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Different stores offer different terms and have different costs... I shop at lots of stores I know charge more because they have better service. I love the sho

• unsettledtck 11y ago
  This is true and I definitely love the convenience of Amazon (who was the most guilty of higher prices, by the way). Frankly, it was Sam's Club that really surprised me since I always assumed that they offered everything at a lower price as a perk built in for membership.
  • dragonwriter 11y ago
    > Frankly, it was Sam's Club that really surprised me since I always assumed that they offered everything at a lower price as a perk built in for membership. As a general rule, anytime an institution [0] has an established reputation for lower prices such that people assume their prices are lower without doing comparisons, this becomes a license to charge higher prices. [0] this is true beyond just institutions, too; "economy" packs of products frequently sell for higher per-unit costs than packs with fewer units per pack, because enough people assume that the cost is lower and don't do the math.
    • unsettledtck 11y ago
      Intriguing! That makes complete and utter sense, which is part of the reason why we included Sam's Club in this scraping project. Wasn't actually aware of the higher per-unit costs.
    • mschuster91 11y ago
      > [0] this is true beyond just institutions, too; "economy" packs of products frequently sell for higher per-unit costs than packs with fewer units per pack, because enough people assume that the cost is lower and don't do the math. Assuming the "economy" pack is the only offer you visit a distinct store for and the good is perishable (so that stockpiling doesn't work), then it might be cheaper if you factor in the time you need to reach said store, shop there and get back home into the "cost". The less often you have to go shopping, the more time you save. That is especially true with cat foods when your cat is a picky eater and only eats certain food from a certain place which is most unfortunately at the other end of the city...
      • dragonwriter 11y ago
        > Assuming the "economy" pack is the only offer you visit a distinct store for and the good is perishable (so that stockpiling doesn't work), then it might be cheaper if you factor in the time you need to reach said store, shop there and get back home into the "cost". I'm actually referring to same-store, same-time prices when neither the economy nor the smaller pack is specially discounted, so the travel, etc., cost is the same. Stockpiling/perishability doesn't seem relevant in any way that favors economy packs -- an economy pack is either a larger single sealed pack (in which case, with most perishable goods -- which go bad faster once opened -- is strictly more problematic than stockpiling smaller packages with the same aggregate contents) or is itself an aggregate of smaller packages (in which case, its equivalent to stockpiling smaller packages.) The only place I can see the convenience issue you raise being a factor is if one store only sells the economy pack and another store sells the smaller pack, and there is a convenience difference between the two stores. Then, there is a premium for the convenience of the store. But that kind of different-store scenario is not what I'm referring to.