December 3, 2003 - Two for a Dollar

On Tuesday, the dedicated staff of edhat.com went shopping for bargains.  We searched high and low for sale items priced as two for a dollar, three for two dollars, and five for twenty. We thought we might even find ‘fifteen gets ya twenty’ (but that’s about something else we guess).

We wanted to see if this kind of multi-unit pricing represents a volume discount, or just a fancy way of expressing the per unit price.  Do you have to buy 5 cans of tuna to take advantage of 5 for $5 pricing, or can you just buy one can at $1?

We asked our edhat subscribers what they thought the pricing means, and they fell evenly on both sides of the fence.  Our subscribers views corresponded quite well with what we found in the field. 

First of all, it is not as easy as it may seem to find x for y pricing.  Maybe we were just hung over from yelling at United Airline ticket agents all weekend, but after hours of looking, we were only able fo find it at Gelson’s and Longs and Victoria’s Secret. Yes, Victoria’s Secret was having their year round underwear sale ... 5 cotton undies for 20 bucks. Briefs, bikinis, hi-leg briefs, and even thongs ... all colors and patterns from plain white to endangered species.

The edhat.com staff quickly discovered that it is no secret to any woman who buys underwear that if you don’t buy 5 Victoria Secret panties, you will have to pay the full price ... $7.50 for solid colors and $8.00 for print.

Longs and Gelson’s were another story. We purchased 1 jar of Prego Mushroom spaghetti sauce selling for 2 for $3 ... and we were only charged $1.50. At Gelson’s, one box of the 2 for $6 Total Raisin Bran cost $3.

So there you have it.  You don’t need to fill your cupboards with extra food just to get the sale pricing, but for thongs and briefs buy more to avoid losing your shirt ... or your pants.

The contest winner?  Well since there were two instances of ‘same price for one’ and only one instance of ‘must buy all’, the same-pricers won.  And, the lucky name pulled out of the hat was none other than a subscriber named ‘Block Ed’. Congratulations Block Ed!