As with our previous posts about reading and writing I suspect that this one will instigate some discussion.
To me learning multiplication tables is both a right of passage and a valuable investment of time and energy when later dealing with choices that we all make in life.
Rather than argue the issue, let me post this picture that I took in a store recently:
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Fuzzy Math?
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A real fact of the matter is that no matter how much I hated Math, I did learn things that have come in handy in real life. Like to know which is the better buy, and I do this all the time at the store. I also hated Geometry, but loved to shoot pool, back when I could see better, and make the stick do what I wanted it to. And, pool is all about Geometry.
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When I was a child, I remember going to JC Penny’s at Northgate Shopping center. They had boys socks on sale for 33 cents a pair or 3 pair for a dollar. That was about 45 years ago. So what is your point exactly? This type of thing is nothing new. The example you show above was probably set by a computer in Bentonville Arkansas. The best example of this stuff I like is when Albertson’s doubles the prices of meats and then has a Buy one get one free sale.”
Buyer beware. And Brutus, you are really starting to sound like Ramnath Subramanian ..I am beginning to worry about you.
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I just read the 2 signs and looked at what they are selling.
100 RULED 3×5 cards are 48 cents
and
300 BLANK 3×5 cards are more expensive by the 100 at $1.88
As a former high school student, I can tell you WHY the weird prices:
Internal competition of the product line and demand of the product.
There is GREAT DEMAND for the Lined cards and every office product line offers, LINED 3×5 Cards. So, they compete with each other and the price goes down. Sometimes, almost at cost.
There is almost NO DEMAND for the BLANK CARDS, and not as much competition and nothing to really “Drive down the cost or price.”
For instance:
Every paper manufacturer MAKES #10 white envelopes, the standard of the industry and they all compete in prices and that gets the price WAY down.
However, Colored paper/ colored #10 envelopes are about 3-4 times the price of white #10 envelopes, but not used is mass and almost no competition, so what price you see on the Colored paper/ colored #10 envelopes is what the price “should be” with all the labor and whatnot.
The more common and the more competition there is on any product, the price should be/could be lower.
That’s WHY the 3×5 Lined cards are sold/ “cheaper” per 100 than the blank cards.
There is even more labor to make/print the lined cards but still with every paper company/ every paper mill/ making and selling SOOOOO many of the Lined cards, the price gets lower, and lower and lower until there is a noticeable price difference.
These 3×5 cards should all be packaged in 100’s, both Lined and Blank, so the customer can SEE the difference, but for whatever reason, someone did not do that, so it looks CRAZY.
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Your explanation is appreciated.
Just for the record, the pack of 300 that I examined was ruled.
Brutus
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May I suggest a good use for a 2×4 on some people…
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Walmart is doing just fine probably due more to our love of stuff and bad decisions rather than to our poor math skills. As a result, the biggest math problem for the Walton family is that they continue to have trouble counting all of their money. Try counting to 152 billion. They didn’t become the richest family in the United States by worrying about whether customers can read or do basic math. However, Sam did understand the concept of multiplication. He knew that the more stores he had, the more money he would make. He also learned the value of compounding interest.
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excellent question to filter out candidates for office
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The Popular Dry Goods downtown, used to put all the shoes that didnt sell on a “SALE” table in the basemant. They would take them OUT of their boxes and mix them all up on the table. The price would be the same as “before the sale” but buyers would have to dig thru the pile of shoes on the table, making them “Panic” looking for the other shoe, and when found, the customer would be relieved, in love with the shoes – like finding a lost baby sheep or something, and they would hug the shoes and keep them close to their body as they headed for the cash register.
Same price, same shoes, but all dumped on a Sale table in the basement. The shoe table would be bare by the end of the day.
Now: “Albertsons-Smiths-Alpha Beta-Skaggs-Save On” or whatever they are called THIS YEAR. . . has the highest prices in town and has specials like: Cans of Corn, regular ol’canned corn $1.50 each or 10 for $10.00.
Now, who in the World buys 10 cans of corn and WHO even pays $1.50 per can anyway? Every other store in town Corn in the can is 68 cents to . . . maybe 80-90 cents at the most per can, and NOT on sale. Most of their prices are jerked around like that.
No wonder they didnt want a Walmart Grocery across the street in Chelmont. They have the older people and retired locked in and those older customers in older neighborhoods dont want or “Can’t” drive to a store with normal prices.
I see the other customers at Albertsons are teachers, and many city-county federal /government employees that have no concept of money and they “just can’t live on $40,000 to $60,000. per year.” “Oh, its soooooo hard. Oh, poor me, Im underpaid and the 2 adults that live in that home, just cant make it on a combined income of over $80,000. per year. Oh, poor them. “
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