On Dec 12, 12:38*pm, Andy Cap wrote:

The prices *that always amazes me are the packs of about ten screws or bolts.
They are absolutely exhorbitant. I think a pack of 10 bolts and wing nuts was
3.99.

It costs much the same to sell a bag of cheap things no matter how
little or how very little they cost. Bolts are inherently very cheap.
Shops cost much more to run. They're also mostly selling to people who
buy bolts very rarely, and only when they need one right that minute.

However years of market research in shops shows that people who have
no idea what something costs will pay any price (realistic or
unrealistic) so long as it's under a floor level (probably a fiver
these days) as they need one anyway and they have no idea what it
ought to cost. However if you offer them a box of many more for the
same price, they'll see this as _more_ expensive, because all that
they really do understand is that they need six, don't mind ten, but
see a hundred as a vast and expensive over-supply of them. This is
true even when a hundred costs less than ten, because the "hundred
shop" is simply far cheaper.

Andy Dingley wrote:
On Dec 12, 12:38 pm, Andy Cap wrote:

The prices that always amazes me are the packs of about ten screws or bolts.
They are absolutely exhorbitant. I think a pack of 10 bolts and wing nuts was
3.99.

It costs much the same to sell a bag of cheap things no matter how
little or how very little they cost. Bolts are inherently very cheap.
Shops cost much more to run. They're also mostly selling to people who
buy bolts very rarely, and only when they need one right that minute.

However years of market research in shops shows that people who have
no idea what something costs will pay any price (realistic or
unrealistic) so long as it's under a floor level (probably a fiver
these days) as they need one anyway and they have no idea what it
ought to cost. However if you offer them a box of many more for the
same price, they'll see this as _more_ expensive, because all that
they really do understand is that they need six, don't mind ten, but
see a hundred as a vast and expensive over-supply of them. This is
true even when a hundred costs less than ten, because the "hundred
shop" is simply far cheaper.

Yes, that all makes sense. I will part with my next £3.99 with a
cheerier heart !