Yeah, same here, and even that's high. I know you can get deals where you can get 2 of those bags for like $5. It's one of the cheapest vegetables you can get. Definitely a great food to buy if you're not doing too well financially. Cheap, nutritious, filling, and tons of recipes.
For comparison I got my Halloween bag of candy at Costco for $20 bucks... candy is ridiculously expensive.
A standard russet potato is 148g(according to the nutritional information on a sack o' potatoes) , 5 lbs=2270g. 2270Γ·148=15.3. $3.27Γ·15.3 potatoes is 21 cents per tater.
Where I am you can basically get them by the crate load. I have no idea what one individual potato cost because I've never bought one individual potato. But my estimate would be about three for a dollar. Big ones like in the photo not little tiny ones.
Also don't get no ones in plastic wrapping they're more expensive and they're not any better. Just wash your vegetables. The mud and flavour admittedly it's mud flavour.
I think the idea is to show that it's already been cleaned and is ready to be microwaved without having to clean it.
It's still stupid and I would never buy one when I can get 5 lb bag for not that much more, but I don't think the idea is to microwave it in the plastic.