Yup, it is. Not by a lot, like, 0.118 vs 0.12, but it IS more expensive.
A lot of brands use that trick, Gillette is an example with it’s maxipacks.
I noticed that this actually happens rather often. It is worth always comparing the price per item, or per 100g, rather than just assuming that the bigger packs are cheaper.
Other products where I have seen this include cat food, water, cookies, razor blades, etc.
My assumption is that over time, many buyers have got used to the “larger pack is cheaper” deals that sellers have at some point started to exploit this.
Welcome to the wonderfull world of marketing and capitalisme.
Never buy just looking at the price, always go for price per kilogram, always with every food item. You would be surprised how bloody expensive brand foodstuffs can be.
I have to admit I never noticed this, I only really bother with price per quantity for things like shampoo. Dammit, will have to start paying attention to this as well.
I live in France and we always check the price per weight. Often bigger packaging will be more expensive. I assume they do this because you think the bigger package will be cheaper.
This can soometimes be the result of reactions on promo’s or price changes in other stores nearby.
It can for example be that the small pack is in promo in a store nearby and the store follows it by dropping their price aswell, but that other store doesn’t have the maxi pack in it’s assortment so there is no price change on that product.
Result being that the small pack ends up cheaper than the large pack
The large pizzas from my local pizza shop are more expensive per cm² than the medium ones.
There’s also a bar close to me that sells 25cl beers for 2,30 euro and 33cl beers for 3,50 euro. I annoyed the waitress about it but obviously not her call.
Always do the math.
“That’s how we get ya”
Yes, it’s called consumer psychology and profit maximization.
Happens more often than you think, that’s why at my scout group we never let a fist timer shop alone for camp or a weekend.
the classic was a giant everyday spaghetti being more expensive per kilo than one of the brand names that came i smaller packs. (yes more expensive per kilo)
Encountered this conundrum myself a few weeks back. Due to a “buy X amount, pay Y amount per KG” kinda deal, the smaller packs of coffee (also Douwe Egberts) were 3 euro per KG cheaper than the larger packs.
I’ve seen this with butter and other products.
It doesn’t seem to make sense.
But, I’m sure that a lot of people automatically assume that “If I buy more, it’s cheaper”.
Then not look at the price and still buy it.
It is a “maxi pack” (volume), not a “cheaper pack”.
Living frugal is a lifestyle, and through it you learn these marketing tricks.
ALWAYS do the math yourself, never shop on auto-pilot.
Example: i have excel files for all our frequent product where i track price evolutions for the last 10 years. Just be spending time in this you get more “aware” of your finances.
Always compare prices, and when in doubt check the price per volume metric (kg/liter/etc).
You may be surprised at the results, as the larger package is not always cheaper.
Maybe the maxi is newer and a different production batch and the price of resources changed meanwhile.
Try asking the store or DE on social media?
Like other users pointed out, it’s more frequent than you think
It is a classic “marketing” “magic” trick .. “Shiny and put in evidence” promotion doesn’t mean better price… It just mean they promote a product to make you buy it, not that you get a better price. They do the same with product in bundle that sometimes cost more than sum of each individual part.. They do that also with liquid soap refills, that are supposed to be better for environment and less expensive but that sometimes cost more than the classic liquid soap with pump. Sometimes they also make unconventional weights like 90g in a 100g looking container. And sometimes prices fluctuates so a promotion is really cheaper one week but more expensive the second week. So if you buy two weeks the same product you get a global price without reduction
That’s why you have the mandatory price show in kg .. so as a consumer you can easier compare the prices, while marketing can still play with your senses.
Same for those liquid soap dispenser. The reloading portions are more expensive than replacing the whole dispenser …
Same with the Sanex body wash. The reloading portion to save plastic is more expensive per volume than a new bottle.
Also bigger box of detergent are sometimes not heavier … the price per dose is often not calculated well.
Same with the detergent for dishwasher. They sometimes don’t include the additional “free” dose in their dose calculation or have their calculation plain wrong.
I was on holiday in Italy last summer and noticed at our restaurant that 25cl of wine was less than half the price of 50cl. Didn’t make much sense, but I mentioned it to the waiter and asked if I could have 2x 25cl in a 50cl container. He laughed and we got charged the 2x 25cl price. Someone at that restaurant either did an oopsie or sucks at math.
Carapils is the same! 33cl can are less expensive per litter than the 50cl one.
