Monday, March 17, 2008

Tricky pricing strategy


Price for one pack of Belin peanut corn snack: 0.87 euro

Guess how much it cost for two packs wrapped together as promotional item?

Answer: 2.14

What?

Yes, you got it, the unit price for buying two packs is more expensive than buying one. Something I learnt in France, do not automatically consider things will be cheaper when you buy in bigger quantity. A lot of people got tricked this way, conveniently buying products that are displayed in the promotional racks, packed in several quantities or during discount time. Basically, you have to check out price per kg for every items.

6 comments:

  1. Thank goodness u notice the price difference.

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  2. Anonymous10:14 PM

    =_= did they do it on purpose....or they miscalculated it themselves?

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  3. Might be they do not know how to count or too lazy to count.

    Like Malaysia in the late 70's where the government trying very hard to help Malay business by providing them with co-op shops where they sell rice, salt, sugar etc sundry type of shop.
    It was so pathetic that Malay was so lousy business people that they often misplaced the price of the goods, for eg. if the market rate of a kg of sugar is $1.20, they would be 20cents and when the Chinese people found out, they would buy up the entire store of sugar from the Malay co-op shop and resell to the Malay but earning outright profit of $1 per kg.

    The eg, you gave is a pathetic business model.

    I am sure you went to whole sale store in US (SAM club) ? they offer you bulk buy in bargain. But, they will state in their shelfing on $/oz or $/item so you know what you are getting.

    Let say you go to a store to buy a spaghetti source and it is $2.99 for a lb bottle but in the whole sale store, you see a big bottle of 5lbs spaghetti source for $8.76 , the store will stated on the label that is it $1.70 per lb and as consumer you decide if you want to buy a $2.99 a lb or $1.79 a lb for 5 lbs spaghetti sauce. Fair and square, not trick and it all depend on your budget.

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  4. They do this on purpose hoping that people won't notice it.

    Jamy, like in US, they do have to put price/kg so you can actually compare the price. The thing is, psychologically we thought buy more lower price so people like me don't even bother to check out the unit price. Aiyo me lazy lah to check all the times.

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  5. Why are business people so dishonest there ? Bulk buy means you are suppose to get cheaper good why terbalik ?

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  6. Anonymous8:42 PM

    In Singapore we just buy the one that has the cheapest price tag but since living in France, the first time my SO and MIL taught me is look at the price per kg first. And for anything on promotion, always compare it with the normal price to see if it is really a good buy. Sometimes things on promotion aren't really a good bargain.

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