Economics by Aubri

I want to talk about floss for a bit.

Jamaal and I ran out of floss. And I've been getting by without it. (I mostly forget to floss so I didn't miss the missing floss all that much)

I have decided that it's important for me to floss, and want to do so nightly. But, like previously mentioned. I had no floss.

I went to Costco earlier in the week, and thought "Maybe they have floss here." Thinking it would be strange to buy bulk floss; especially when we are both due sometime before the end of the year for a dentist visit (and with that comes free floss.) I also thought that it would be weird for Costco to even carry it. But as I was making my way to the cashier I saw it. A six pack of floss for....$12.99!

A little over $2 for a thing of floss?? I could not bring myself to spending that much money on floss. I can make floss with my hair or thread for that price!

So, after getting slightly depressed on Thursday night, (we did not sign the papers on Thursday, and therefore had to sign them on Friday which means we won't get keys until Monday or quite possibly Tuesday) I wanted to get out of the house and shop. When I'm depressed I like to buy things. It was stupid to go out, but, I did. I ended up buying a bag of Halloween candy (for us, though not for trick or treaters) and a couple movies and a small bag of popcorn for me to snack on while shopping. Which, I must say, stopped me from buying lip gloss that I was craving to buy. (and the popcorn came with a diet pop to sip on for only $1.75!)

Since I was in Target, I decided to buy some floss. I could not believe the horror that I found there. One roll of floss (that must be made of gold) was $3.49!! I didn't examine it very thoroughly, since I was appalled, but it must floss your teeth for you. "Just tear off a piece, place in your mouth, and in 60 seconds, your teeth will be flossed perfectly! " I could be a millionaire.

Thankfully there was a roll of floss going for $0.99...and I checked, it was the same yardage as the $3.49 roll. I just have to do the flossing myself.

Is anyone else as freaked out by this as I am?? Have you, like me, relied on free floss your whole life, and have never looked at the price of floss?

I imagine that has something to do with the price. It probably doesn't sell very well. So when they do sell one roll, they make a 600% profit (assuming it costs $0.50 to make the roll of floss) on that roll. The profit accounts for the loss they take when they don't sell 6 other rolls, in other words they come up even. (They still make a profit, if they don't sell 5 or less rolls of floss). I'm sure the floss from the dentist office is the cheaply made kind that I know and love, so it probably costs less to make. And so the floss companies can donate more floss to dentist offices with hopes that people like me will run out and have to buy floss at an inflated price.

My theories are probably wrong...I'm a nurse not an economist! But part of me believes I'm partly right.

If you lasted through this post this long I commend you.