Good day my fair people of blogland! Today I wanted to give you some insight in to the deceptive practices used by retail giants to get us to spend more $$$ than is necessary. Ok, maybe that statement was a bit on the dramatic side, but that's basically what it boils down to.
It started last week when I shared, I was working on organizing the refrigerator and the pantry because of my newly discovered allergies. A trip to my local Walmart was in order for five of their very popular Mainstay Storage Basket.
Five at $2.50 each for a total of $12.50 before taxes... not bad right. After all, Walmart made sure to highlight the fact that the ones I was purchasing were the "large" ones, with the royal blue strip on the label. After I set the five up in the frig I discovered I needed one more basket. The next day I stopped by the Walmart close to my day job and noticed that they had a 2 pack of baskets for $3.97. "What is this? Why were these so much lower in price??? Oh, it must be the fact that they are not the "large" baskets. They're missing the royal blue strip and they didn't say large. Hmmm... really though, what is the difference? Let's bring them home and find out."
Side by side comparison:
Let's look at the measurements on the package. I think its interesting that the dimensions are not listed in the same order. Was that intentional? At first glance it appears that the "not large" one, on the right is in fact, smaller. But is it really? Let's put the dimensions in the same order:
Large - 13.5 W x 5.7 H x 7.75 D
Not Large - 13.45 W x 5.75 H x 7.75 D
So from this, it would appear the .05 in was taken from the width and given to the height of the "not large" one. Essentially, making the two baskets the same size. Well, not quite. Let's calculate the total volume of each basket:
Large - 13.5 W x 5.7 H x 7.75 D = 596 cubic inches
Not Large - 13.45 W x 5.75 H x 7.75 D = 599 cubic inches
Well lookie lookie... it turns out the "not large" one is actually the bigger basket by 3 cubic inches because its taller.
Oh the deceit! (More drama!) If I presented this to Walmart (because that's likely to happen... NOT!) they would probably say that the "large" basket is made of better quality plastic. Which to be honest with you, when I was handling both of the baskets, the large basket felt slightly sturdier and I do mean slightly. You wouldn't notice the difference without handling the two at the same time.
The end result was me returning the faux "large" baskets in favor of the larger "not large" baskets and saving $3.32, every little bit counts!
If you're planning on buying the same baskets save yourself a few dollars and go with the 2 pack. Hope this was helpful.
Till next time...
.jpg)