Aaah, marketing. People would go for biggest package with the idea of it being cheaper. Always check prices by kg or units/
I saw the same with the « Zwan TV » sausages.
Individual cans are actually less expansive (on Kg) than a pack with 3 cans pre-packed (exactly the same cans).
They just play on the psychological side « it’s packed together. So it must be less expansive »
Happens a lot. Once customers get settled in, manufactures make the bigger packs more expensive or visa versa. It’s always worth it checking price per item or weight etc
I hate how the hard plastic Sanex bottle costs the same as the supposively Eco-Friendly reload that comes in a bag and is impractical.
Read carefully the price per kg/unit/l/etc. Sometimes you have different brands of the same product, but the price per x is expressed in different units!
E.g. One brand of yogurt has price per liter, and the next one has price per kilo.
I noticed the same in Lidl a few months back, their xxl pack of coffeebeans were more expensive than the regular packs (per kg).
That is completely idiotic … by in bulk and pay more? Stupid
This would fit in r/stupidtax
it was like this for hamka’s aswell. Sadly AH removed the smaller bags, making me consume the bigger bags and thus my snack eves are also slightly worse since the bag always empties xD
Colruyt has the same thing going on with their pampers. checking the price per unit is crucial for the things you buy a lot of.
What I find even weirder is when the big pack has the exact same price per thing.
So you can buy a single X for 2€ or a duopack for 4€. Whats the point?
This is almost always the case for the washing pods I buy
OP is right, the price per pad is indeed more expensive for the maxi pack, but calculating the actual price per item and not looking at price per kg, the difference is very minor.
Normal pack: 3.79/32=0.1184 €/pad
Maxi pack: 5.79/48=0.1206 €/pad
I’m guessing there are other things at play here, causing the price of the maxi pack to increase just that little bit more. The price difference seems too small to be intentional.
If one was to drink 3 cups a day for every day of the year, the total amount of money payed extra would be €2.3953. Even if you double or triple the amount of coffee per day, it’s still less than €10 a year for one person. A company will hardly get rich off that.
I have lived in 4 different European countries countries and Belgium is the only one where I noticed a systematic increase in the price per unit on products with more units.
37 comments
Yup, it is. Not by a lot, like, 0.118 vs 0.12, but it IS more expensive.
A lot of brands use that trick, Gillette is an example with it’s maxipacks.
I noticed that this actually happens rather often. It is worth always comparing the price per item, or per 100g, rather than just assuming that the bigger packs are cheaper.
Other products where I have seen this include cat food, water, cookies, razor blades, etc.
My assumption is that over time, many buyers have got used to the “larger pack is cheaper” deals that sellers have at some point started to exploit this.
Welcome to the wonderfull world of marketing and capitalisme.
Never buy just looking at the price, always go for price per kilogram, always with every food item. You would be surprised how bloody expensive brand foodstuffs can be.
I have to admit I never noticed this, I only really bother with price per quantity for things like shampoo. Dammit, will have to start paying attention to this as well.
I live in France and we always check the price per weight. Often bigger packaging will be more expensive. I assume they do this because you think the bigger package will be cheaper.
This can soometimes be the result of reactions on promo’s or price changes in other stores nearby.
It can for example be that the small pack is in promo in a store nearby and the store follows it by dropping their price aswell, but that other store doesn’t have the maxi pack in it’s assortment so there is no price change on that product.
Result being that the small pack ends up cheaper than the large pack
The large pizzas from my local pizza shop are more expensive per cm² than the medium ones.
There’s also a bar close to me that sells 25cl beers for 2,30 euro and 33cl beers for 3,50 euro. I annoyed the waitress about it but obviously not her call.
Always do the math.
“That’s how we get ya”
Yes, it’s called consumer psychology and profit maximization.
Happens more often than you think, that’s why at my scout group we never let a fist timer shop alone for camp or a weekend.
the classic was a giant everyday spaghetti being more expensive per kilo than one of the brand names that came i smaller packs. (yes more expensive per kilo)
Encountered this conundrum myself a few weeks back. Due to a “buy X amount, pay Y amount per KG” kinda deal, the smaller packs of coffee (also Douwe Egberts) were 3 euro per KG cheaper than the larger packs.
I’ve seen this with butter and other products.
It doesn’t seem to make sense.
But, I’m sure that a lot of people automatically assume that “If I buy more, it’s cheaper”.
Then not look at the price and still buy it.
It is a “maxi pack” (volume), not a “cheaper pack”.
