How To Compare Discounts
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The single-discount baseline
“40% off plus an extra 20%” is not 60% off. “Buy one get one free” is not a 50% discount on two items unless you wanted both. Retail discount language is optimized to sound larger than the real savings, and the math that reveals the actual price is almost never shown on the sticker. This guide covers how to price out stacked discounts, BOGO deals, and percent-off-plus-coupon combinations so you can tell a real bargain from a rounded one.
Stacked discounts don’t add — they compound
“40% off, plus an extra 20% at checkout” looks like 60%, feels like 60%, and is not 60%. Discounts stack multiplicatively, not additively.
Percent-off vs dollar-off — when to prefer which
“Buy one get one 50% off” on a $40 item: you pay $40 + $20 = $60 for two. Effective per-item price is $30, or 25% off each. Not 50%.
BOGO and quantity-based deals
“Buy one get one free” on a $30 item: $30 for two = $15/each, a 50% effective discount — but only if you were going to buy two. If you only wanted one, the effective discount on what you needed is 0%; you just paid sticker.
Pre-tax vs post-tax discount order
“Buy 3 for $30” when the sticker is $12.99 each: normally $38.97, now $30, a 23% effective discount. This format is usually a weaker deal than it feels, because the sticker anchors high.
Clearance math — “final sale” still deserves math
“Save 20% with annual billing” on a $10/mo service: $120 nominal, $96 with the discount — a $24/year saving. Real-world value of that saving depends on how likely you are to still use it in month 12. If service churn is 30%/year, the expected saving is $24 × 0.7 = $16.80 annualized, not the full $24.
Price-per-unit comparisons
Bundle pricing (“package 3 items for $50, individually $20 each”) is worth the bundle discount (17% here) only if you wanted all 3. Buying the third only because of the bundle is a 0% saving on things you wouldn’t have otherwise bought.
Subscription and bundle math
Before checkout: add up what’s in the cart at sticker. Write down your out-the-door price (after all discounts and tax). Divide to get the effective percent off. If it’s less than the advertised headline number, you’re paying for the marketing fog. If it matches, the deal is what it says.