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> These low-performing students struggled with everyday spending decisions, such as calculating whether buying tomatoes by the box or kilogramme was better valu
by neilv 2y ago
> These low-performing students struggled with everyday spending decisions, such as calculating whether buying tomatoes by the box or kilogramme was better value.
While we know that's a more complicated problem than just the arithmetic the article implies, a dark pattern by retailers actively works against the arithmetic challenge...
More often than not, when I look at the cost per unit on a grocery store shelf tag, or on Amazon, the retailer will be using different units for different SKUs of essentially the same generic product -- between different brands, and even between different sized packages of the same brand.
So instead of being helpful, it's a time-wasting diversion from the arithmetic, and also noise diversion cluttering the actual per-package prices.
Don't tell me that a grocery chain doesn't know what kind of product is in a package, nor know that consumers would like to be able to compare the cost per some reasonable unit of that kind.
Software didn't invent the dark pattern; we just scaled up earlier slimy innovations.
- add-sub-mul-div 2y agoI'm a little obsessive about the unit cost of everyday items and in addition to them using inconsistent units, it's not uncommon for it to be wrong. A few days ago I was in a CVS and a 4.25 oz box of candy was $1.99 and listed with a per oz cost of 39.8 cents. Either the price had gone up or through shrinkflation the size went from 5 oz to 4.25 oz and the unit cost was not recalculated. I see it too regularly to be able to trust that number on the tag.
- neilv 2y agoOh yeah, I notice outright wrong ones, too. In partial defense of the retailer, sometimes those seem to be due to the product being miscoded in their database (e.g., involving bundles of multiple retail packages, or maybe just the occasional typo of info that's not caught). Which could be accidental (rather than some of the other obfuscation, which is glaring and pervasive enough to seem intentional). But even when accidental, it gives the impression that they don't care that the information they're displaying authoritatively is outright wrong (or they would find a way not to do it so often).
- cedws 2y agoIn UK supermarkets the unit price is usually shown on the display.
- resoluteteeth 2y agoThe same is true in the US but what the parent comment is saying is that in the US, the displayed unit prices are often in different units which makes them difficult to compare.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sameoldtune 2y agoOr obtuse units. I just experienced it at an Amazon Fresh store yesterday where frozen chicken was shown in $/oz, patties in $/unit, and fresh chicken was in $/lb.
- rcbdev 2y agoEverything is listed in €/kg or €/L on the price label almost everywhere I've ever been. Only notable exceptions that come to mind would be the UK and US.
- leapingdog 2y agoThe UK has unit pricing[0] though I can't remember when it was introduced. [0] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unit-pricing-information-for-consumers/unit-pricing-information-for-consumers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unit-pricing-info...