“Groupon is bad at math!” the subject line of Amber’s e-mail to Consumerist proclaimed. I expected to see a poorly-calculated coupon discount or something else related to actual deals. But the error is even weirder than that. Groupon’s Earth Day deals page trumpets that the company is celebrating the planet’s 400th birthday. They offer no explanation for where this number came from, or why it’s missing approximately seven zeroes. [More]
fuzzy math
Why Does This Candy Bar Have Three Different Prices?
By 12.16.11
It’s time for yet another exciting installment of “No, seriously, how much does this item cost?”
In the case of these candy bars that Victor found at a Walgreens store, the shelf tags would actually make sense if it weren’t for that “2 for $1” label on the product’s package. [More]
No, Really, How Much Does Yogurt Cost At This Kroger?
By 12.15.11
An anonymous and slightly confused tipster sent in this photo of a cooler filled with ambiguously priced yogurt at a Kroger store. The sign on the left says that yogurt cups are five for $10. The one on the right says that they’re 10 for $5. The latter is the more likely price for little six-ounce store brand yogurts, but we don’t want to rule anything out. [More]
Buy Cat Food By The Case At Walmart, Pay More
By 10.21.11
Comparing prices between different brands of canned cat food, Gabe made a discovery at Walmart: it’s cheaper to buy individual cans of Friskies cat food than to buy a case of 24 cans. Buying in bulk is supposed to be cheaper for the consumer, but maybe Walmart has imposed a convenience charge for encasing all of those cat food cans in cardboard. [More]
Look Out Before Walmart Staples You In Its Pricing Trap
By 10.12.11
If you need staples, you can go to Marty’s local Walmart. There, confusing economic forces have come together to make staples cost twice as much if you buy them in a larger box. No, really: when you buy three boxes containing five thousand staples each, the total cost is half as much as one box with fifteen thousand staples. And it’s not like the box is anything special. [More]
Watch Out For Petco's Fuzzy Kitty Litter Math
By 10.6.11
Just because something is on sale, even a sale only available to holders of a store’s discount card, that doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. Want a real-life example? Here, the sale price of a container of cat litter is higher than the sale price of a container that’s actually larger. Fuzzy math, or subtle bias against customers who aren’t able to carry a 31-pound box? [More]
Can You Pass Papa John's Math Test?
By 9.7.11
When David went to the Papa John’s website to order up a pizza, three deals greeted him. This wasn’t a pizza-purchasing experience; it was a math test. Can you spot the best deal? [More]
Get Your Free Xbox 360 From Dell For Only $100
By 8.18.11
It was probably a glitch and not a nefarious plot on Dell’s part, but Chris found it odd when he tried to take advantage of Microsoft’s back-to-school promo where a free Xbox comes with certain Windows laptops. Dell’s site kept showing that adding on the free Xbox promo made his total $100 higher than with just the computer. Huh? [More]
This LivingSocial Deal Comes With A Free Math Test
By 5.25.11
Mark sent along this deal that came up on group deal site LivingSocial for his area. You can get two tickets to a Camden, NJ Riversharks game for $10, or four for $26. While $26 is the normal price for two tickets, this makes sense. But it still doesn’t make very much sense. At least no one went for that deal, though, right? [More]
Target Redefines "Price Cut" To Mean "Add 37 Cents To That Price"
By 5.24.11
Math is hard, right? Plus, minus, add, subtract… argh! So maybe we’ll have to forgive Target for their confusing advertising when it comes to a “price cut” on deoderant. [More]
Office Max Proudly Advertises Their Fuzzy Pricing Math
By 5.1.11
This fuzzy math that Laurie found at Office Max seems like your everyday pricing error– a stupid sign posted by bored and underpaid worker who doesn’t bother to question authority. But look deeper. That sign says “As advertised.” That means that Office Max put out a circular or other advertisement bragging that they’re selling correction tape for one cent more than they normally do. Grab your coat, honey! We can’t possibly miss this once-in-a-lifetime sale! [More]
The Easter Bunny Has Very Poor Math Skills
By 4.26.11
Is it an Easter miracle, or just fuzzy math? Reader Elgog sent in this photo of a chocolate bunny, wondering, “Apparently ¼ of the bunny equals about 5 servings. Does this make it a diet chocolate bunny?” No. If there are five servings, each of which consists of one-quarter of the bunny, that means that the fifth person is on a diet. Obviously. [More]
The Children's Place: Where 3 for $20 Equals $20.97
By 2.17.11
After Mario bought some shirts at The Children’s Place shortly before Christmas, he discovered that the “sale” the store was running on the items he bought was a bad deal. Using an amazing trick of fuzzy math, the store actually increased the price of the items that Mario bought by putting them on sale. Wait, what? [More]
Billshrink Helpfully Suggests How I Can Spend More Money
By 2.15.11
Billshrink is an incredibly helpful service that lets you know when you could be spending less on a service that you use. But when things go wrong, it’s a little silly and not helpful at all. Ben reports that he keeps receiving these notices about how he could spend more money on his Verizon Wireless bill. [More]
AT&T: Where Seven Months Equals Two Years
By 1.27.11
AT&T is a powerful company, but we didn’t know that they were powerful enough to interfere with the passage of time. Yet they are! They used their magic to take Mark’s seven-month-old DSL modem, and transform it into a 2-year-old DSL modem. [More]
How I Stopped Verizon From Swallowing My $100 Rebate
By 12.30.10
The Verizon computer nearly tricked Joshua out of a $100 rebate with some mathematical Three-Card Monte, but he made like a human calculator and stood firm, arguing his way into getting the fair price. [More]
Let's Hope Energy Drinks Improve Your Math Skills
By 12.15.10
Frank spotted this sign at his local Stop & Shop. “And to think, one of the reasons we moved to this town was for its highly touted education system,” he laments. Maybe the employees of this convenience store are from the next town over. [More]
When Sears Says It Has 'A Number Of Options Available,' It Means That Number Is 2
By 10.22.10
Sick of being bombarded by Sears’ rewards program spam, David went to opt out of the program. He was presented with this plethora of options of how to reduce his email load without cutting it off entirely. [More]
