I am good at math. I am not good at calculus or trigonometry or any of that hard stuff, so don't ask me to explain why the cosecant is the reciprocal of the sine. I'm good at adding/subtracting/multiplying and the like. I'm the guy who will help with a tip or who will congratulate you on your 44th birthday b/c you are halfway between 18 and 70.
I am also good at going to Dunkin' Donuts. They are ubiquitous in New Jersey. I like their coffee. I like their app. And I always need a PM coffee fix. We have two in my town, and at least three more in the two towns next to us. I go to one every day for that afternoon fix. Mornings are for home-brew. Afternoons are for DD.
I go to one particular store most of the time. I know the folks there pretty well. I order via the app, pick up my stuff and thank them. Sometimes, I tip them in the tip jar by the To Go orders. Sometimes, I'll spontaneously buy some munchkins for my kids. I usually only ask for a few. They always give me more. Everybody wins.
I went to my local DD the other day. DD is a franchise. Franchisees set their own prices. Usually, local prices are on top of each other. Sometimes there is an errant price. And I usually notice. Because math. I got in line to order munchkins. I looked at the menu before ordering and got confused. The munchkin pricing made no sense! An order of ten munchkins was $2.49 (a quarter each). An order of fifty was $10.99 ($0.22 each). But what threw me was the order for 25 munchkins. They were asking $6.99 for that size! That, my friends, is $0.28 each. Makes no sense.
I stepped to the counter. And then I made the mistake. Instead of holding my tongue, I went and tried to mathsplain the pricing issue to the woman behind the counter. I did it w/ a smile and a tone of jovial banter, trying to minimize the annoyingness. But my mask hid my smile. And my tonal intentions may not have resonated with the Filipino woman working the counter.
I see this woman 3-4 times a week. We were friendly. Emphasis on were. I prefaced my conversation with "I know you don't set the prices, but it doesn't make sense how..." I even broke it down to the "that order is 25 cents each, that one is 28 each and that one is 22 each" level.
There's a 50% chance the woman understood the mathematical point I was trying to make. But there was a 100% chance she didn't appreciate it. She gave me a terse look and went about her munchkin business. I took my coffees and my bag of munchkins and headed home. When I got home, I counted my munchkins. There were exactly 20 in the bag. Stone cold move by her. That's what I get for mathsplaining.
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You ordered the least cost-effective amount? Maybe she punished you for ostentatiously throwing your $6.99 around even as you boasted that it was the least bang for your buck.
I ordered two orders of 10 munchkins. Would've ordered 25, but it was priced too high. Editorial staff should have added that back in the story.
And the 25 pack should really be $5.99
Gotcha. Now I’m hungry.
And aboard a flight to Colorado. God bless antibodies.
This is why TR and I hang out—we don’t really like each other but no one else likes us so we make it work.
It’s still snowing. Or it’s snowing again. It’s like Groundhog Day on Hoth. My investment in snow tires paid off though, my side street hasn’t been plowed in a while (not a euphemism) so traction is at a premium.
I miss the old National Signing Day.
TR, you need to make things right with the Filipino woman at the counter and save the mathsplaining for the manager.
I had to give up imbibing any coffee beyond my three cups of french press in the morning. I get too jittery for the rest of the day if I drink more.
I don't understand why people buy coffee out instead of making it at home. Sorry TR.
It only makes sense if you are in transit, at work or meeting someone out. You can make coffee at home that is at least as good as a store. It is cheaper and takes less time to prepare than going to the coffee place.
3 cups in the morning, 1 cup at 2:00 pm. like clockwork. i’m a creature of habit.
I'm close to Rob's schedule. I don't like to brew coffee in the afternoon b/c I only need a small amount and I don't want to waste a #4 filter on that! But I brew my 2.5 cups every morning. I should invest in a fancy coffee contraption to up my game, but I probably won't b/c lazy.
Once you've exhausted your act at all of the area Dunkins, you may have to resort to brewing at home.
There is also some math to be done comparing the cost of a #4 vs the fuel required for the coffee run.
Watching the Superbow reports on SportsCenter and it’s clear that all of ESPN’s reporters are staying at The Tradewinds in St Pete.
Also, Nets-Clippers last night was so fun. I only caught the second half but that was some high level offensive basketball. Kyrie’s combination of footwork and finishing is otherworldly.
This may just be a very shrewd pricing strategy. Logically, pricing each tier at a slightly lower amount makes sense to incentivize buying more. However, TR to your point most people are bad at math or don’t pay that much attention. I would guess that most folks only see small, medium, and large pricing and pay very little attention to the per unit cost. As long as the tiers feel “fair” there will be no complaint from most customers. I have to assume that the marginal cost of bagging between 10, 25 and 50 munchkins is negligible so why not price all three tiers the same on a per unit basis? I the the pricing is more likely tied to the popularity of the options.
