Tuesday 11 September 2007

real cost of bulk purchases


I was at the local Chemist Warehouse this evening to buy some Blackmores vitamin pills and noticed that they come in three different quantities.

- 60 pill bottle @ $20.99
- 120 pill bottle @ $29.99
- 180 pill bottle @ $46.99

The obvious assumption is to go for the 180 pill bottle as the general rule of bulk purchases is " the larger the quantity, the cheaper it gets". Well in this case, it is certainly not true.

Doing the maths, we get the following

- 60 pills is 35c per pill
- 120 pills is 25c per pill
- 180 pills is 27c per pill

From the figures, it is clearly cheaper to buy the 120 pill bottle. I guess that assumption isn't always correct but may be true most of the time, which is why I like the saying " if you assume, you will make an ASS out of U and ME".

photo credit : dima v

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