Why isn't everything priced fairly at the Home Depot?

Question

For some products, you get a discount per unit when purchasing. But others that are sold either in packages or individually are exactly the same per unit. A couple examples of each:

Wire. When you buy a 250' roll of wire, the price per foot works out to be much less than if you buy a 100' roll. You pay even more per foot in a 50' roll.

Outlets/switches. A 10-pack of outlets is $3.57, but purchased individually, they are 59 cents each. Single-pole switches are $4.90 per box, but 69 cents individually.

But some things that do not offer a package discount:

Recessed lights. If I buy a box of 6 lights, it is the same price as buying 6 individual units.
Circuit breakers. A box of 10 circuit breakers is exactly the same as buying 10 individual ones.


Why do they have an inconsistent pricing scheme among electrical supplies?

Answer 1

Have you looked at other stores for the same pricing *scheme*. Believe me, EVERYBODY does it. The grocery stores sell an item at one price per unit, but quite another price when that *unit* is larger. It's not just Home Depot, it's EVERYBODY, and it's been that way throughout all of time. You *should* have noticed this everywhere LONG ago. What gets my goat, is when the lesser quantity items are actually LESS expensive than the larger quantity one.

Al

Answer 2

It makes sense for the Home Depot number crunchers. Buying most items in volume is usually cheaper per unit. It all starts with the maufacturing process, and the cost to produce the item, and how much profit is to be made on each item. The manufacturer has a base selling price to the vendor (Home Depot), and then HD has to mark up the product a certain amount to the customer to make their profit. If you were to sell the product yourself, as a contractor might do, you would mark it up a bit more to produce a profit for yourself. And so it goes.

Answer 3

"priced fairly"?



"But some things that do not offer a package discount:"

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Maybe the opposite is true. Instead of accusing them of failing to give a discount for more they are giving you the "package discount" on the individual items and being generous rather than unfair.



Also, you might have answered your own question with the use of the term "package discount". With outlets I have seen a pack of 10 in one box which is cheaper to package than 10 packaged individually. But with a box of 10 recessed light they are not in a single box but 10 individually packaged lights inside another box. You wouldn't want all the parts of the lights, rings, connectors, fittings, all mixed up in one box would you? Since there is no savings on packaging, in fact the box of 10 costs more for the extra box, there is no "package" discount to be passed on.



And it could be how the items are sold to them. With China selling things so cheap margins are small so discounts have suffered. Home Depot might not get much of any volume discounts either so it is no benefit to them to offer volume discounts unless the amount is very large.



Think about it

Answer 4

Pricing is all about what items are purchased for, plus the stores markup, which has to take in a complicated mix of expenses.



I'm sure Home Depot has little to do with why these completely different items are priced differently for lots vs. individual pieces. They buy the stuff, they mark it up by whatever means they calculate, they sell it.



As for fair...get used to it. What the heck is ever really fair?

Answer 5

If you don't like how items are priced there, shop elsewhere.



A waste of time to analyze pricing when there are so many other places to purchase the same items from.



Time is money. You wasted a whole lot of time analyzing.

Answer 6

you should send an email via their website, companies love that kind of feedback. I do it all the time.