Cooked white beans at 26 cents a kilo: the math that doesn't add up
A cooked bean offer advertises 26 cents per kilo, but the real price of the jar is €1.88/kg and the equivalent dried beans cost €4.68. Where's the catch?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The per-kilo price trap in jarred cooked beans
A jar of cooked white beans advertises 26 cents per kilo. The math behind it is simple: 400 grams versus 210, a five-cent difference between two sizes. The problem is that a full kilo of already-hydrated beans costs €1.88, and if you convert it to dry weight, because beans absorb water as they cook, the price shoots up to €4.68 per kilo.
The margin mirage
Let's compare properly. If a 400-gram jar costs €0.75 and another 210-gram jar costs €0.70, the extra 190 grams cost only 5 cents. That does indeed work out to €0.26 per additional kilo. But nobody buys just the margin. Whoever pays €0.75 for the large jar is paying €1.88 per kilo of already-cooked product, and once we subtract the absorbed water, more than €4.68 per kilo of equivalent dried beans.
The other side: making the most of it
The issue isn't just arithmetic. Some people remind us that wasting food is a luxury, and there are those who boast about living on less than a euro a day for food. In hot weather, a bean salad with tomato, spring onion and a good gazpacho can be the cheapest dinner of the week.
All in all, the next time you see "26 cents" on a jar, ask yourself whether you're looking at the price per kilo or the price of the difference.
A jar of cooked white beans advertises 26 cents per kilo. The math behind it is simple: 400 grams versus 210, a five-cent difference between two sizes. The problem is that a full kilo of already-hydrated beans costs €1.88, and if you convert it to dry weight, because beans absorb water as they cook, the price shoots up to €4.68 per kilo.
The margin mirage
Let's compare properly. If a 400-gram jar costs €0.75 and another 210-gram jar costs €0.70, the extra 190 grams cost only 5 cents. That does indeed work out to €0.26 per additional kilo. But nobody buys just the margin. Whoever pays €0.75 for the large jar is paying €1.88 per kilo of already-cooked product, and once we subtract the absorbed water, more than €4.68 per kilo of equivalent dried beans.
The other side: making the most of it
The issue isn't just arithmetic. Some people remind us that wasting food is a luxury, and there are those who boast about living on less than a euro a day for food. In hot weather, a bean salad with tomato, spring onion and a good gazpacho can be the cheapest dinner of the week.
All in all, the next time you see "26 cents" on a jar, ask yourself whether you're looking at the price per kilo or the price of the difference.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (14 replies).
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