The Mars bar method of economics

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Evans Electric

TEF LINUX ADMIN™
Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
23,507
Reaction score
527
Location
Birmingham
As with many products the Mars Bar  didn't increase in price but diminished in size  & thickness of chocolate .  As did the Wagon Wheel  & the Frozen Jubbly .

When I was at school the frozen Jubbly was the size of a brick  & cost 4 pence  (old money )   A shilling would buy 4  Jubblys    ( On Decimal Day a shilling was worth 5 p ) 

Today's Jubbly is the size of a matchbox  ...I don't know the cost .  

But the humble twin socket has reduced in price , it would appear .  

Back when I was estimating we used the Luckins  pricing book  .  Quality was deemed to be MK   & Crabtree   ...cheapo  house bashing prices were using Volex , Tenby   & a few others .

I'm sure I remember  a twin MK sky rocket  being around £6 .00  ea.    Just looking at Denman's price guide  for today ......... Steeple  SSO    @  £ 0.99p    ea          Their new Hamilton range  £1.40 ....  Eaton  £ 1.58...........Crabtree £2.25    &   MK    DP switched  @ £ 3.40  ea 

Just saying .

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sorry  ....3   Jubblys    4d  X 3  =  12d     = 1 Shilling .        I got confused with the 4d  ea   ...I often get confused ...I was hopeless at maths until the calculator was invented ...long after my schooldays. 

Edit ;    Actually I don't think  they would have worked  with  LSD money   or Yards , Feet & inches !   

 
Last edited by a moderator:
trouble is, someone (Thathers government) did away with standardised weights of products eg jam used to be in 1Lb jars, chocolate bars 2 ounces etc etc. So anybody can make anything in whatever weight they choose making it very hard to compare prices and allowing extreme 'shrinkage' in many things. 

 
On the news the other day......quality street, heroes, celebrations, roses etc.   Have maintained the Price point of £5/ tin BUT size has decreased by 45%!!
45%   !!!!   is just High Street robbery .         We bought Quality Street today at ASDA   £4    They had a pile the size of Snowdon . 

I 'm always suspicious  of manufacturer's packaging  etc  .   My favourite is women's perfume ,  the missus gets really annoyed but I can't resist banging on  ....perfume often comes in a really a tall box   so the product appears to be quite big ........  remove the bottle  & it often has a stopper  three times as long as the bottle  ... the bottle is usually minuscule .... the bulk price equates to about  £5000.00  /gallon .

The other thing is products that come in three different sizes ...BUT..they are very close in size for some reason .    I can grasp say , something sold as a pint  with a smaller one at 1/2 pint  say ...but they seem to go with a fraction less ...Colgate do it ... bought a new tube  , placed it by the last one and its  slightly smaller ...in the region of original one @ 500mL     new one  475mL   :C     Or whatever.

Just don't like being conned .

Ink cartridges  ...  when printing text in Black  why do printers need to use up some of the other colours ...we all know the printer is a virtual give away & the money is in the follow up ink  sales ....hence their hatred of the un branded cartridge sales . 

I'm no expert but I believe the  ink jet ones end up more economic .     

Whats the better value  , beer or petrol  ?   

Beer  about  £32  / gallon

Petrol about  £5 .26 / gallon  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
As with many products the Mars Bar  didn't increase in price but diminished in size  & thickness of chocolate .  As did the Wagon Wheel  & the Frozen Jubbly .

When I was at school the frozen Jubbly was the size of a brick  & cost 4 pence  (old money )   A shilling would buy 4  Jubblys    ( On Decimal Day a shilling was worth 5 p ) 

Today's Jubbly is the size of a matchbox  ...I don't know the cost .  

But the humble twin socket has reduced in price , it would appear .  

Back when I was estimating we used the Luckins  pricing book  .  Quality was deemed to be MK   & Crabtree   ...cheapo  house bashing prices were using Volex , Tenby   & a few others .

I'm sure I remember  a twin MK sky rocket  being around £6 .00  ea.    Just looking at Denman's price guide  for today ......... Steeple  SSO    @  £ 0.99p    ea          Their new Hamilton range  £1.40 ....  Eaton  £ 1.58...........Crabtree £2.25    &   MK    DP switched  @ £ 3.40  ea 

Just saying .
Also remember tools being very expensive  compared to your wages .  

 
Also remember tools being very expensive  compared to your wages .  
My stepbrother was an absolute idiot over money, he worked in a hospital, but for some strange reason always wanted to do my job, anyway I had a maintenance contract with a local firm for the electrics and plumbing, a local builder did the rest. One day our kid got talking to this builder and ended up working for him on his days off, one day he rang me to tell me he'd just bought a Kango from one of the local secondhand shops for £150, god knows why!

Anyway I took the mick out of him for wasting money on a tool he didn't need, the following week he rang me to tell me the machine had paid for itself, apparently the builder had asked him to help him with a job at the weekend, he'd worked Saturday and Sunday, knocking down a wall, naturally he'd used his new toy. The builder was very happy and had given him £150 cash for his help, I bet he was happy, considering he'd not had to hire the machine!

Our kid was well chuffed, not only had the machine paid for itself, but he'd proved me wrong into the bargain! No matter how I tried couldn't get him to understand that things didn't quite work like that, if he was saying the machine had paid for itself that weekend, then it also meant that he'd done two days work for nothing!

 
Top