Posted on November 4, 2014
I love peanut butter and chocolate. The only thing better than eating peanut butter or chocolate is eating peanut butter and chocolate, and nobody puts them together like Reese's.
Unfortunately, purchasing Reese's delicious products has become much more complicated in recent years.
Because the company has recently diversified its peanut butter and chocolate portfolio, customers must now choose between pieces, cups, big cups, crunchy cups, miniatures, minis and sticks. That doesn't even include limited offers like dark chocolate cups, caramel cups, the half pound cup, wafers and kisses. And on top of all that, each of these products can come in several different packaging options!
This article illustrates some of the problems with having such a diverse line of products and offering them in a variety of packagings.
Although merely deciding which Reese's product you want to eat can be an insurmountable task, let's just assume we want a regular, old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cup and focus on the regular packaging options.
Option 1: Standard 3-Cup Package (46 grams)
The above image identifies a standard 3-cup package displayed on a rack at a local supermarket. As the tag indicates, for a price of $1.23 the customer receives 46 grams of Peanut Butter Cup ($2.67 per 100 grams).
Option 2: King Size 4-Cup Package (62 grams)
Here we see the king size package, which contains 4 regular Peanut Butter Cups. It's a mere $1.95 for 62 grams of goodness ($3.15 per 100 grams).
Wait a minute, you're probably wondering why the cost of the product increasing as we buy in larger quantities. And you're right to wonder.
Option 3: 6-Cup Bag (93 grams)
So here's a bag of 6 cups (93 grams) for regular price of only $1.69. This means that we're only paying $1.82 per 100 grams. What a deal!
But why are we getting such an amazing deal for buying 6 cups when we were punished for upping our purchase from 3 to 4 cups?
Option 4: 12-Cup Bag (184 grams)
Now here's a hefty supply of sugar and fat that's sure to please you junk food addicts: a bag of 4 standard 3-cup packages. The regular price is $4.37 for 12 cups ($2.375 per 100 grams).
This pricing kind of makes sense. It's cheaper per gram than the king size and standard packages, but still far more expensive than the 6-cup pack.
Option 5: Bulk Cups
Now here's where it gets really interesting. When we remove cup count from the packaging equation, we're told that the price of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups is $1.99 per hundred grams ($1.99 per 100 grams).
Pretty confusing, huh? Let's recap with a table comparing the size, cost and amount of packaging of the five options we covered:
Package | Size (cups/grams) | Cost (per pack/per 100 grams) | Amount of Packaging |
Standard | 3 cups/46 grams | $1.23/$2.67 | 1 outer pack, 1 sleeve, 3 liners |
King Size | 4 cups/62 grams | $1.95/$3.15 | 1 outer pack, 1 sleeve, 4 liners |
Small Bag | 6 cups/93 grams | $1.69/$1.82 | 1 bag, 6 individual packs, 6 liners |
Large Bag | 12 cups/184 grams | $4.37/$2.38 | 1 bag, 4 outer packs, 4 sleeves, 12 liners |
Bulk | minimum 1 cup/15.33 grams | $0.31/$1.99 | 1 individual pack, 1 liner |
But what does this mean? Well here's what we've learned so far about Reese's Peanut Butter Cup pricing:
So what does all this mean? It could be that some of Reese's packaging techniques are horribly inefficient, but there's really only one logical conclusion: Reese's wants us to purchase (and eat) either 3 or 6 Peanut Butter Cups at a time.
Think about it: why else would they make packages of 3 cheaper than 4 and packages of 6 cheaper than 12? Here are a few theories that could explain why this is the case:
1. By forcing us to constantly replenish our stock of Peanut Butter Cups, we're exposing ourselves to additional advertisements for other Reese's products.
2. Reese's has stake in the recycling or waste management industry, so it actually benefits them to generate more packaging.
3. Scientific research has shown that people who eat either 3 or 6 cups retain the maximum amount of pleasure without making themselves ill.
4. Studies show that stupid people want 4 or 12 cups at a time and are willing to pay anything to get that number of cups.
5. By making larger packaging options more expensive, Reese's earns huge profit from those who assume that a bigger pack means cheaper product.
In reality, none of these conspiracies are likely true. Reese's doesn't really decide how the packages are priced. Plus conspiracies require a large number of people working together to achieve a very complicated, devious plan without revealing it to anyone, and people are pretty bad at working together and even worse at shutting up.
Whatever the case, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are yummy.
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