One of those rare times when I went to Taco Bell for a “meal” I noticed with some amusement that while a single Taco Supreme was 99c, you could buy five for an amazing $4.95. I almost wet my pants laughing to myself. I mean are they deliberately tampering with people’s math skills or do they think they’ve stumbled on a way to sell more tacos?
Do you have other examples of “creative pricing” to beat this one?
(I also love the “all you can eat for $42.50” gimmick.)
whips out the trusty calculator
HEY!
What would be even funnier would be 5 for $4.99! It wasn’t Taco Bell, but I actually saw pricing like this somewhere. Dang I wish I could remember where I saw that. Stupid brain.
For quite a while it was cheaper to buy 2 double cheese burgers and regular drink & Fries then the Regular 2 cheeseburger meal at McDonalds.
I always looked at it as a reward for being able to do simple math. 
Our grocery store always advertises something like “Save $2.00 on 5!” instead of “40 cents off!”
Uh, yeah, 'cause I’m gonna buy five mangos instead of one, because the sign tells me to.
You don’t have to buy 5 to get the discount, and if you do they always include “Must purchase quantity to obtain discount” on the sign. They just do it because “Save $2.00!” sound better than “Save 40 cents!”
Kmart recently had a sale on DVDs. I could have bought two copies of Office Space for $20, but I opted to just buy the one for $9.65. Call me crazy, but the amazing saving just wasn’t enough to tempt me.
I’m forgetting exactly where it was, possibly the now defunct Krystal near our place, where the price board had all sorts of quantities (with associated group pricing) of their 35c “hamburger.” Fortunately I was by myself, had a calculator handy, and the place was crowded enough I could spend the time to do the numbers. The per each breakdown of the options ranged from 30c to 40c and there was no rhyme nor reason to the quantities. (There were 6 for, 11 for, 23 for, 39 for, 56 for, etc.)
After some minutes of calculator magic, I decided the 6 for 1.80 was the runaway best combo, far outstripping the 11 for $4.40 “deal.” Luckily for me, I doubt if I could have eaten 11 that day anyway.
And who, except for a family from The Grapes Of Wrath would haul away 56 Krystals at one time, even if it were at the amazing price of $19.72, which may have been the year when I saw this “monster math magic” demonstration?
Maybe you won’t, but you’d be surprised how many people will.
Fast food placers that have a “value” or “dollar” menu are always interesting to go to, beacuse of this. My fav. example:
McD’s has 6 piece nuggets for over $2 (let’s say $2.50.) he four piece costs $1. I can get two fout piece and a small soda (also $1) for just over the price of one six piece. Is anyone actualyl dumb enough to get a six piece? Honestly! And the nine piece os well over $3, even though three 4 piece wuold be $3, and give you three mroe nuggets. Yeesh.
Oh, another one from T.Bell (at least the one near me.)
The Grilled Stuffed Burrito meal is, let’s say, $6. However, the burrito itself is $2, the nachos it comes with are less than $1, and the drink is $2. That’s less than $5, yet it costs about $6. It’s true, the value meal is not always a value.
I ran into an opposite example yesterday at Rubio’s. I ordered two grilled fish tacos and the guy gave me one taco and a taco combo meal that also included rice, beans and chips, because it was cheaper than buying the two tacos alone.
Stupids are pretty reasonably priced out here.
Like Seinfeld, I enjoy the “Buy One - Get One” signs. Hell, yeah, mofos! If I buy one, I damn sure better GET one!
Yep. The T.Bell closest to me takes the individual prices of each item, adds them together, then rounds up (always up!) to the next nine-cent mark. Irks me, but it doesn’t matter. I always order a kid’s meal (to go; I don’t know what they would say if I just ate it there), and throw a taco in on the side. My bill then is still a buck or two less than it would have been, I get to satisfy my weak side, and I get a toy. The trick, of course, is starting your order with a tap on the chin, and a mumbled, “Hmm, let’s see… I think he wanted… Oh! That’s right!” Continue to place order, and smile nicely when you refuse “your” beverage offer. 
That 9/10¢ price on gasoline and diesel fuel annoys the living shit out of me. I’ve never seen gas priced any other way. Yeah, like I’m gonna purchase exactly one gallon of gas and demand my 1/10¢ change on the $2.50 I tendered. If that 9/10¢ in the price is due to some kind of tax, why don’t the gas station operators just round the price up to the nearest penny?
Nearly identical to my method…I pull any random scrap of paper out of my pocket, glance at it like it has an order written down, and then order my food.
I know it’s not strictly necessary, but I always feel compelled to do so.
:eek: For that price, I hope they have lobster tails!
Seriously, what type of restaurant offers this meal?
-Wallet-Because $2.49-9/10 sounds less expensive than $2.50.
It was a blatant joke, Wallet, but I have seen salad bars, breakfast bars, pasta bars, etc., where unless you’re basically running on empty, you might just as well order off the menu and forget about gorging yourself. You’d have to make at least three trips and load up each trip to beat menu prices on some things.
But to make the $42.50 all-you-can-eat really ridiculous it would have to be a McDonald’s or a Captain D’s seafood or some low-ticket place like that. Some place that if you ate 42.50 worth they’d haul you out on a stretcher with IV’s and EMT’s working you all the way to the hospital.
One other thing that bugs me is cold drink pricing:
10 oz. cola – 65c
20 oz. cola – 75c
40 oz. cola – 85c
What? Does the cup cost them 50c?
It the grocery store I used to work in, we sold some nasty imported chocolate candy bars. We priced them at 49¢ each and they wouldn’t sell. Since the expiration date was just months away, we decided to see what would happen if we repriced them at 2/$1.00.
We sold them all in two days.
Oh, and could someone explain this convenience store pricing method:
All Coke products in 12oz cans: 69¢ ea or 3/$1.00
Hilarious! I bet you had folks with buggy loads, too, right?