The Shelf Audit Files No. 14 — Worth Paying For

Two leave-in conditioners at the same Target on the same day. One runs a little over $2 an ounce. The other is $1.38.

The expensive one has no sale on record anywhere. The cheap one belongs to Procter & Gamble, who announced the deal in January 2023.

Every other book in this series answers who owns it. Nobody priced the list. This one does — five brands that have never been sold to a conglomerate, every price checked live on a single day, and the number that actually decides it: what you pay per ounce.

It does not land where you expect, and this book is not going to pretend otherwise.