result, Walgreen is now coming into the market and undercutting Duane Reade with more modern stores, better merchandising and lower prices.

The cycle continues.

@We needa more Lemon Pledge.: Hard to know without seeing the tag for a 50 bag box, but I think it is more likely that the unit is "box" not "100 bags."

... and have you ever tried to compare unit prices on paper towels? In some stores I have been in it seems like each SKU uses a different unit price: square feet versus sheets versus rolls (for a multi-pack).

And what is the proper unit? One brand may be cheaper per sq ft, but it makes these ridiculously large sheets that makes sure I waste a lot of paper. The select-a-size small sheets may be expensive per sq ft, but just a bit cheaper per sheet. Then again am I getting a bargain if my sheet is 1/3 to 1/2 of the 'full-sized' sheet? Throw in quality levels (thirst pockets anyone) and I have a headache everytime there are paper towels on my shopping list.

You can't just pick up the same thing you bought last time because there are always sales, special packets, and new SKUs.

Every time I buy, I want to get a year's worth so I don't have to go through that again.

@maxx22: Sounds like a typical textbook monopoly move via Steel companies of the 1800's and big oil companies, Reduce your price so that you either break even or take a nominal hit to move in on your local mom and pop places or even smaller companies. Then when they fail offer to buy them up for a reduced price, wash rinse repeat.

Wal-Mart does/did this as well.

@Yossarian: Its almost certainly 100ct i have never seen "per box" unless its for a multipack of boxes and then its sometimes 100ct of boxes.

Is Duane Reade a grocery or a drugstore?

I like Walgreens. They're a little higher than going to Walmart for some things, but their milk is cheaper than almost anywhere right now. We have a ton of them here.

If I lived near the Mom and Pop store I would probably go there, though. We have an Ace hardware store downtown that I much prefer to a Lowes or HD and it's worth the wait to go on the weekend.

If you live in Manhattan, you should be going to Price Wise, a small chain with impossibly tight aisles, crowded shelves and lower prices than any other drug store by far, and across the board. They don't have store brands per se, but do carry many lines of what can best be described as "national generics," those off brand products you see at many independent stores.

They don't have a web site, so google them for a list of locations.

@Yossarian: I doubt it. I've never seen a unit be by box. Whenever I see units of plastic bags, they're always in units of 100 bags.

@bonzombiekitty: The Kroger here has paper towels and baggies unit-priced by the container, as well as several items which escape me at the moment but that require breaking out the calculator. If that's a rarity, my perception may be skewed.

@We needa more Lemon Pledge.: Usually if they're comparing the units as "boxes," one box has more than the other box. This makes me absolutely crazy, tons of supermarkets do it. Some even will put one in a per-box unit price and the other in a per-bag unit price to make comparing difficult.

@Yossarian: I think it may vary by state. I think some states are a lot more strict about what you can use for "per-unit pricing" than other states. Some places I've lived per-unit comparisons have been absolutely useless because it's always apples to oranges.

The instructions are fine. People inclined to compare will do so. A small few number of people that are borderline might compare only because the instructions say so. But a lot more people will simply assume that because it says to compare, it is cheaper, and therefore they will just grab the store brand and move on.

@HogwartsAlum: Duane Reade is a drugstore found almost exclusively in the New York metro area.

Format is just like Walgreens, except prices are almost always higher across the board at DR.

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):

I've seen side by side products where on the helpful comparison labels one unit is in pounds and the other is in ounces. And it happens fairly frequently.

I usually just stare in amazement and do a rough calculation in my head. (Thanks mom, for making me learn my multiplication tables perfectly--it comes in handy all the time).

@BodeMiller:

P.S. If the U.S. would go ahead and adopt the metric system (hello 21st century) this would all be so much easier.

@BodeMiller: The metric system is a tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and thats the ways I likes it!

Any chance these bags were on sale? Sometimes when a name brand product goes on sale, it might be lower than the store brand.

If you have ever been to a Duane Reade, you would find they tend to be disorganized and mismanaged. Although there are way too many of them in NYC so they must be doing something right!

