Theoretically, buying combination packs or buying an item in bulk should save you money. You’re giving the retailer more money, right? Only the pricing logic of big-box stores doesn’t really see things that way, and that’s where Target Math comes from. Target Math is when you pay more per unit for buying in bulk, like this combo-pack of printer ink where you pay an extra eight cents for the privilege of having your cartridges in one box.

This type of pricing strangeness is most common at Target, which is why we call it Target Math. It doesn’t actually matter that reader John spotted this display at Walmart: this type of strange math is so common at Target that we simply call it that.

There’s no malice involved on the part of the stores, as far as we know: their prices may be based on recent sales figures or the amount of space that each item takes up on a shelf.