$0.99 is the retail cost of a Colgate travel size toothpaste.
$3.96 is the cost for a three pack of the same toothpaste at regular size.

.75 ounces is how much is in a travel size toothpaste.
6 ounces is the amount of toothpaste per container or 18 ounces for the three pack.

This means the cost for the three pack is $0.22 per ounce, versus the travel size container charging what would be $1.32 an ounce.

Travel sized toothpastes are charging 6x what ordinary toothpaste charges, but why?

Figuring this out, I tried to breakdown the costs of toothpaste as a whole.

The bottles sold in bulk now are selling for 11 cents on orders of 1,000 bottles.

Very likely this is a lot more over what Colgate pays, but searching, size on bottles really only changed prices by about a penny each.

This makes me assume with assembly and the injection mold, there’s pretty much no price difference.

The next factor is toothpaste itself.

Did a quick check on buying toothpaste as a raw generic product via alibaba for a literal ton of toothpaste.

Prices varied a lot on origin of production and ingredients, but found toothpastes comparable to Colgate are extremely cheap, where breaking them down per ounce, the cost is anywhere from half a cent to three cents.

Toothpaste is cheap.

The real cost for travel size toothpaste and toothpaste as a whole is the actual shipping and presence in a store, which is what people are paying for, over the bottle, assembly and toothpaste.

So why is travel size toothpaste a ripoff?

If someone shows up with a regular bottle of toothpaste at an airport, they likely have to throw it out.

The travel size market isn’t anything to do with saving money and for shampoo, deodorant and toothpaste, it’s a form of convenience which raises prices.

And with that, I’m about to board a plane.