Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 14, 2024

You’ve seen those signs in stores that say “Save 25%”, “Save 40%”, “Save 60%”? I know how to save 100%.

Some shops need a “Do not enter – save 100%” sign to remind customers what they do.

Especially shops selling luxury items like lawn ornaments, jewellery, art, tattoos, or anything else that you already own and that doesn’t wear out.

From Not Always Right: Math Is Your Friend, Part 15\

We are having a sale on a small item: two for fifty cents.

Customer: “Can I get these three for fifty cents?”

Manager: “No, but I can do four for a dollar.”

Customer: “Even better!”

The customer happily makes their purchase and leaves.

Me: “But… that was the deal?”

Manager: “I’ve dealt with them before. They thought a 50% discount meant fifty cents off, so I knew math wasn’t going to be their strong suit.”

Math Is Your Friend, Part 14

Our winter clothing is on sale at 20% off. A customer (male, forties) comes up to me with a jacket marked $99.99.

Customer: “What’s 20% off of $99.99?”

Me: “20% would be about $20.00, so that jacket will cost you about $79.99 before tax.”

He and his wife then stare at me in amazement.

Customer: “How… how did you figure that out so quickly?!”

Math Is Your Friend, Part 13

I am ringing out a customer who has three of a single item. They each ring up for $2.85.

Customer: “Hey! Those should be three for ten!”

Me: “Ma’am, they actually came up for less than three for ten, so you are getting an even better deal!”

Customer: Confused “No, I want them at three for ten!”

Me: Calmly “If they’re $2.85 each, then they’re less than the $3.33 each.”

Customer: “Well, I’m just not going to get them, then, since they aren’t three for ten. That’s such a good deal, too… Oh, well.”

She walked out, leaving all the rest of her items behind.

NOT my stories

That kid was being so nice, Mrs. Olsen. You could learn a thing from Frazz.

You can’t have enough – a particularly human trait.

Circus side show barker, ‘3 for a dime, 9 for a quarter.’ Didn’t matter what it was, people jumped for it.

I’m one of those a annoying people who do math in their head, often getting the correct answer in amount of change I get back before it shows on the cash registers. Only get beat if the person is very fast entering what I gave them.

Often, to challenge myself, I ask people to give me a four digit number and a two digit percentage. I give the answer almost always in under a minute

n%??

Ah, but you need one just to hang on your desk chair. I think it’s a rule. Or simply a tradition.

The fact that those stories were only a small sampling of today’s society, is what has me really concerned about our future!

More proof as a nation, we suck at math.

Sadly, it’s difficult to teach a human being enough to prevent them from deluding themselves.

Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar. All for FRAZZ, stand up and hollar.

Except “BOGO” by itself is an incomplete offer. “Buy One Get One …” could be completed with “… Free”, but I’ve also seen “… For Half Price”. Also, “Buy One Get One Free” sounds the same as “Buy Two for the Price of One”, except that if you buy only One, with the former you pay full price and the latter it’s half price.

I saw bags of ice on sale at a convenience store one time: $3.29 each, on sale 2 for $7

In pickleball, the score is announced before each serve as your team’s, the other team’s, and whether you’re the first or second server for your side. So occasionally it’s 2-4-1, and I always flash on “What a bargain!”

Sales math. All stores live by it.

Our friend was trying to learn Tagalog in the Philippines. Here are some examples of what confused her:

dalawang piso “two pesos”dalawa piso “two for one peso”tatlong piso “three pesos”tatlo piso “three for one peso”

Our friend picked up three items. The vendor said, “These are tatlo piso (three for one peso).”

Knowing you’re expected to bargain, our friend said, “Dalawang piso (two pesos each), please,” thinking she would only pay two pesos and save a peso. The vendor happily agreed to her offer, and so she paid six pesos, which was three pesos more than the original price.

Well, there’s math and then there’s math. While I manned the candy counter at lunch in 7th grade, where we GASP! did our own math on making change, and worked the window at a fast food place at the time we wrote, and FIGURED, the order on paper forms, when I tried, as a young newlywed, to convince my husband that we needed a new mattress and could save $200 !!!! I didn’t get it when he said, “But we have to SPEND $700”, “But we SAVE $200!!!” Took a while but I finally got it. The principle, not the mattress.