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): i would suggest lobbying your legislators to pass & enforce legislation that codifies unit price. here in CT, we have a whole statute devoted to pricing - some commodities must be displayed in standardized unit determined by the state, but the real treasure in that law is the requirement that all like products be compared against a standard unit within a store. so, if you have one brand selling a box of 30 & another selling a box of 100, the store can choose what the unit is (1 bag, 100 bags), but it must be uniform among all like products.

perhaps your food & standards division already has a law like this, they just choose not to enforce it. either way, i'd say lean on government - this is one area where they can be quite helpful.

I found the same thing in Target for the sandwich bags. They must be hard to beat. Every other size, Target had them beat, but not those pesky sandwich bags! nooooo!

@KeyboardPillow_GitEmSteveDave:

Well played, sir, well played.

How could we adopt the metric system when OUR measuring system makes so much more sense? (This is what I hear when the subject rolls around every few years).

I'd buy the Ziplocs even if the cost more... The sammich on their box looks a lot yummier than the Duane Reade box...

@mac-phisto:

That is good advice, although here in TN, where our legistlators were reprimanded for drinking screwdrivers in session, this might be more difficult. It's harder to make them stay on a task such as this when they are lit by 10 a.m.

My boyfriend gets annoyed when we shop together and I price compare extensively. Thankfully, my local Haggen lists virtually everything (consumable) in price per ounce on the shelf tag so it makes comparing really simple. I'm not sure what they do for baggies and other non-edible necessities (we usually get stuff like that in bulk at Costco) but I like to think I'm pretty meticulous about prices.

I've been noticing this happen more and more. I really think this is the brand names deliberately gouging into their own profits in order to take advantage of the recession by grabbing more market share. I'm guessing the store brands really can't afford to take their already slim profits down further.

@eyesack17: Yeah, I've seen the same thing at Walmart. Many of their store brands now cost the same or more than name-brand items. WM has also been discontinuing some of their store brand and less-expensive items (margarine, turkey pastrami, sardines). I'm still trying to figure out what odd permutations of greed are behind these pricing mysteries.

They just wanted you to compare them. They didn't want you to buy the other brand. Can't you follow instructions?

@lpranal: I think its just that the stores are getting greedy or that at a time like this they've got more overhead to recoup.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people do buy the store brand on instinct now to save a buck. Especially in times like this I think stores are pricing things a bit higher to make a buck.

@KeyboardPillow_GitEmSteveDave: It doesn't look like it. You'd expect the generic yellow tag to draw your eye to the sale item.

What bugs me about sale tags (at least here) is that they don't put the per unit price on there. I was trying to buy dishwasher detergent the other day (I tried doing my part for the environment but that phosphate free stuff just doesn't cut it) and it was all on sale. The generic was $4.69 and the brand was $4.99 (or something like that) what I did finally notice was that the brand was a 25 ct and generic was 20.

Ziploc makes some horrendous bags that don't even seal. The generics are probably better quality.

@WindySaturday_GitEmSteveDave: Good reminder that with sales and coupons, there are many instances when the name brand is less expensive than the generic counterpart.

@BodeMiller: Amen. Especially when you're standing there doing all the math in your head and suddenly realize that the 'ounce' measurement for one product is weight while the other one is actually in fluid ounces. Crazy!

@azntg:

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. :)

@oneandone:

And, sometimes it turns out the shelf labels are just flat wrong! So it pays to do the rough math to make sure the labels are correct.

It makes me crazy. I mean, wasn't the person MAKING these comparison labels using a frickin' calculator?

@maxx22: And CVS is moving in and pretty much steam rolling Walgreens, at least on the West side of the nation.

@ajlei:

Hopefully this is not the case where you shop, but I have found errors in those comparison labels several times.

So it is a good idea not to become too dependent on them unless your store is really fastidious plus uses impeccable math.

the difference in price may be the corners of the bags. the name brand bags have folded corners that can be inconvenient for peddlers of illicit substances so they by and large by the "cheapy" bags not because they are normally cheaper but to avoid those corners, hence why the store brand bags are seeing some loyalty no matter how low ziploc goes.

@I_am_Awesome:

That is the most annoying thing ever. It's like a slap in the face as far as I'm concerned - we're going to try and confuse you so you hopefully end up paying us more! Scammers...