I came across this interesting soup sale in a CBD cafe. A small soup costs $7 and a large – which looks at least double the size – will set you back $8.
If you like soup, or want to share a cup or two with your coworkers, then it’s a no-brainer. For only $1 more you get a lot more soup so why bother to buy a “small”? A real no-brainer, or is it?
By having one size so close in price to another you’ve essentially made the smaller size a lot less value. Without actually seeing the sales figures – the cafe owner might have settled on this pricing structure as a result of extensive historical data analysis – I can’t say whether this is an effective tactic or not.
Sure it’s a no-brainer if you like soup, but if you only wanted to spend, say, $5 on a smaller serve then parting with $7 for what seems like half the value might also put a lot of people off buying any soup at all.
A sales dilemma indeed.
There’s another cafe in the CBD which sells soup for $6 ($7 if you want a slice of bread with it) in a large coffee cup-sized container. I actually prefer this to a bowl as it’s more portable and I know it’s a moderate portion size.
When selling food, portability also plays a part in the no-brainer equation.
