I've noted before that Dunkin' Donuts coffee has a prominent place in our household. In addition to a pot of rocket fuel in the morning and a pot of decaf after dinner, the day is filled with Dunkin' in Keurig pod form. Yes, we're pod people. I confess I like to try different brands of coffee for my K-Cup usage, but the lovely and talented Mrs. K prefers to stick to DD.
So, when I go to the Big Box Warehouse Member Store, I get her the Big Warehouse Boxes of caffeinated and decaffeinated. This way she can regulate her caffeine intake. During the day she uses two pods for big cups o' joe; she usually likes a half-caf, unless she's flagging (in which case, full strength!) or it's getting late (then decaf, or I call it, kissing-your-sister time). The pods usually go at about the same rate.
But Dunkin' seems to think that decaf drinkers don't drink as much coffee as caf drinkers. There are 72 pods in the caffeinated box, 54 in the decaf box. Normally Dunkin' sells both kinds of coffee for the same price, so it's not like the 18-pod difference is caused by the cost of the Swiss water process or something. And indeed, the decaf box is cheaper because it has fewer pods. But why does it have fewer pods?
No one I know can tell me. Seriously, if you have any insight on this, leave it in comments.
Now the math part. I asked myself, "Self! If you wanted to have an even number of both kinds of pods, how many boxes of each would it take?"
I sat down with the ol' adding machine, abacus, and Texas Instruments calculator to crunch the numbers, and it's not much -- three boxes of caffeinated pods is 216 pods, the same as four boxes of decaf pods.
So that solves the how but not the why. Why are their fewer decaf pods in a box? Even if people consume decaf at a slower rate than caf, it's not like these things go stale in a hurry. (The box I bought last month is good for a year.) And why do you taunt me with mathematics, Dunkin' Donuts?
Next up: How many boxes of doughnuts vs. boxes of Munchkins will it take to come out even...
4 comments:
That is a very interesting observation.
You say price per pod is the same in each case?
You would think it costs them more to package two different size boxes than to use the same size for both.
You know it took multiple MBAs and Excel spreadsheets for them to decide to package that way.
Good question, PLW: The large box, according to the shop's price (BJ'S), is 43.99; the smaller is 31.99. So the caf is 61 cents per pod and the decaf is 59 cents per pod. Weirdly, the per unit price is 2 cents lower for the smaller box and the decaf.
these things always have the cause. some assistant product manager in Marketing had to change something to justify its existence.
Very good. Next, do paper towel math.
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