• Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    22 hours ago

    That probably violates the law in your state, if you want to report it to the Office of Weights and Measures. The people I know that have worked in grocery stores say the only time the government was ever up their ass was when someone called the OWM. Might be called Department or Bureau instead of Office in your state.

  • orclev@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    edit-2
    21 hours ago

    Even if you round up to 17 cents per ounce that’s still only $5.44 for 32 ounces. Doing the math backwards they’re charging a bit over 21 cents an ounce.

    Edit: doing a bit more math they’ve inflated the cost a bit under 25%. At first I was thinking maybe they’re including taxes in the price or something (not that anywhere in the US regularly does that and certainly not Walmart), but I’m not aware of anywhere that has a 25% sales tax so it can’t be that. This is just straight up fraud/false advertising.

    • herskal@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      21 hours ago

      My guess is they’re incorrectly basing it on the 40oz size (which does exist). Buyer beware!

      • orclev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        21 hours ago

        The math on that does seem to line up rather perfectly but that raises the question of if the ounces on the label are wrong or someone copied the wrong line item when filling in the per ounce price (not that they should be doing that manually, it should be derived automatically from the price and weight). I suppose they also could have copied the wrong weight as well so the label says 32 oz, but the item is listed in their DB as a 40 oz product.

        • paraphrand@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Why isn’t it automatically calculated. It’s 2026. Surely we have metadata for products on lock by now. If the tag has the volume and the price, it has all the information it needs.

          • bss03@infosec.pub
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            edit-2
            16 hours ago

            Having worked on POS software, I can guarantee you we do not have “metadata for products on lock”.

            Manufacturers will sometimes reuse the same UPC even though the packaging is fairly different. The UPC doesn’t contain the price, size, or any size – it is just a convenient look up for whatever POS the retailer uses, and for systems targeting independent retailers, that might be maintained mostly manually, though some warehousing associations might provide an importable list.

            In large retailers sometimes the smart tags are controlled using a system that doesn’t even deal with UPCs, just images / webpages, shelf locations, and schedules.

            Buyer beware, indeed.

            • paraphrand@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              edit-2
              20 hours ago

              Yeah, and I realize that. It’s absurd that our capitalist society boasts about big data and technology and Roll Backs and Saving and all sorts of other things that might make you believe they care about such a fundamental part of it all.

              I name drop the current year because as they years go on, it’s ever more absurd that something like this isn’t perfect yet.

              But profit motive is why it isn’t perfect yet.

              • orclev@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                17 hours ago

                Not just profit but lack of a central authority to enforce it. Standards are great when everyone follows them, but establishing standards is an absolute nightmare. Even the humble UPC is surprisingly sketchy when you dig into it and it’s amazing every manufacturer managed to mostly follows the standard. Now for extra fun, UPCs are deprecated and everyone is supposed to be swapping to QR codes instead. I can’t wait to see what a complete and utter clusterfuck that’s going to turn into.

      • orclev@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        21 hours ago

        I got curious and looked it up. I couldn’t find anywhere in the US that taxes sugary cereal only drinks, and even if they did the highest rate I found was 2 cents per ounce (tangent, it’s completely idiotic that they tax by weight instead of taxing by sugar content) which is significantly less than the markup in this case. It was a good theory, but unfortunately it doesn’t check out.

  • paraphrand@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    edit-2
    21 hours ago

    I would insist on getting the lower of the two prices if there was a difference.

    I’ve always wondered why it isn’t illegal to make the price per unit the same measurement across a given set of carried related products. It’s malicious compliance to not have it consistent and easily comparable.

    • fulcrummed@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      17 hours ago

      In Australia there are consumer protection laws that cover similar situations. If a product price scans differently at the checkout than displayed on the shelf, you get the product at whichever price is lower, or the business must cease selling the item until the price is corrected.

      In addition there is a voluntary code of practice that the big supermarkets have signed onto which states that if the price scans higher at the checkout than shown on the shelf, the customer is entitled to receive the first of that item for free and any subsequent items at the lower price.

  • altphoto@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    18 hours ago

    Amazon uses that tactic too… Plus the unmatched units… Bannanas! 98c/lb…Bananas, $75/kg

  • Zulu@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    21 hours ago

    Convenient that the shitty surge pricing garbage doesnt also update the pirce per oz.

    Once again, a battle of stupidity or maliciousness.

    Is it on purpose because most people wont check the math? Is it a messup on the stupid system thats meant to scam people while they shop?

      • saltesc@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        15 hours ago

        I get it.

        320Z is not a.product ID or code.

        That’s an O, for ounces and the Z makes that obvious.

        It’s like five Empire State Buildings or football fields or pickup trucks, but really it’s only four.