---
title: Bill Gates Has No Idea How Much These Common Grocery Store Items Cost
description: On the Ellen Degeneres Show, Bill Gates tried (and failed) to guess the cost of grocery items like Tide Pods, pizza rolls, and Rice-A-Roni.
authors:
  - name: Allana Akhtar
    url: https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/
    at_money_since: 2017
    articles: 101
    covers:
      - Lifestyle
      - Business
      - Career Advice
      - Economy and Politics
      - Education
      - Identity Theft
      - Loans
      - Personal Finance
      - Retirement
      - Shopping
      - Technology
    former_staff: true
published: '2018-02-21T21:53:35.000Z'
modified: '2024-04-17T09:58:19.000Z'
section: Lifestyle
tags:
  - Bill Gates
  - Billionaires
  - Ellen Degeneres
  - The Ellen Show
word_count: 238
canonical: https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/
type: Article
source: structured-blocks
---

> **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/).

![bill-gates-ellen-degeneres](https://img.money.com/2018/02/bill-gates-ellen-degeneres.jpg)

Bill Gates must be so used to seeing numbers with extra zeros at the end that he has forgotten how much everyday items cost.

The [billionaire founder of Microsoft](https://money.com/bill-gates-net-worth/) went on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show for the first time, and the celebrity host figured she'd poke some fun at Gates' hopelessly skewed sense of how regular people shop.

DeGeneres asked Gates to guess the cost of five everyday items: Rice-A-Roni, Tide pods, dental floss, pizza rolls, and frozen dip. If Gates guessed within a buck of the real price, the audience would win a prize.

In what should have been a simple exercise for those of us who do our own grocery shopping, Gates was hilariously wrong for many of the guesses. He guessed a box of Rice-A-Roni cost $5—which every former college student knows is $4 too much to pay for boxed rice. "I'll take five!" he said.

He was also baffled by how much it costs to do your laundry. Gates guessed a sizable box of Tide laundry pods cost $4. DeGeneres corrected him: In reality, it sells for a little under $20.

His funniest flub? Trying to figure out how much pizza rolls cost. He thought a frozen bag of these stoner munchies cost a lofty $22; they actually retail for almost $9.

It's safe to say Bill Gates is better at [giving away money than actually buying things](https://money.com/bill-gates-donation-4-6-billion/).

Watch the entire video below:

[Watch video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad_higXixRA)

```json
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
      "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/#breadcrumb",
      "itemListElement": [
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 1,
          "name": "Home",
          "item": "https://money.com"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 2,
          "name": "Lifestyle",
          "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 3,
          "name": "Celebrities",
          "item": "https://money.com/celebrities/"
        },
        {
          "@type": "ListItem",
          "position": 4,
          "name": "Bill Gates Has No Idea How Much These Common Grocery Store Items Cost"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://money.com/#website",
      "url": "https://money.com",
      "name": "Money",
      "publisher": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#organization"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/#webpage",
      "url": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/",
      "name": "Bill Gates Has No Idea How Much These Common Grocery Store Items Cost",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/#website"
      },
      "datePublished": "2018-02-21T21:53:35.000Z",
      "mainEntity": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/"
      },
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "breadcrumb": {
        "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/#breadcrumb"
      },
      "dateModified": "2024-04-17T09:58:19.000Z"
    },
    {
      "@type": "Article",
      "headline": "Bill Gates Has No Idea How Much These Common Grocery Store Items Cost",
      "articleSection": "Lifestyle",
      "image": [
        {
          "@type": "ImageObject",
          "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/02/bill-gates-ellen-degeneres.jpg",
          "width": 1000,
          "height": 667,
          "caption": "bill-gates-ellen-degeneres"
        }
      ],
      "author": [
        {
          "@type": "Person",
          "name": "Allana Akhtar",
          "url": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/",
          "@id": "https://money.com/author/allana-akhtar/#author"
        }
      ],
      "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization",
      "datePublished": "2018-02-21T21:53:35.000Z",
      "description": "On the Ellen Degeneres Show, Bill Gates tried (and failed) to guess the cost of grocery items like Tide Pods, pizza rolls, and Rice-A-Roni.",
      "abstract": "On the Ellen Degeneres Show, Bill Gates tried (and failed) to guess the cost of grocery items like Tide Pods, pizza rolls, and Rice-A-Roni.",
      "@id": "https://money.com/bill-gates-guessing-grocery-store-prices/",
      "inLanguage": "en-US",
      "dateModified": "2024-04-17T09:58:19.000Z",
      "wordCount": 238,
      "keywords": [
        "Bill Gates",
        "Billionaires",
        "Ellen Degeneres",
        "The Ellen Show"
      ],
      "about": [
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Lifestyle",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle"
          ]
        },
        {
          "@type": "Thing",
          "name": "Celebrity",
          "sameAs": [
            "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity"
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}
```