Munchkins tend to be a communal food. You buy them for the family or for the break room. Therefore, 10 feels small for most orders and 50 might be excessive. I would be willing to bet that 20 is by far the most popular order size. By pricing things the way they it lets them make the largest margin on what is probably the most popular product while still appearing fair to must non-math nerd customers. It would be interesting to see if this pricing strategy holds true for soda at fast food restaurants.
marls has bingo. i'm smack in the middle of a large re-pricing exercise for the product my team sells, and we're spending a lot of time thinking about the price points that maximize revenue. i bet munchkin pricing (bump, set...) is very intentional.
My Starbucks or Dunkin visits are confined to airports when traveling. I'm a firm believer in brewing at home/office and can never get over the endless drive-in line around the local stores in the morning. The time and money wasted. I should be in a Progressive Insurance commercial b/c I'm becoming my parents.
We've got a nice grinder and brewer here at work and a coffee club that delivers something new each month. I'm a 2 cupper in the a.m. and either a latte (keurig machine too) or a tea. Thanks for listening to today's episode of 'Coffee Tawk'.
Rob - you don't sell Contracts Express do ya? Cuz we use it here!
I don’t drink much coffee but I do enjoy an unsweetened green tea in the afternoon because apparently I’m a hippie.
Marls - I appreciate the argument you posited, but I'm not sure I agree w/ your thesis on the 25 pack. Most would go 50, IMO, b/c it's still cheap, and b/c folks always overorder office snack food b/c they're not paying.
I may do a recon of DD munchkin prices to see what's up. I should probably wear a disguise.
danny - my team doesn’t sell it, but i know the folks that do. hope you got the fogtb discount.
I don't like Pan Am's coffee, but I sure do love ... forget it.
Grinder? I hardly ... never mind.
I grind my own beans twice a day, and I grind them for zwoman too. Once in a while she'll grind both our beans.
My wife used to grind my beans, but she wasn't doing it right. Most mornings I come downstairs to a nearly simmering kettle, so my wait time is short.
I'm seeing a limited streaming series on the horizon: TR - The Undercover Munchkin Hunter.
Ummmm, that sounds a bit pedo.
#ForTheBrand
rootsy had to take matters into his own hands. In all seriousness, how do you properly grind beans for a French press? I always wind up with a bunch grinds on the wrong side of the press so I must be grinding too finely.
I just got deflowered, dispensary style. It was a wondrous world inside. Also, you can bet on Virginia teams here. Look out.
Would that not be getting flowered? Let's ask TR - he likes to explain things to people.
put alllll your money on the tribe, whit.
Tribe games cancelled until further notice. Drat.
Couple of amusing notes about the dispensary visit.
First, the “bud-tender” who was assigned to me looked and sounded just like our old fratre Peter Klam.
Second, I asked the time when we left the store. 2:20. We know what that is east cost time.
yeah, covid protocols got the tribe. griffin out front shoulda told you.
Bet on Tech, UVa, and VCU.
And against VMI. Can’t do it, Sally.
And just like that, the Keydets are playing good basketball. Damn them.
Dispensary visits are rare enough for me (CO, CA or MA) that they are a real blast. 90% of budtenders are super cool and helpful. And the other clients when I am there seem to come from all walks of life. My desire to go and shop outpaces my desire to consume these days. Hoping NJ gets its act together for retail sales sometime this year. NY won’t be far behind.
placed a small wager on rickie fowler to win the waste management open at +4500. tony finau wasn't on the board. because he's not in the field.
The various walks of life I encounter on my visits to the medical dispensaries are encouraging. It’s not just a “get high” dynamic anymore. Florida isn’t too far from legalizing imo. Doesn’t matter for me but would still be a step in the right direction for all.
What’s a small wager, Robbie?
And I do agree with TR that it was super cool experience. Like walking into a Corvette showroom, ordering a full service massage, and buying a big bag all in one.
None of which have I done.
a whopping tenner, whit
My picks for WM - An, Bubba, Hideki. List top 10, Zalatoris top 5. Now ya know
And I'm on Team Marls re munchingate. No brainer.
The Johnnies are bringing the heat tonight, Marls
St. John’s up to 69 in the KenPom rankings.
Vampire Marls is back. Missed that guy. Hoping he is asleep on a recliner somewhere right now.
Vampire Marls is awesome. “I see a mansard roof through the trees, shaw shaw, haunt the house.”
I wish it was vampire Marls. Was working on a client presentation. Ugh.
Completely unrelated to this thread (sorry), I’m in line for vaccine.
Yay, Donna! Good news.
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