Grocery Shopping: When things don't add up

Have you ever noticed that granola bar manufacturers are selective on the kinds of bars they produce and in which packages they put them? For instance, its not uncommon to find a variety pack of granola bars, or to see single packages of one particular flavor, such as chocolate, strawberry, oatmeal raison, etc. However, it is rather unusual to find single packages containing some of the other flavors in the variety pack.

I happen to be a fan of the chewy granola bars, I’ve gotten the single pack of chocolate chip bars, or the variety packs made by Quaker. But, there are some kinds of bars that I find in the variety pack, that I only find in there and not in a single pack. For instance, have you ever seen a single package of Oreo cookie granola bars? Or perhaps cookies and cream or Smores? Oh sure, I can get the variety pack of these flavors, and more, and get one bar of each flavor. But that’s just the problem: what if I want more than one Oreo cookie granola bar? Currently, the only way to get more than one is to buy more than one box of the variety packs. Does anyone know where these extra single packs of flavors have gone?

The reverse could be asked about the Honey nut Cheerios and milk granola/cereal bars. You see these in single packages, but as of yet, I haven’t seen these in a variety pack? Why is this?

Of course, as long as we’re in the grocery store and talking about things that just don’t add up quite right, let’s go over to the hot dog and hot dog buns area. There’s like 8 dogs and 10 or 12 buns. There are times quite often when I go shopping that I want things simple stupid. However, if I were to go over to the dogs and buns area, I need a calculator in order to figure how many packages of buns and dogs I need to buy to make the numbers even. I suppose I could get one pack of each, but then there would be leftover hot dog buns. I suppose the cycle could be repeated of getting dogs and buns, and keeping the left over buns, but at some point, the numbers won’t add up and you’ll be left with extra buns and no dogs. And hot dog buns aren’t like hamburger buns, where you can recycle the buns and use them as sandwiches or for other things. If you really want to be adventurous, I suppose you could just make several mayo, Ketchup and cheese hot dog buns, in order to use the extras, but what’s the point if there’s no dog to put on them?

Just some, uh, food for thought, :)