Usually, buying in bulk saves you money. Buying a larger container or multi-pack boosts sales numbers and lowers prices for consumers. This makes perfect sense…until it doesn’t. Just ask these readers, who had to give a few seconds of serious thought to the pricing of their personal care items while shopping recently.

We begin, of course, at Target. In classic Target fashion, there’s a single item, a two-pack that’s cheaper than the two-pack, and then the single item is put on sale for a lower price that makes buying the two-pack pointless. Brandi found this great opportunity to buy more and save, but the only extra thing you’ll get in this bonus pack is some paper and shrink wrap, and you’ll pay extra for the privilege.

Canadian reader Robert wants us to know that fuzzy math exists up north, too. Along with the rest of us, he laughs at pricing errors, and was surprised to see one in real life. “I did a double take to be certain I wasn’t missing out on savings by not buying the two pack,” he wrote to Consumerist, “but sure enough, they were the same size as the single unit, only about $2.00 more.”

The picture is a bit small, but the single deodorant goes for $2.97 while the two-pack costs $7.97. Some format économique that is.

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