Loading ...Price Per Unit
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One of my pet peeves while shopping is to see the packaging get smaller or more air put into the bag or the item in a box will be smaller when the box itself stays the same size. Of course the prices don’t get smaller, they either stay the same or go up in price. Downsizing the item, but not downsizing the price isn’t anything new and it seems to be a popular trend with the weight of Americans going up and up.
That is why it is so very important to take a look at the price per unit and compare them when you are grocery shopping for the best deal, especially now that food costs have gone up over the last year. When I do my large shopping trips I can get out of the store for about 175.00 with enough food for the next 6-8 weeks. This last shopping trip, I got everything I needed and the price was just about 225.00.
If you are unfamiliar with checking price per unit, it would be on the shelf sticker with the full price of the item. If the information isn’t handy like that, then having a calculator (cellphone calculator works) handy when you shop is a good way to determine the unit price. Just divide the price of the item by the ounces, lbs, servings, etc. and you would get the unit price.
The importance of unit pricing is handy when you see some new packaging on an item that you buy regularly. For instance:
Mouse Print recently showed the package change of Orange Juice.
NPR’s All things considered recently interviewed Ben Popken of the consumer advocacy blog Consumerist about the (audio) change in packaging but not in prices.
You can read more about Consumerist’s info on packaging changes as well.
additional reading:
12 Ways to Cut the Grocery Bill
Bulk Buying Comparison
Store Brands vs. Name Brands
I always shop with a calculator. When I find a name brand item on sale, I calculate the unit price to check if it really is less than the store brand. The stores never list the unit price on sale items. Also, I’ve found some items listed as “x per ounce” on one size and “x per quart” on a larger size of the same product.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:08 pmYou know, not only are we paying more for less product now-a-days, the quality of the overall products are going down.
It makes me angrier than ever when I pay more for something, get it home, and it tastes awful or doesn’t work like it used to.
I am going back to supporting more small businesses here in America, rather than mega-conglomerates like Walmart. I do shop there still, but I just feel like I am being cheated on quality and price more and more often. It would be neat to see a whole series of articles with comparisons on this topic lol.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:48 amdue to fuel prices i plan all my trips and i use the unit pricing as a valuable tool…our local businesses in town are doing remarkable well these past two months because no one can afford to go to the city for those great sales as the sales are eaten up by the cost of the fuel to get them. when i shop local i have found that it is wiser to buy in bulk as well and make better use of homecanning the leftovers (chili, soup etc.. and freezing and other food storage. i have to make a trip to the city tomorrow for items i cannot get locally, like stuff for the printer etc..and for the dogs, but i will be making as many stops in the city as possible to make that 80mi.roundtrip worthwhile…plain common sense has to play an active role in whatever we do these days..
July 16th, 2008 at 12:23 pmback from the city…my savings of $10.00 paid for the fuel to make the trip and any other savings i had on my other purchases were pure pleasure. i should not have to make another trip for at least 2-3mos or more. what else did i buy? cheese, cashews and walnuts, 2 huge packages of microfiber cloths, canned chicken, canned turkey, a case of spam, and a case of vienna sausages….a big box of various sized bandaids, 4 2ltr bottles of diet pepsi and a case of diet lipton/citrus green tea, and a case of canned dog food.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pmalso, check the unit prices on fresh veggies at the supermarket! you will probably find that you will get a better deal not at the farmers market but at the roadside stands..just be careful not to try to negotiate those roadside prices down unless it is obvious that the stuff needs to be bought and cooked quickly…i say this because the roadside stands are generally much cheaper than anywhere else-that farmer does his homework!
July 18th, 2008 at 5:09 pmTwo other heads up for the wise grocery shopper:
First, similar products are unit priced differently. This is common at Sams’s Club. They will list so much per once on one product, and so much per unit (jar) on a similar product (and the jar may be a different size than the similar product). They also list so much per ounce on one and so much per pound on another similar product. You have to do the math.
Second, the grocery store often flips pricing between pounds and units when it comes to vegetables. One week it is $1.50 for a spaghetti squash, and the next week it is $1.50 a pound for the same squash. That can triple the price of squash from one week to the next.
We have to remember that the retailer has the right to price any way they want, and we have the right to leave it on the shelf and in the bin, and go take our money elsewhere.
Clair
July 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pmAh, the Grocery Shrink Ray! I’ve been reading Consumerist.com everyday for some time, and it is very enlightening.
Other things to be careful about are big box stores like Target that post “price cuts” when the price is no different than their usual price. Or when they bundle two items together and charge MORE per ounce. Ouch!
I know it’s tough for everyone, and even retailers have to make money, but it’s wrong to mislead customers!
July 31st, 2008 at 11:09 am