This weekend, I saw something that reaffirmed the adage that bigger is not always better.
I was at the grocery store, picking up a few items on my list, and one of the things I needed was cat litter. Now, I usually buy the medium sized container. It weighs 20 pounds. There is a smaller container and a larger container, but for me, the medium size works quite well. On my list of tasks this weekend was to clean out the litter box and refill, which takes more than 20 pounds of litter, and while I usually have at least one half-full container at home, I hadn’t kept up with my purchasing.
I had never really looked much at the big container. I’m not sure what it weighs, but it’s big and heavy and I walk to the grocery store. 20 pound containers fit in my awesome tote from L.L. Bean. The bigger ones would not. But since I needed more than 20 pounds, I considered it.
Until I noticed the shelf tag. Cost per pound for the 20 pound container? Around 41 cents. Cost per pound for the bigger container? 44 cents. Forget that! Conveniently, 2 20 pound containers fit in my shopping tote, so that was the final decision.
I’m lucky that my grocery store posts all of these numbers. Of course, if something is on sale, the sale tag doesn’t show the cost per unit, but I can work around that. I think the assumption is always that buying the bigger container will save you money. And that’s what the manufacturers want you to think. If your store isn’t like mine, you might want to consider walking around the grocery store with a calculator every so often, just to get an idea of unit prices. Who knows what you might find out?
I’ve noticed the same thing recently, but with peanut butter. I like my Skippy Creamy peanut butter, and eat too much of it. I don’t remember the numbers, but the medium sized container is the best unit price by about 10-15%.
Hooray for the stores that post the unit pricing! Though in my experiences, any store bigger than a gas station mini-mart does post the unit pricing.
If the bigger container was a plastic one sometimes that can up the cost of the unit price. If you could use the container again to hold the litter then that would be the only reason I would buy it. Maybe it will be on sale at a later date to make up for the cost difference.
This is also true with a lot of detergents – the medium sized is cheaper per load/oz than the larger. Can I add one small piece of advice to your great post? Take a calculator with you to the store & double check their posted information? First, I have found many many mistakes – last week it was my daughter’s diapers – they configured the unit price not taking into account the “now with 5 more free!” promo. Second, the units are sometimes arbitrary – Tide is calculated by the load, when the storebrand is calculated by the ounce! You’d catch that issue with a glance, but pre-packaged meats are sometimes also listed by serving rather than by lb…It’s helpful. Thanks again for the reminder – I’m not super-vigilant to compile a price book, so this kind of tip is helpful!
That’s a really good tip. I should check out the store’s numbers, just to be sure. Thanks!
When we first realized that the bigger items were sometimes more than the smaller we were SHOCKED! But it makes sense…everyone just assumes that the larger item will be more economical…this belief means the store makes a profit from people who want to be frugal but aren’t paying attention to detail.
If I’m at a store that does not list the price per oz. (or whatever) I will break out my cell phone and do the math. I do not want to ever pay more for the same product!