I'm pretty sure these businesses are banking on the fact that most consumers are dumb and either can't or don't want to figure out the math.

Regarding the paint rebate - the price of the paint per gallon is probable less for the 5 gallon bucket, so in the end its still cheaper, even though the rebate is only $4 a gallon for the pail.

Either they are hoping for a customer mistake or the larger packaging is a more recent wholesale order and may be priced differently. Wal-Mart will do this for the most part to keep costs as low as possible (part of their supply chain gimmick). Unlike gas prices that can magically go up 6 times in one day without a change in the price they paid for that truck full, some retailers will keep the items they have had longer on the shelf at the cheaper price. They paid less for them so it is worth it and smaller units tend to sell slower in recent trending.

Others are just dicks.

With the last one, perhaps the base cost of the 5-gallon paint can is lower than that of 5 1-gallon paint cans, so saving $20 still makes it cost less than $25 off 5 1-gallon pails.

The other ones are just bad math.

I'll also note that this is common in the liquor industry -- a 1.75 L bottle of booze can, in fact, cost LESS than a 1 L bottle (due to demand; 1 L bottles are what bars and restaurants use).

Yet another instance of being an informed consumer. Basic math usually saves you every time, it's just a matter of looking at the prices. I see this all the time, it's ridiculous.

Also, on a side note: depending on where you shop, you should always compare the "generic version" of whatever you are buying to the original. I've actually found when things are on sale at my local grocery store, it's cheaper to buy name brands. Search out the deals on the most expensive or most used items in your household and as long as you aren't sacrificing quality, it's usually a win-win. I know a lot of people believe generic is automatically cheaper, it's not.

I buy gallons of water from Stop and Shop.

Now before you people start calling me a snob, let me explain I live on a farm w/ well water. Below is a picture of my water after passing through a whole house filter AND a under sink filter and a glass of Stop&Shop's Acadia water. What you can't see is the smell of Sulfur coming from the one that has passed through the filters. I'll let you decide which glass is which:

That being said, a gallon jug by itself is $.89. A three gallon(3 individual gallon jugs) box used to be $2.49, but the price was recently raised to $2.99. Now to further prove how stupid this is, the water ships to and arrives at the store IN the boxes. In order to get single gallons on the shelf, they have to break open a three gallon box, and put the individual bottles on the shelf. They then have to break down the boxes, crush them, bale them, then have them picked up. The cost of the labor, recycling, and pick up ADDS cost to the single gallon. Yet they charge more for the three gallon pack, which requires ME to absorb the costs of recycling. I tried asking S&S corporate about this, and the guy there lied to me and said they don't ship in the three packs. Besides having stocked shelves before, I have shown his email to three managers at three stores, and they all told me that they do in fact ship in the same boxes on the shelf.

A 5-gallon bucket costs less than 5 1-gallon cans to start off with. For Behr, it's probably about $25 for a gallon can, or $100 for a 5-gallon bucket. Either way, the discount is about 20%. So you're not getting punished twice for buying in volume--you're just not getting rewarded twice.

@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave: I grew up with one of those wells. Around here, that's the result of shallow wells. We were too poor to drill a deeper well.

Huh. Look at the White Out, too. I swear, that single pack looks like the actual White Out roll is even BIGGER than the multi-pack (which seems to have a larger center ring and smaller roll).

The last one doesn't make sense.

Typically a 5-gallon container of primer, for example, will cost $70. The 1-gallon container costs $20. Doing the math, if you were to buy 5x1-gallon containers, you'd pay $75 with the discount. If you were to buy the 5-gallon container, you'd pay $50.

How is this a bad deal?

Laura, I'm amazed you didn't list the Consumerist favorite repeat offender in this, Target.

@balthisar: My area is due to a reservoir. It's within ~1-2 miles of my house, and according to the locals, when they built/filled it, it screwed the water table up all around the area, and caused the HUGE rise in iron, carbon, and sulfur. My well used to supply three houses AND a dairy farm, so we know it's deep enough.

@Preyfar: But both have 33.3 on the labels. I think the single is an optical illusion, as more is stored on a larger circumference roll vs. a smaller one. I think.

@krispykrink: Yeah I know, I remember buying envelopes at Target where it was cheaper (cost per envelope) to buy two boxes of 40 than one box of a 100.

Walmart's been doing it with cereal for a while. I've gotten to where I don't trust the pricing just b/c it's in bulk. I still occasionally sit down and crank through Sam's club purchases to make sure I'm saving >$40 a year.

At least Wallyworld makes it easier by listing the per unit pricing. Except when the unit is the whole freaking package, or one package is in oz while the other is in lbs.

@Preyfar: It seemed like that to me initially, but they both say 33.3 ft.

Thank god for states with unit pricing laws. In New Jersey the per unit price is the same size as the item price, so I'm trained to look at the yellow price and see the real value. Scary when you look at cosmetics though, $455/oz!

@Preyfar:

Don't you want to pay extra for "fun colors"?!

@KixStar:

And if the consumers are dumb, they deserve it. There's no deception afoot when the prices are clearly labeled.

@Ragman:
Don't forget to check those per-unit tags occasionally also. I've noticed at Walmart where the tags per-unit pricing was incorrect. It was on Ice-Cream, I noticed because there is a lot of different sku's with same weight, but when i was comparing noticed different prices per ounce for items priced and weighted the same...

Was at CVS this weekend buying razor blades - Mach 3 blades worked out to over $3 each if you bought a 12-pack, but with a 5- or 8-pack they were just over $2.50 each (still a ripoff though).

