Grocers They Think Us Stupid Perhaps

[no_hypocrisy]

48. Your post is timely. Last week I taught unit price to a class of sixth graders

and used the grocery store as a model and even used the phrase, "They must think you're stupid."

I used orange juice as a model. First I conducted a survey: how many kids drank orange juice. Nearly 100%. Next, I drew on the board two vertical rectangles, equal in dimensions. On the left rectangle, I wrote 64 oz and on the right one, 59 oz.

I then wrote under each one $3.00.

Then I asked if both cartons were the same price. They cost the same amount of money. Same box.

I'm proud to tell you they *got it*. Hands shot in the air, eager to tell me that the right OJ carton cost more because the unit price changed and gave me the math to prove it.

I then charged them to look in their supermarkets when with their parents, to look at coffee, ice cream, OJ and ask about their original sizes and their reductions.

And the kids agreed that it would be more honest to keep the original sizes/weights and just raise the prices.