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Comment by Lockyy | Hacker News Reader

This seems to be working under the false assumption that because something is better value for money you are inherently saving money. You're still spending more by getting the larger pizza, even though it's cheaper per cm^2. This is a trap that is way too easy to fall into, especially since it's exploited so heavily via deals and sales in supermarkets.

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You're forgetting about leftovers. For a few bucks more you an end up with an extra meal at a lower than average price.

Yay. Pizza. Again.

Two things. If you really care about the price difference between a med and small, then you may also be in a category that would be willing to eat the same thing again. I.e. You may not have a choice. At any rate it keeps for a day or two in the fridge, so it's not like you have to have it for back to back meals.

I'm failing to see the problem you see. If you don't like pizza why did you get it in the first place?

Its ok, one a week or whatever. Not some great delicacy, Especially not cold and day-old.

You know you can make things warm again with a microwave oven, right? ;)

Seriously though, there are people who will gladly eat pizza every day. Just because you don't like it (or maybe you just don't have any quality pizza restaurants nearby), doesn't mean it's a bad idea.

Maybe, but that's a meal I would never voluntarily eat. I don't see the benefit.

Agreed; Also while YMMV depending upon living/family situation and other factors there are potentially health issues at play too in that chances are pretty good you're going to devour the rest of that pizza in a relatively short time period after buying it, if it is just sitting there in the fridge.

I'm personally kind of peeved that it is nearly impossible these days to buy some things (eg. bags of tortilla chips) that aren't comically super-sized, because I know if I buy the big bag and they are just sitting in the kitchen I'm likely to overeat them, so I just end up not buying them at all.

Are you saying that a big bag is more tempting to you than a small bag, or that you want a single-serving package? I can't help much in the latter case except to point out that using your own bags to repack would be fast and far cheaper than typical single serving packages.

But if it's the former then you have me intrigued. How does the size of the bag affect your perception?

I presume what they mean is that having an open bag in the kitchen encourages you to have a few every time you pass through. The problem with it being a big bag is that this happens more often before they run out.

This assumes not replacing the bag when it's empty, which seems to defeat the point of having it available in the first place.

But assuming you're right: eating an entire non-supersized bag is almost as bad as eating an entire supersized bag. The solution is not a moderately-less-bad splurge size, it's putting the bag away.

This assumes not replacing the bag when it's empty

Which is the common case in my experience. Once every few weeks or so I'll be food shopping and think, you know what I really want now, chips! And then I'll buy a bag, take it home, eat it and then not buy chips for another few weeks. So the smaller the bag, the less chips I eat.

You're proposal works on the assumption that human willpower is constant and infinite.

Ignore the proposal then. (though it doesn't assume infinite willpower, it's about putting things out of sight.)

Focus on the main point, that it's still quite bad to eat an entire non-supersized bag. If the original wish of 'no supersized bags' was granted, no problem would be solved! There would be even more chip overeating on georgemcbay's part, as they bought more bags.

It's like comparing 22 inch and 30 inch pizzas, nobody should be eating an entire pizza that big over the course of a couple days.

Your example is slightly flawed - I much prefer larger sizes on long-shelf life items like chips because I can just buy a 100ct box of sandwich bags, and divvy it up nicely so that the extra bags are sealed, but separate. I take one to work every once in a while.

The hot food example I agree with - small portions are economically punished except with very quality food (which is expensive anyway).

This article format is apparently "point--counterpoint"; here is the opposing article, "One Reason to Get Whatever Size Pizza You Want".

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/02/26/282547399/one-reas...

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