I think this might just be more of a result of pricing everything by computer.

When you look at a screen, and set the price for an item based on whatever factors, you might not see the other item quantity and the price.

Then, when the employee stocks it, he/she either doesn't do the math, or doesn't care.

My other theory is that the profit margins are based on some sort of formula, which causes a mathematic anomaly in some cases.

@Murph1908:
Forgot to add to that second theory.

Then, the managers know it's goofy, but it's too much of a hassle to constantly change the price manually.

This buy more, save less phenomenon has been ongoing in military commissaries with respect to boneless, skinless chicken for as long as I can remember.

If you buy the single package with ~4 breasts, you always - and I mean always - pay less per pound than if you buy the bulk family pack of chicken breasts with ~12 breasts in it. I have no idea why, but this has been true in every commissary I've ever shopped in. Maddening.

Behr is also some of the worst paint on the market.

@Murph1908: If the store is part of a chain, wouldn't the prices be set at corporate?

The Tesco one isn't quite as clean cut as it looks - that promotion is actually currently on all single bottle drinks, and you can mix and match so you could get that water with something more expensive. I checked at Tesco Express and if you scan through two waters it doesn't apply the promotion, so you still only pay £1.58.

@morkus: I suppose the assumption is if you actually need 5 gallons of paint in one color...we painted an entire kitchen and part of a living room with just two or three gallons.

Go to into the Gas station and see what the price difference is for a 1-Liter (that neetly fits in your car cup holder) and a 2-liter bottle.

Which do you think is more expensive? Supply and demand.

Note: I like having the lid of a 22 oz or 1 liter becuase I spend allot of time on a computer... so I just refill the small bottle with the large ones while at home. :)

@henwy: It's a grey area.

I am generally of the opinion that just because you can rip someone off without them realizing does not mean you should.

@khiltd: I hate Home Depot but Consumer Reports usually gives Behr pretty good ratings.

@GenerousHelpingOf_GitEmSteveDave: I like how you provided photographic evidence.

And I was wondering what you meant by "my water stains everything, but isnt ferric enough" in some LH thread... Now I know what.

@Lucifer_Cat: And that's double filtered. My shower/sink/toilet/washing machine have a lovely orange tinge to them. My Ex use to get so pissed if we all of a sudden got a "surge" in iron when she was doing a load of lights. Ooops.

@Lucifer_Cat: Yes but if they are stupid enough to buy it without thought, you should sell it.

People are completely uneducated when it comes to money and how to spend it. They might be good at saving it, but not too many people understand how to shop.

I just noticed this at Giant, too - 1 qt bottles of Gatorade are $1, 2-qt bottles are $2.50. The small bottles have a special tag, but they're those "Everyday Low Price" ones that make you think something's on sale when it's really not.

Giant even puts the per-unit pricing on their tags, so I'm not sure why anyone would buy the 2-qt size.

@henwy: I completely agree. I passed 3rd grade math, so I say screw the uneducated. :)

@LegoMan322: What if someone is illiterate, or just can't read well? Is on vacation from another country? Has a learning disability? Is elderly and perhaps not as clear in the head as they used to be?

This attitude of "if you can take advantage of people, you should" is fucking bullshit.

@wehsmith: The local Giant supermarket sells both unflavored and mint versions of J&J "EaslySlide" floss in packages containing the same amount of floss. The retail price is the same, but the unit price is wildly different. The one price is per foot, the other is per yard.

@KixStar: And you're an asshole.

@KixStar: I was never great at math, but I've even passed college courses and I can't look at two signs and automatically do the division in my head for the per-units. I do use my cell phone calculator in a pinch, but sometimes I don't feel like making a spreadsheet to buy some soda. :(

@Landru: We've used Behr flat enamel for years now in two houses and been very pleased with it for scrubbability and whatnot. Just make sure you use decent brushes/rollers--they can affect the coverage and texture.

Yes, if the companies can make an extra nickel out of confusing the very young to the very old with this type of shell game, you bet they will do it. It is not deceptive, exactly, just sleazy. They know exactly what they are doing, making it harder for consumers to buy more wisely.

@jchabotte: The white-out is the only product that can justifiably be sold for a little more, if you can justify paying more for "fun colors". Other than that, everything's a scam.

@nakedscience: So should we consider every possible option when setting prices?

If someone can't do math well but still wants to save money, bring a calculator. Hell, every single phone now has a calculator on it.

Agreed: they shouldn't take advantage of people just because they can. But considering most, if not all, stores have a per-unit price listed, there's no excuse to just buy the bag with more in it.

@nakedscience: Seconded.

@pecan 3.14159265: Big house?

@cjones27: "So should we consider every possible option when setting prices?"

...Uh. There is only one solution: Companies set the prices correctly, instead of trying to dick people out of their money. What other "possible options" are there?

I bet you wouldn't feel that way if you had a daughter or son who was mentally disabled in some way yet still otherwise highly functional.

Notice I said "illiterate or on vacation from another country." Yep. Everyone can use a calculator, it's that simple!

How 'bout we stop taking advantage of people just 'cuz we can?

@HeyBickley: I'm good enough at math to have passed a graduate course in quantum field theory, and I *still* can't do arithmetic in my head. It's a question of short-term memory capacity, not mathematical knowledge. I can multiply by 2 okay, so I can detect those cases when two costs more than twice one...but when it comes to figuring out whether the 64 or 48 ounce size is a better deal, my husband fires up his calculator watch.

@verucalise: Not everyone can be an "informed consumer". Yay privlige.