Another reason not to buy Match Light, Instant Light Charcoal: Very High Price of Convenience

Kingsford knows what most consumer product companies know: consumers will pay for convenience. But the question is, does the consumer know just how much they're paying?

The answer is, not likely - and they are almost guaranteed to be paying a lot more than they think.

First, Kingsford, like all the other charcoal manufacturers, plays some games with the package sizes, so it's hard to directly compare regular charcoal with instant light. For instance, most sell regular charcoal in 20lb, 10lb and 5lb sizes - but, instant light is sold in 15lb, 8lb and 4lb sizes.

Kingsford has actually taken this game a little further, as they've recently donwsized all their bags by 10%. So for Kingsford products, you'll find 18, 9 and 4.5 lb bags for regular charcoal and 13.5, 7.2 and 3.6 lb bags of instant. Unless you're quick with a calculator or one of those shoppers that can find and read the store supplied info on the shelf tag, good luck trying to figure out what you're paying per pound.

If you do go to the trouble, you'll find that the average retial price per pound (in grocery stores) of Match Light, Kingsford's instant light brand, is about 60% higher than Kingsford regular charcoal. The premium per pound is highest for the larger size packages and lowest for the smaller ones. A similar pricing arrangement holds true for the generic brands.

60% seems like a pretty steep premium to pay for the convenience of not having to buy lighter fluid and squirt some on your briquettes. But wait, I'm not done yet.

To fully understand what premium you're paying, you need to consider what instant light briquettes are - they're basically regular briquettes with lighter fluid added. It's that word "added" that most consumers fail to consider, or more accurately, fail to consider the implications.

The implications start with realizing that the instant light briquettes weigh more than the regular briquettes. That's right, the added lighter fluid make the instant briquettes weigh more. How much more? About 12% more. You'll get close to 16 briquettes per pound of Kingsford regular charcoal - but only 14 for Match Light.

So not ony are people paying more per pound for Match Light, they're getting fewer briquettes per pound!

Now if you do the math, you'll discover the true premium being charged (and people are paying) for the convenience of not having to purchase and squirt lighter fluid. It is up to 90% per briquette!

Add the fact that you are stuck with that awful smell and taste of lighter fluid, and you have a very good reason for avoiding Match Light or other instant light brands.