• @disguy_ovahea
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    6 months ago

    The US needs nationally mandated unit price labeling. We’ve had it in NY for as long as I can remember.

    You’d be shocked at how often the middle size is the best deal. It’s almost always the case with cereal. The large box ends up more expensive than the medium per ounce, but people assume it’s the better deal because it’s a bigger package.

    https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/laws-and-regulations/us-retail-pricing-laws-and-regulations#:~:text=Currently%2C nineteen (19) states,Vermont and the Virgin Islands.

    • @[email protected]
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      156 months ago

      Unit price labeling is mandatory in France too. This is the only price I’m looking at when shopping.

      • @disguy_ovahea
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        6 months ago

        I’m sorry. The article is clearly about France, but my comment was America-centric. I edited my comment for clarity.

        I’m glad to hear you have unit pricing available in France. I can’t imagine the time people must spend doing the math for comparison shopping in regions without it.

        Do you think the shrinkflation stickers will make a difference in educating the average consumer, or be more effective as a shaming tool for manufacturers?

    • @RememberTheApollo_
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      106 months ago

      They’re still jerks about it in stores. To keep you from easily comparing products they’ll offer the unit price per oz for one box, then give you the unit price per lb for the other. So they make you do the math, and I’m sure plenty of people just skip that and buy the larger size.

      • @disguy_ovahea
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        6 months ago

        That’s against regulations if you live in a unit price mandated state. You can report misuse of unit price labeling to your State Director.

        According to NIST SP 1181, under Consistency of Units and Measure:

        The declaration of the unit price of a particular category of product in all package sizes offered for sale in a retail establishment shall be uniformly and consistently expressed in the same unit of measure. The same unit of measure should be used whether a product category is sold in a fixed weight pre-pack, loose from bulk, or in a random weight pack.

      • @[email protected]
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        6 months ago

        Costco do this too, at least in my area in California. They price some canned drinks per fluid ounce, and others per can. Really annoying.

        I used to see Walmart do it too, but I think they’ve gotten better.

      • @[email protected]
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        16 months ago

        They do this here in the UK too but because we use the metric system now you just add or take away a zero. It registers in your awareness but you don’t need to go away and install an app on your phone in order to convert it.

        • @disguy_ovahea
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          6 months ago

          The challenge in comparison is more due to different sized packages than unit of measurement. If one brand makes packages in 8, 11.5, and 14.2 ounces, and a competitor makes 6, 9.5, and 12.7 ounce packages, it would make most break out a calculator to compare them when exclusively labeled by package price.

      • @Alexstarfire
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        26 months ago

        We’ll do anything before using metric.

    • @[email protected]
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      26 months ago

      I wish the US would just start displaying the actual price of the item including tax. Not all that deceptive crap.