The Mathematics of Conventions, Part 1: Gatorade

In preparation for SacAnime Winter 2012, I went to my local grocery store to stock up on food and drink, something I recommended in my "Planning for Conventions" guide. During this trip, I stocked up on six 32 oz bottles of Gatorade for $1.00 each plus a $0.10 CRV charge for a total of $6.60.

Now, let's do some math on how much you can really save at conventions, shall we?

6 32 oz of Gatorade is 192 oz. With the price I paid, it's $0.034/oz.

Now let's say a vendor at a convention charges $3.00 for a bottle of Gatorade, but only in the 20 oz variety (which is the scenario for most conventions). First off, let's just compare costs overall. If I buy six Gatorade bottles at that convention, it would cost me $18.00. 6 20 oz of Gatorade is 120 oz. With the price I pay at a convention, it's $0.15/oz. I would be saving about 77% off!

But let's dig even further when comparing the same bottle size. With that pricing, a 32 oz bottle would cost $4.80. Even though there's no CRV involved, the total cost, if I buy six, would be a staggering $28.80. With the price I pay at a convention, it's $0.147/oz. I'm almost paying four times more at a convention that I would at a grocery store!

The lesson here: if you can find a way, buy somewhere else because the savings will be extraordinary!