Huggies doesn’t mind patting itself on the back for a “new lower price” on a bulk box of diapers, crowing about the dollar less they’re charging customers at Sam’s Club. But as Jay found out, they’re not as chatty about the fact that the price is for less diapers. Zap! Grocery shrink ray!

Jay shops at Sam’s Club for diapers every two to three weeks, he says, and recently picked up a box that didn’t seem quite right upon closer inspection.

As soon as we got home and opened the box, I noticed that the count on the box looked wrong. It read 148 ct. as opposed to the 176 I thought we usually get. Thinking I may have it confused with a different size, I went through our recycle bin and found the other box we purchased a few weeks ago and sure enough, it was 176 ct.

I went online to Sam’s Club’s site to look it up and found the box we just purchased was listed along side the older higher count box. The one we just purchased is advertised on their site as having a “New Lower Price” at $38.98 for 148 ct. as opposed to the older price of $39.98 for 176 ct. (which is now out of stock).

On the site, even with the new price, it says on the original box description, “Only 23 cents per diaper!” which then changes to “Only 26 cents per diaper!” on the new box. If our math is correct, that means they’ve raised the price of diapers by 3 cents each.

A “lower” price on something should indicate that it’s lower than what you would normally pay for the same amount of that same product. I could advertise a package of 100 rocks as a “new lower price,” because it costs less than say, a diamond or the price I charge for 150 rocks — but that doesn’t mean anything. Labels of “new lower price” shouldn’t be an arbitrary distinction.

The whole experience has turned Jay off of Sam’s Club, saying getting 28 diapers less doesn’t make the trip to Sam’s Club worth his while, and he will instead be buying bulk diapers in smaller-sized packs at his local grocery store.

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