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Most grocery categories have a clear bulk discount: the bigger format wins per unit, usually by a lot. Greek yogurt, right now, is the exception that proves you should always check.
The numbers
| Format | Average flyer price | Per 100 g |
|---|---|---|
| 4 × 100 g multipack | $3.83 | $0.96 |
| 650–750 g tub | $6.76 | $0.97 |
Dead heat. In the current Ontario flyer cycle, the "convenient" minis and the "economical" tub cost the same per gram of yogurt, within a penny. Whatever intuition you had about which one is the frugal choice — the data says it doesn't currently matter.
Why this happens
Multipacks are a promotion battleground. Yogurt brands rotate deep discounts on the 4-packs to win the lunchbox market, which periodically drags their per-100-g price down to (or below) tub territory. The tub's price is steadier — it drifts in a narrow band — while the multipack oscillates. What you're seeing in the averages is a snapshot of that fight at a moment when it's a draw.
Which leads to the actual buying rule:
- Multipack on promotion (around $3 for 4×100 g, or $0.75/100 g): buy it. That's the category's real floor, below anything the tub reaches.
- Multipack at full price (approaching $4.79): skip it. That's $1.20/100 g — a 24% premium over the tub for the same spoonful.
- The tub is the safe default whenever nothing is on promotion: never great, never terrible.
The general lesson
"Bigger is cheaper" is a good prior and a bad rule. Some categories (milk, eggs right now) reward the big format massively; some, like Greek yogurt, price the formats at parity and let the promotion cycle decide. The only reliable method is the boring one: per-unit price, checked against that format's own history.
That second part — its own history — is what FlyerHawk automates. Every yogurt listing is compared to past prices of the same format, so a "SALE" sticker on a full-price multipack doesn't fool anyone, and the genuinely cheap week triggers your alert.
