Fuzzy Math At Walmart Means Bigger Chicken Broth Carton Costs You More

On the shelf, the 48-ounce carton of Swanson’s chicken broth brags that it’s 50% bigger. “50% bigger than what?” the cynical consumer might ask. The fine print tells us that it’s in comparison to the company’s 32-ounce container. This is all factually true, but the problem is that while the package makes shoppers think that they’ll get more, they’re actually paying more per ounce to buy the bigger package.

This is a phenomenon that we call Fuzzy Math, a type of Target Math, since for some reason it happens often at Target. Purchasing something in bulk should get shoppers a discount, not a per-unit price hike.

Reader Captain Pete noticed this at his local Walmart in New Mexico. “Obviously new graphics increase costs,” he observed. Yet somehow we don’t think the price increase was because of that “50% more” graphic splashed on the larger container.