How to Read a Price Median (and Why It Isn't the Cheapest Price)

The cheapest line gets the attention. The median is usually the more useful starting point. Here’s what that middle number actually says, how the quartiles help, and why one unusually low menu price shouldn’t run the whole story.

What a median counts

Line up every listing from cheapest to dearest and locate the middle. For weed sold as 1g, the observed-menu window from 21 September to 21 October 2026 produced 139 listings across 27 shops, so the median is the price of the 70th listing. In this odd-sized sample it corresponds to an actual listing. Raising a price that remains above the middle does not by itself change that middle position. Removing high-priced listings is different: it changes the sample size and can shift the median substantially. The median is less sensitive than the mean to the size of an extreme value, not immune to changes in which observations are included.

The quartiles: where the middle half sits

The median locates the middle; the quartiles mark the lower and upper quarter boundaries. For the 139 weed 1g listings from 27 shops observed between 21 September and 21 October 2026, p25 was €10, the median €13 and p75 €16. The €10 to €16 band describes the central portion of this sample, with possible ties at its boundaries. The weed price table prints the band alongside the median so one number does not stand in for the spread.

The full weed 1g distribution

Source: menus observed on Amsterdam Coffeeshop Menus between 21 September and 21 October 2026, best observed price per listing. The October price report places the other categories beside this sample.

Why the cheapest price makes a poor headline

The minimum of €5 is the observed low end of 139 listings, not their centre. In the same October window, weed 5g packs reached a per-gram minimum of €3.13 across 187 listings. That minimum belongs to the pack sample, not the loose-gram sample. There is also a date trap: a low price on an older menu is historical evidence, not a confirmed current deal. The cheapest ranking is useful when format, date and sample stay attached to the comparison. A minimum may be accurate while giving a poor impression of the rest of the distribution. Read it as the low end of those observations, then inspect the line behind it rather than applying it to the whole category.

How to use a median when you read a menu

Compare the line in front of you to the median and the quartiles of its format. A €13 gram is the middle of the market. A €16 gram is the top of the middle half, still common. A €35 gram is the observed maximum, uncommon by construction, and worth reading twice, first for its date. That is the entire decision the data supports: where does this printed line sit, and how old is it. Everything else about the line, from quality to availability, is outside what a price distribution can say. The quartiles also guard the opposite mistake. A line at €10, the p25 of the weed 1g window, is not automatically a bargain; it is the bottom of the normal range, where cheaper-than-middle listings live. Unusual and broken are different things, and the quartiles separate them.

A listing median is not an average shop price

The observations in this guide are listings, not one representative price from each shop. A menu can contribute several different offers. Sorting those offers answers where the middle observed listing sits; it does not tell you what the middle shop charges, or what a visitor typically spends during a visit.

This difference becomes clearer when you imagine reading a long menu beside a short one. Each eligible listing contributes to the distribution under the report’s method. The calculation does not turn each menu into one equal-sized vote. Keep both the listing count and the shop count in view, because they describe different parts of the evidence.

Nor does the median weight offers by how often people buy them. A frequently purchased line and a rarely purchased line cannot be distinguished from these menu observations. The site has no sales quantities behind the statistic. Calling it a typical observed listing price preserves that limit; calling it the price most people pay would cross it.

Equal prices make the middle less tidy than a diagram

A simple illustration often shows every listing at a different price. Real menu lists can repeat the same price across several entries. As a result, it is more accurate to say that the median locates the middle than to insist that exactly half the observations are strictly cheaper and exactly half are strictly dearer.

The same issue applies to the quartile boundaries. A price sitting on a boundary can be shared by several listings. The band is a summary of the distribution, not a set of exclusive boxes into which every line falls neatly. You do not need to resolve every tie to use the published band, but you should avoid making exact claims about individual listings from rounded summary numbers.

For this report’s odd-sized weed sample, the middle position corresponds to a listed price. That should not become a universal promise about every median. With an even-sized sample, the conventional median can lie between the central observations. The useful reading habit stays the same: inspect the sample and the unit before treating the headline as a quote from a particular shop.

A new median can reflect a different set of menus

Suppose you revisit the price page and find that its headline has changed. That is evidence that the published middle changed, not immediate evidence that every shop raised or lowered its price. Newly captured menus may have entered the window while older ones left. The categories may also have different listing counts.

Before describing the change as a market trend, compare like formats and observation windows and inspect what changed in the sample. An archive snapshot cannot supply a matched before-and-after comparison merely by placing successive headline numbers next to each other. This guide explains a distribution, not a price index with a fixed basket.

For a visit, you can use a simpler rule. Take the current format-specific median as a reference for the captured sample, then read your selected menu line with its own date attached. If the line is historical, the comparison is indicative. If it is fresh, it still needs confirmation at the counter. Neither case turns the median into a target price that a shop must meet.

What a median hides

A median compresses the sample into one number. It cannot identify the individual offers at the extremes, establish quality or confirm stock. The October weed sample of 139 listings from 27 shops is not a census, and the best-observed-price method does not represent every price printed during the window. Smaller samples can also change noticeably when their contributing observations change. The price overview keeps counts with the figures so you can see what each summary rests on. The site is 18+ info only, no sales; verify on site before relying on any printed offer.

Use the median to ask a better question

If a line sits below the median, that’s all it tells you: where one observation falls inside the selected sample. It does not tell you why it is lower, whether the same variant is being compared, or whether the offer remains available. Check the source date and quantity first; compare like formats and keep the listing count beside the statistic. If the sample is small, describe the result as a summary of those observations rather than a stable market rule. The report’s quartiles add context about the spread, but they still describe the archive, not product quality or value for a particular person. The October report provides the window and sample counts; the cheapest guide explains how rankings differ from a median.