Econmancer

I noticed today that the Jack Link’s Beef Steak Nuggets in the vending machine at work are actually cheaper per ounce than the full sized bag from the grocery store. I paid $1.66/ounce for the large bag and the 1 ounce bag in the vending machine is only $1.50 ($1.50/ounce). This is remarkable because most of the items in this vending machine are significantly more expensive than they would be from a grocery store.

Time for another “voluntary price discrimination” post. I feel like I should be posting on really hard hitting economic topics, but I keep running into these crazy pricing situations and I can’t help but share them.

Target sells single packs of  the “2032″ size Energizer brand button batteries for $4.99 on the battery aisle. They sell double packs  of the same Energizer batteries at the camera kiosk for $5.99.

How many people must run to the battery aisle and grab a couple of the single packs with no suspicion that a cheaper alternative is two aisles away? If I had to guess (just my speculation), the $5.99 two packs are at the camera kiosk to reward people that could be spending a lot of money on new electronic devices and the more expensive single packs are for the people just buying replacement batteries on a device they already own.

It almost worked, they almost got me. I was about to voluntary give Target an extra $4. I first went to the battery aisle and grabbed two single battery packages (~$10). Something told me to look closer. I made my way past the cameras and there it was, two for ~$6. I needed to buy two of these batteries for a little digital scale anyway, so the choice was easy.

I watched Home Alone this past week and noticed something that I think is interesting. Pizza prices have gone down over the past 20 years.

In the movie the family has ten pizzas delivered and the total is $122.50. It’s noted that it breaks down to “ten pizzas times twelve bucks” in the dialog. Later in the movie we are told the cost of a pizza again. Kevin orders “a whole cheese pizza” just for himself and the delivery guys says it costs $11.80.

Today I can buy large pizzas and have them delivered for $10 each, plus a $2 delivery charge. When you look at the prices with the CPI Inflation Calculator you can see that $11.80 in 1990 (the year Home Alone came out) has the same buying power as $19.70 today (2010).

-P. Econmancer

A 12 pack of unsharpened Ticonderoga pencils in a cardboard box – $2.14 ($.18 per pencil)

An 18 pack of pre-sharpened Ticonderoga pencils in a plastic package- $5.99 ($.33 per pencil)

You are spending $.15 -per pencil- to have someone sharpen it for you. The 18 pack should cost closer to $3.24. That’s a $2.75 premium for pre-sharpening.

I moved the two boxes next to each other to take this photo. They are actually placed on different levels of the aisle so a side-by-side comparison can’t be made immediately. It took me some time to believe that these could be the same pencils, but the exact same words appear on both packages (just in different locations).

-P. Econmancer

Organic beef jerky. Maybe I just don’t appreciate this niche market, but is there really that much demand from beef jerky consumers for an organic alternative to beef jerky?

You could argue that it’s gluten-free, but so are an number of the (Cheaper!) Oberto brand beef jerky flavors. I guess it’s for if you are really worried about the hormones and antibiotics they typically put in cows? I’d think if you’re the kind of person who worries about that, you’d probably also have issues with some of the features of beef jerky this organic alternative doesn’t address- the sodium level is an example that come to mind. Personally, I love beef jerky but I’ll stick to the non-organic brands.

-P. Econmancer

From Amazon:

Golden Valley Natural Organic Beef Jerky