Living frugal is a lifestyle, and through it you learn these marketing tricks.
ALWAYS do the math yourself, never shop on auto-pilot.
Example: i have excel files for all our frequent product where i track price evolutions for the last 10 years. Just be spending time in this you get more “aware” of your finances.
Always compare prices, and when in doubt check the price per volume metric (kg/liter/etc).
You may be surprised at the results, as the larger package is not always cheaper.
Maybe the maxi is newer and a different production batch and the price of resources changed meanwhile.
Try asking the store or DE on social media?
Like other users pointed out, it’s more frequent than you think
[Chavroux mini](https://i.imgur.com/EcZqn7u.jpg)
[Chavroux family pack](https://i.imgur.com/Tp77Bbo.jpg)
It is a classic “marketing” “magic” trick .. “Shiny and put in evidence” promotion doesn’t mean better price… It just mean they promote a product to make you buy it, not that you get a better price. They do the same with product in bundle that sometimes cost more than sum of each individual part.. They do that also with liquid soap refills, that are supposed to be better for environment and less expensive but that sometimes cost more than the classic liquid soap with pump. Sometimes they also make unconventional weights like 90g in a 100g looking container. And sometimes prices fluctuates so a promotion is really cheaper one week but more expensive the second week. So if you buy two weeks the same product you get a global price without reduction
That’s why you have the mandatory price show in kg .. so as a consumer you can easier compare the prices, while marketing can still play with your senses.
Same for those liquid soap dispenser. The reloading portions are more expensive than replacing the whole dispenser …
Same with the Sanex body wash. The reloading portion to save plastic is more expensive per volume than a new bottle.
Also bigger box of detergent are sometimes not heavier … the price per dose is often not calculated well.
Same with the detergent for dishwasher. They sometimes don’t include the additional “free” dose in their dose calculation or have their calculation plain wrong.
I was on holiday in Italy last summer and noticed at our restaurant that 25cl of wine was less than half the price of 50cl. Didn’t make much sense, but I mentioned it to the waiter and asked if I could have 2x 25cl in a 50cl container. He laughed and we got charged the 2x 25cl price. Someone at that restaurant either did an oopsie or sucks at math.
Carapils is the same! 33cl can are less expensive per litter than the 50cl one.
Aaah, marketing. People would go for biggest package with the idea of it being cheaper. Always check prices by kg or units/
I saw the same with the « Zwan TV » sausages.
Individual cans are actually less expansive (on Kg) than a pack with 3 cans pre-packed (exactly the same cans).
They just play on the psychological side « it’s packed together. So it must be less expansive »
Happens a lot. Once customers get settled in, manufactures make the bigger packs more expensive or visa versa. It’s always worth it checking price per item or weight etc
I hate how the hard plastic Sanex bottle costs the same as the supposively Eco-Friendly reload that comes in a bag and is impractical.
Read carefully the price per kg/unit/l/etc. Sometimes you have different brands of the same product, but the price per x is expressed in different units!
E.g. One brand of yogurt has price per liter, and the next one has price per kilo.
I noticed the same in Lidl a few months back, their xxl pack of coffeebeans were more expensive than the regular packs (per kg).
That is completely idiotic … by in bulk and pay more? Stupid
This would fit in r/stupidtax
it was like this for hamka’s aswell. Sadly AH removed the smaller bags, making me consume the bigger bags and thus my snack eves are also slightly worse since the bag always empties xD
Colruyt has the same thing going on with their pampers. checking the price per unit is crucial for the things you buy a lot of.
What I find even weirder is when the big pack has the exact same price per thing.
So you can buy a single X for 2€ or a duopack for 4€. Whats the point?
This is almost always the case for the washing pods I buy
OP is right, the price per pad is indeed more expensive for the maxi pack, but calculating the actual price per item and not looking at price per kg, the difference is very minor.
Normal pack: 3.79/32=0.1184 €/pad
Maxi pack: 5.79/48=0.1206 €/pad
I’m guessing there are other things at play here, causing the price of the maxi pack to increase just that little bit more. The price difference seems too small to be intentional.
If one was to drink 3 cups a day for every day of the year, the total amount of money payed extra would be €2.3953. Even if you double or triple the amount of coffee per day, it’s still less than €10 a year for one person. A company will hardly get rich off that.
I have lived in 4 different European countries countries and Belgium is the only one where I noticed a systematic increase in the price per unit on products with more units.