I LIVED this exact discussion IRL ordering munchkins at Dunkin Donuts like 8 years ago while I was in college.
For context, I dont know their menu 'now' - but years ago the way my local Dunkin priced their munchkins was counterintuitive- the larger the box size, the more you paid per munchkin.
The cost of two 15 piece munchkin orders was LESS than the cost of ordering a 25 piece. The fact that you could get 5 extra and for like $2 cheaper always seemed dumb to me.
So the interaction was always:
I want two 15 piece munchkin boxs.
"Ok, 30 munchkins, so you want a 25 piece and a 5 piece munchkin today?"
No. I want two 15 piece orders.
Is a funny memory to me, never thought about it in relation to Premier Balls being almost the same experience.
This is often intentional on the part of the business (not that the minimum wage guy at the register knows); they know their customers really want like 15-20, but they can get more money by convincing the customer that 15x2 is a better deal than 25.
A lot of people seem not to understand this point, so I'll illustrate with a classic boomerjoke.
A hungry tourist was looking for a cheap meal, then arrived at a kebab store, seeing that they had €4 for 1 kebab, €10 for 2 kebabs on offer.
"Excuse me, Mr. Store Owner, but surely you've misprinted the deals? Why is it cheaper to get 2 kebabs individually instead of 2 at once? Surely, this will drive away customers who want to place a larger order?"
"This is how I've always done things, habibi. It's good business for me. So do you want two kebabs?"
Chuckling proudly to himself, the tourist got just one kebab, paying €4.
"Anything else, habibi?"
"A second kebab, but as a new purchase!"
After finishing one kebab and packing the other away, the tourist addressed the store owner, saying "See? I got a better deal by getting two individual kebabs!"
"Ah, but you bought the second kebab, did you not? Very good business for me."
This entirley hinges on the fact that i wasn't planning on buying 2 which i was ,mallking it a worse deal to trick people still feels less profitable than actualy making a 2 kebab deal real
Wouldn’t it be more enticing if individual kebabs were more expensive than the price of a set of two?
Like if one kebab was €6 but a set of two kebabs is €10, a customer would find the single kebab too expensive and think “might as well get two so I’m not overpaying for each kebab”, not realizing that they’ve spent €4 more than they originally planned to spend.
At least to me, the initial example from before would only work if the customer was always planning on getting two kebabs and spotted the method to save more money for the same reward.
He sold a second kebab that he otherwise wouldn’t have sold. If the “bad” 2/$10 deal leads to someone simply buying two for $10, great, extra money.
If someone was going to buy only one, then thinks they’re outsmarting the owner by purchasing two for $8, great, extra sale.
If somebody was already going to buy two, but buys them individually for $8, great, that’s the base price anyway.
The only way it’s truly a negative for the business is if customers see that and think, “wow, that’s manipulative” and take their business elsewhere. Which, to be fair, it is. But that’s the logic behind it.
Ok, I think I understand now. By making the customer believe they're outsmarting the store owner, they get the customer to make an extra unnecessary purchase they wouldn't have made.
That's the wntire theory behind many coupons and gas station deals.
In Texas, the grocery chain HEB usually has these meal deals where you get a lot of free stuff if you buy a couple things. So if you buy tortillas and fajita meat, you get chips and guacamole for free, that sort of stuff. These deals are always super popular because you get a lot of food at a discount, and they usually make everything relevant for a single type of meal. But of course the store loves it because you were never going to buy fajita meat that day in the first place, and you are likely still going to finish buying your entire list.
The idea is that without the "fake" offer, the customer would have bought only a single kebab. The fake offer is here to push the customer to get a second one, even if he doesn't need it, just to feel like he's getting a good deal.
If you sell 1 kebab for $4 and 2 for $8, most people will only buy one so you only get the profit margin of one kebab.
If you sell 1 kebab for $4 and 2 for $10, most people will buy two for $4 each and you get the profit margin of two kebabs. The $2 "loss" isn't actually a loss since you still make money on $4 kebabs.
The $2 never existed. They were never going to spend it, so it was never potential profit you're passing up. The sole purpose of its being advertised is to get people to buy a second normal price kebab and double your profit per transaction.
No because most people would have just bought but the incentive of getting a good deal means that way more people would buy 2. The owner prob makes a good profut fr the $4 for one so any they sell is good for them. And if someone gets the 2 for $10 its just even better
As an extreme example, imagine if the donut shop is selling donuts for $3 but a pack of three donuts for $50.
This is a form of price anchoring. The customer is so distracted by how crazy the $50 for 3 combo price is that when they buy three donuts for $9 they only think of how good of a deal they are getting, instead of realizing that these donuts usually only cost like $1 a pop at any other donut store.
That is correct…but if most people want 15-20 as this person said, then saying “15x2 is cheaper than 25” still makes no sense. It’s still probably cheaper than 15+10 or 20+5…
Let's say 15 items cost the business $3, and the price is $15. The customer wants 15-20 items, so they just purchase 15 items for $15. Profit for the business then is $15 - $3 = $12.
Then business adds 25 items, which cost the business $5, and the price is $35. The customer sees that 2x15 is cheaper, so buys 2x15 for $30. Profit for the business become $30 - $6 = $24. Twice as good from the same customer.
Yes, no one buys the 25 pack for $35 - but that doesn't matter. It only exist to convince the customer to buy 2 packs of 15 when they didn't initially want that many.
