Long Term Memories
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Answer Before the Analysis
Back in time (I think it was 5th or 6th grade but it might have been before or after), I had a teacher who wanted to show us the power of using arithmatic to inform our actions in the real time world (I'm sure she used other language).
The teacher decided to use, as an example, the choice of how much to buy.
She told us that she saved a lot of money by buying '2 for'. That is, she would by 2 jars of something for 29 cents, instead of buying a single jar for 15 cents and then, a month later buying another jar for 15 cents.
After she did the arithmatic, she realized that her savings, for a year, amounted to under $ 2 or so (this was without, of course, considering the time value of money, which I think she may not have even known about).
This analysis, which seems to show that her point was wrong, nevertheless, concluded with, "so you see you can save a lot by knowing arithmetic."
I thought of this when I told George the news that Shoppers Grocery now sells its own generic brand of corn chips at about 60% the price of name brands and furthermore that the generic has an upscale kosher symbol on the package.
Finally, these days, I notice that the '2 for' items are typically for an even amount of money (i.e., 10 for $10 or 2 for $1) so the analysis done 50 years ago isn't even applicable.
