[Yogi]

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/09/2 ... uld-avoid/

It would be interesting to see some of the other ways we are being gouged!

[bootlegga]

Well, as someone who worked in the movie theatre business for years, I can tell you that without popcorn sales, there would be no movie theatres. Theatres need high margin items like that (and pop as well) to cover the fact that 90% of the movie ticket sales go to the movie studio, not the theatre owner. And for big blockbuster movies like Avatar and Spiderman, the studio demands payments 7-14 days after release, so the theatre owner can't even use the money to get ahead of the game temporarily. If they are lucky, the small bit of ticket sales they do get pays for the cost of utilities needed to run the theatre - nevermind staff costs, advertising and all the other little things.

[bootlegga]

There's lot of other great scams out there.

Pop costs about $1 per litre (dpending on what size and brand you get) - roughly the same as gas - yet think of how difficult it is to make gas.

First, some stupid dinosaur(s) had to fall down and die and lay there for 100 or so million years. Then some giant oil company had to pay a high-priced team of geologists to find those decomposed dinos. Then they pay riggers tons of money to drill it and ship it to a giant oil refinery. Let's not forget how expensive all those oil refineries are...then some well-paid engineers process it, and then ship it again, this time via semi-trailer to your local gas station, where you pay Billy Joe Jim Bob to pump it into your $30,000 SUV.

And it costs almost the same as some tap water with sugar and CO2 added.

[Yogi]

Friends owned a jewelery store in B.C. Jewelery has a minimum 400% mark-up!

[ShepherdsDog]

shit, a 2 litre bottle of pop costs about a dollar here. But then there's these home reno guys...watch out for them.

[Yogi]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

shit, a 2 litre bottle of pop costs about a dollar here. But then there's these home reno guys...watch out for them.

That's not 'gouging'! That's just necessary costs of doing business! Did ya really have to bring that one up, Shep???

Actually, there is so much of that going on, and for the most part, it's being done by unlicenced, and unqualified hacks! I come across this one on a regular basis. In many cases, 'hack outfits' are charging more than I do! In fact, last evening, I was approached by our local council to inspect our Rec Centre, which had a lot of work done to it last year by 'professionals'!

[Brenda]

Funny detail, text messages are 140 characters, not 160...

[Public_Domain]

[Lemmy]

I found the list misleading. You know you're going to be gouged when you're in a non-competitive market (like buying beer at the ballpark, popcorn at the movie theatre, alcohol/coffee at restaurants or the hotel mini-bar). Overpriced concessions are part of the price of admission. With pre-cut fruit (or any food processing), you're paying for the service, so that doesn't really belong on the list either. Textmessaging isn't a product, it's a service, and pricing reflects development costs, capital costs and demand. I'd be more interested in hearing what products we're being gouged on that are sold in competitive markets. Bottled water is really the only product on the list that fits my definition of overpriced. My intial thought was that razor blades would be on the list. It costs $15+ for a pack of 5 Gillette Sensor Excel razor blades. I'm no thief, but I have to talk myself out of shoplifting razors whenever I'm running low.

[Regina]

I think Readers Digest had a Canadian list a few years back. It was different from that one but from what I can recall, eye glasses and razor blades were on the list too.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

They forgot three. The CPC, the LPC and the NDP.

[ASLplease]

it never ceases to amaze me that people get upset about the cost of bottled water, yet add some sugar, flavoring, CO2 and a fancy label, and they STFU.

[Bruce_the_vii]

It's a good list - those items are expensive for what you get.

[CrazyCanuck007]

In Canada, Cel Phones and Internet and Cable/Satalite are all over priced for what you get...

[Bruce_the_vii]

Cell phones are the most profitable item I know about. I read, working from memory, that there profit margin is 45% of sales, just sales. The only thing comparable is the mark up MicroSoft gets from running off copies of it's software.