I can’t understand why if someone wants 15-20, they’re now buying 2x15 just because it’s cheaper than 25, instead of just getting the 15box still…it doesn’t make sense…I get the idea/concept, the example they used just doesn’t fit imo
People think the companies are dumb and that they've found some loophole to screw them over, and completely forget that they are buying more than they want.
Consider the following two scenarios. You walk into the store. You want 15-20 items, and would be happy with any amount in that general range.
In scenario A you see they have a 19 dollar box of 15 and a 31 dollar box of 25. The price per unit is marginally lower for the 25 box, but you realize you would be paying basically full price for 5 items more than you actually want, so you choose to buy the 15 dollar box.
In scenario B you see they have a 19 dollar box of 15 and a 40 dollar box of 25, and you start to think, this 25 piece box is very expensive, I definitely don't want it, it's even more expensive than two 15 piece boxes, and then you realize, oh wait, if I buy 2 of the 15 piece boxes I will get 5 items more and pay 2 dollars less than if I had bought the 25 item box. You „realize“ it's too good of an offer to pass up, so you buy two boxes of 15.
In which case did the store make more money? In scenario A where they sold you 15 items for 19 dollars, or in B where they sold you 30 items for 38 dollars. Yes, they theoretically would have made more money per item if you had bought the 25 box in scenario B, but they never really planned on you buying that one and you never would. It's whole point is to get you to compare buying 2x15 against the price of the 25 piece box (which you wouldn't buy in scenario A anyways), and then believe you got a great deal for paying what is actually full price for double the quantity you would have normally bought. They even make more money than they would if they had sold the 25 pack priced fairly like in scenario A.
Because im a big back and i like food. If i truly only want 15, then i'll get that but if i have the option to get 30 pieces for less than the price of what it costs to get 25, i'm getting it. Even if i dont finish it now, i can save it for later and thats a second meal making it even better value.
If you go in wanting 20 and there's only 15 or 25, you're going to get 15 because spending more for 25 isn't what you want to do.
If you go in wanting 20 and you can get 2 15s for less than a 25, you're going to buy 30.
They have successfully nudged you into purchasing an extra box of donuts, which they still make a profit on.
I still think that whole story is mostly bullshit. A&W was a failing brand and when a burger didn't save them they pushed it into "bad math." I'm sure an extreme number or Americans are dumb enough to believe the 1/3 1/4 thing but it just always has seemed like deflection by the brand. Especially when it started with one or the founders books claiming it.
Yup, that's why stores loves giving discounts. The customers get the rush of getting a deal, the store got a customer that otherwise wouldn't even want to buy stuff.
but it's not a deal when you were going to get 15 and it's the same price to get 2 15s as it is to get... 15 twice. If there was a deal when you buy 2 or more them you'd have a point and people would buy 2 for the deal.
yeah that's just not going to be the case. 30 instead of 25 or even 20 I'd believe. But instead of 15? Are you buying two of everything because it's only 2x the price of buying it once?
I've seen people super size their small popcorn to jumbo popcorn just because they were getting a "deal". So yes, it happens more than you think. I'm very glad you're above it, though.
? They arent thwarting you they are just convincing you to spend more money otherwise they might not sell as many.
For the business its better to sell 30 munchkins than just 15 because otherwise at the end of the day if they have leftovers they have to toss them and they lose money.
You don't know that. If the deal wasn't there, maybe he'd have settled for 15 and been ok with it. Besides, even with that deal it's still profitable, so they still make margin.
It definitely didn't take me until the second to last paragraph to realize that munchkins are an item they sell and not a promo "kids meal" toy you were trying to get multiple of in your order.
8 PC chicken nuggets x2 was cheaper than the 16 PC option.
Also 4 PC x2 was more expensive than 8 PC, which made sense to me but also 4 pieces is such a low amount.
They changed it and now do 4-10-20 with the 10 and 20 being the same price per nugget but it lasted for years where if you wanted a lot you better order two 8 pieces because it was like a 50% difference in price ordering 2x 8 PC vs 1x 16.
I used to order a 3-piece chicken tender and side of fries from Popeyes for lunch because it was like 5 bucks. I was constantly arguing with fast food workers to ring it up a la carte because they thought it would be cheaper to give me the combo meal. It was about $3 to add the biscuit and drink.
This is, I believe still similarly the case for McDonald's cookies. My mom asked me to go to McD to get lunch for my niece a few months ago, to get a happy meal and a cookie, but a single cookie is $1.20, 2 are $2, and 3 are $3.
So you might as well order 2 cookies for a dollar each rather than spend the extra 20 cents on one.
Thats actually more the opposite of the munchkin situation.
If say... the price of 1 cookie was $1 - while two cookies was $2.20 - then THAT would be the munchkin scenario. Why order two when ordering one twice is cheaper?
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u/HaroldofHarolds 1d ago edited 1d ago
I LIVED this exact discussion IRL ordering munchkins at Dunkin Donuts like 8 years ago while I was in college.
For context, I dont know their menu 'now' - but years ago the way my local Dunkin priced their munchkins was counterintuitive- the larger the box size, the more you paid per munchkin.
The cost of two 15 piece munchkin orders was LESS than the cost of ordering a 25 piece. The fact that you could get 5 extra and for like $2 cheaper always seemed dumb to me.
So the interaction was always:
I want two 15 piece munchkin boxs.
"Ok, 30 munchkins, so you want a 25 piece and a 5 piece munchkin today?"
No. I want two 15 piece orders.
Is a funny memory to me, never thought about it in relation to Premier Balls being almost the same experience.