A few weeks ago I found myself at the Lindt truffle outlet in North Conway, New Hampshire. While I wouldn’t call myself a truffle enthusiast, I enjoy one or two here and there. I visit the outlet because they give out a free sample. And last time I was there the sample was a mint chocolate cookie flavored truffle that was so good I was inspired to buy a few.
At first the plan was to get 10 or so truffles. Just enough to sample a few flavors. But then I thought it would be a little selfish to just get enough for me to sample them, so I doubled my expected order size to 20 truffles.
After a careful observation of the prices, I found that if you got less than a pound of truffles, it would cost $0.65/piece. Above a pound, it cost $16.99/pound. With about 37 truffles in a pound, that means the unit price is $0.46/piece.
In my mind, it felt a little painful to pay more than 50 cents per truffle. So I figured I would go ahead and get the pound at pay $17 for 37 truffles. But then, having already thought I would pay $17, I saw a promotion they were running where you could get 125 truffles for just $30. This brings the price/piece down to just $0.24.
While it felt excessive to buy 125 truffles, I figured it would be fun. $30 is not much money to pay for weeks or months of pleasure we will get from sampling obscure flavors that few people would ever buy for themselves. And, the value was just too good.
So there you have it. Maybe Lindt really got me with a promotion. Or maybe I thought through the unit economics and walked about with the best deal in the store. Either way, fun to do the math.