I’m usually a pretty good analyzer of labels and product packaging, especially when it comes to Dollar Tree. There are no doubt a number of great deals to be had within the confines of the popular dollar store, but there are also a number of tricks and tips that the stores use to make you think you’re getting a great deal that you’re not. For example, a lot of the name brands will have smaller sizes, or fewer counts, that frequently make buying the full-size versions elsewhere a much better bargain.

But every once in a while, a product still manages to pull one over on me, and in this case the offender is Restorz, a vitamin vendor who sells a small variety of products that I swear have just started popping up in Dollar Tree stores within the last few months. Obviously, seeing something that’s typically as expensive as gummy vitamins are for a mere $1 set off a number of red flags. Fourteen gummies included? Well, a lot of vitamin containers I see have around 80 gummies for $7 or $8, so this means 70 would be $5…which checks out as a good deal. A healthy serving of 11 vitamins and minerals, with 33% iron being on the low end, and 133% vitamins B12 and E being the most concentrated? That was another plus, and I was sold right then and there.

Instead of being in small bottles, these are in small resealable hanging packs. The vitamins themselves are small, and look kind of like dried up fruit pieces rather than delicious gummies, but I didn’t care…after all, they were only a dollar. Without much hesitation, I popped one in my mouth…and was honestly kind of blown away. These things taste good. Like, really good. They are a little grainy, which I didn’t expect, but it’s not to an off-putting degree, and the genuine deliciousness of the chews more than makes up for it. My wife tried them and loved them, too, which only cements my stance that these are good. I’m awful at remembering to take things daily, but the taste itself served as a reminder…it’s like candy but with health benefits! Wow, I was all set to scream from the mountaintops that I had found the best deal in vitamins!

Then, about five days later…FIVE!…I saw something that changed everything. I got up in the morning, went to grab yet another gummy vitamin, and saw some basic information that I had somehow completely overlooked. There it stood, in plain black letters against a white background: serving size, 2 gummies. My world was rocked, my life was overturned. Was everything else in my existence a lie, too? I couldn’t trust anyone anymore; paranoia took control. I divorced my wife, abandoned my son, quit my job, and moved to a secluded and run-down cabin in the hills, where I will live out my empty life in isolation, waiting until I break down to the point that putting a single bullet in my head seems like a logical way out…

Dammit, I really wanted to end it on that unnecessarily dark note, but the structuring of this post won’t allow it, because I still have more information to share. That’s right, these have a serving size of two gummies, which is one less than the standard serving size of a typical gummy vitamin. All of a sudden, the great deal is off, because there are only 7 servings in this small pouch, not 14 as originally believed. Mathematically, these went from a good deal, to an awful one; you can routinely get 100 count (or more) gummy vitamins elsewhere for around $10, while $10 here would only net you 70 servings.

But the more I thought about it, the more rationality took control. You know what? These don’t have to be a bad deal after all. Even if I only take one a day, that’s still 50% of the daily recommended value of five different vitamins (C, D, B6, Folic Acid, Pantothenic Acid) and 66.5% of B12 and E. If you’re not getting them any other way, I would think that amount is far better than zero. For me, I tend to eat a pretty large serving of cereal every day, so that would at least push many of the vitamin totals closer to the 100% mark, if not over in some instances. I also think it can be a great way for lower-income families, who may not be able to afford an $8 container of vitamins all at once, to at least get some of their necessary vitamins without having to break the bank.

And that has to count for something.

Overall: 6/10. It’s probably not an ideal product for most, but Restorz Gummy Vitamins taste surprisingly great, and offer up 14 vitamins for a mere $1. Be forewarned, however, that a serving is two gummies, not one, so you’re only getting 7 full servings in a pack, which negates much of the value I initially thought I was getting. Still, taking one a day and getting at least half of the recommended dose of 7 vitamins, and smaller amounts of four more, is still better than getting none at all, I would think. This makes multivitamins affordable to just about everyone, and on those grounds, it deserves at least some commendation, although if you can afford it, it definitely makes more sense to buy them elsewhere in the larger, “one-gummy-equals-one-serving-size” containers.