Math is Hard

If Daisy pays for 40 pieces of minty goodness but the candymaker only gives her 33, why should Daisy continue to buy from that candymaker?

I admit, I have a bad habit.

Okay, I have more than one bad habit, but I'm going to discuss just this one, today: I chew a lot of gum. I guess you could say I'd be a pack-a-day kind of girl, if I bought it by the pack. Instead, I get a regular supply of these little cartons, in six-packs. They've been a regular thing, here, for a few years, ever since I discovered that strong peppermint helps keep my sinuses relatively clear during allergy seasons. But recently I noticed that, while I *always* pop into my mouth two pieces of this stuff at a time, I almost always wound up with a stray single at the bottom of the container.

Please note: the package says "40 PIECES", not "ABOUT 40 PIECES", and not some specific weight. 40 is evenly divisible by 2. There should NEVER, therefore, be a lonely single piece lying in the bottom as long as I consistently take out 2 at a time.

And so, out of curiosity, I decided to see, on the off chance, if I was getting a bunch of bonus cubes.

For the past few months, I've been taking a permanent marker and tallying every piece I popped into my mouth.

Only once did I come out ahead (41 pieces). Only once did I get the exact number of pieces (40) promised. The past 4 containers have come up short by one or two pieces, but this most recent package… well…

I may have failed at high school algebra, but basic arithmetic was never a weak point.

33 is markedly less than 40.

The Hershey Company may want to adjust their machinery to see why the current majority of my purchases come up short, adjust their labeling to reflect either weight or "about 40 pieces", and/or reexamine their ethics.