Everyday RIP-OFFS (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

I'm not even tlaking about the utility, phone and cable companies, which we all know are taking us for a big ride. I mean outfits such as SUBWAY, charging nearly five bucks for a piece of bread, and fifty cents worth of tuna and cheese. If you collect the stamps, they STILL require a purchase of a large drink (a nickel's worth of syrup for a buck and a half) in order to redeem them! Then they pay their workers poverty wages to push this on the trusting public. Yes, I can (and do) choose not to eat there. Still...it's sad when you nearly have to take out a mortgage to buy a friggin' sandwich. Or Starbucks...What are your candidates for the biggest rip-offs companies get away with?

 

[SteveA]

I ate at Subway for lunch today. Their prices are much more reasonable than other sub places. I don't think $5 is too much to pay for a big, fat 12-inch Club Sub.

 

[Cam S]

Yup, that's the way it goes nowadays, sucks doesn't it. Whenever I go to a place where you choose what you want on it (like subway), I always put lotsa of stuff in it like lettuce, tomatoes, and the sauces, makes it seem a little better of a deal. Quizno's is very expensive too, even more so than Subway.

 

[SteveA]

I agree about Arby's. They are WAY overpriced, but hey, if people want to pay $8 for a cold sandwhich and some stale fries - more power to Arby's.

 

[Andy_S]

Welcome to Capitalism. The price doesn't reflect the cost of materials, it reflects what the market is willing to pay. And the pay given to employees works in the other direction. How low can they pay someone without making them quit?

 

[Cam S]

Tony, I hear ya man! I like flowers and all, but why the hell do they have to charge so bloddy much for them, shit. I think the gift of flowers would be much better if I picked them myself, makes it a little more personal, and I still have cash leftover to buy some dvd's

 

[Andy_S]

Someone should make a DVD video of roses in a vase. You give it to your significant other and they can watch them slowly die over a 3 hour period. Every holiday/birthday/whatever you pop in the movie and say "Here you go! Enjoy!". It would have to be anamorphic widescreen too.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Here in Philadelphia, we know not these false gods Subway and Quiznos
We eat real hoagies

 

[MickeS]

Like some people have said already, Subway is actually pretty cheap compared to some other sandwich places.

It really hit home to me how ripped off we are on almost everything we buy when I saw a thing on Entertainment Tonight about some guy who has a line of hair care products out (sold everywhere, pretty much). He had a 20,000 sqf home in the hills of LA, full of expensive crap (a statue of himself and his wife, for example). Why? Because we're all paying too much for his stuff.

Same thing with Hollywood movies. There are now more product placements in movies than ever, and more and more commercials before the movie starts. Add to this that movies nowadays make a LOT of money off of rental fees. Yet, ticket prices are going up!



It used to be that production wasn't easily adjusted, and the seller had to adjust his price to what the market was willing to pay. Today, the seller can control the production in such detail that it is no longer necessary to pay as much attention to the buyer as it used to be. "Oh, this product isn't selling very well? Just make fewer and raise the price".
Add to that the fact that more and more companies are having virtual monopolies in their markets, and we're really in for rip-offs.

It is my firm belief that almost everything these days is on a seller's market. "You can't pay? Well, someone else can, and I can make as many or few of these as I want, so I can set the price".

And of course, the biggest ripoff is prescription drugs. Any product that is cheaper when imported from another country, even though it's manufactured here, has to be considered a ripoff.

/Mike

 

[Mike Hutman]

That's the way I feel about Pizza. I live in Ohio, but I was born and raised in New Jersey. Not to many understand how great the food is over on the East Coast. Man I miss the food.

 

[RobertR]

It is my firm belief that almost everything these days is on a seller's market. "You can't pay? Well, someone else can

I think it's "will", not "can". If the seller can maximize his revenues at a given price, then he's doing exactly what he should. If he raises the price too much, he'll lose out. To take your logic to an extreme example, Fox could sell ONE copy of Attack of the Clones at, say, $50 million. Presto! They make the same amount of money by only bothering to make one copy. But you and everyone else realizes that demand is NOT extremely inelastic for "almost everything", as your assumption of a seller's market indicates.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Good lunchmeat like we get here in this area is very expensive. The cost of the materials for a REAL hoagie is about $3 of the $5-6 price. Then count labor, overhead, utilities equipment and you understand why the price is so high.
Mike, if you've got some cash, http://www.phillyfoods.com

 

[Danny Tse]

I work in San Francisco, and the McDonalds across the street from my workplace charges more than $5.00 for most of its "value meals". But I can walk several blocks more and pick up a Subway sandwich for less than $4.00.

Regarding being ripped off by the utilities, I work for the California Public Utilities Commission and totally agree. It's all about politics.

 

[Carl Miller]

I think the ultimate rip-off is the dollar or more a restaurant charges for a glass of soda. Our local diner for example charges $1.50 for a 12 ounce glass of soda, filled with ice, of course.

Having a friend who delivers fountain soda to restuarants, I can truthfully say that glass of soda costs the restaurant a big whopping 7 cents...or a dime without the ice.

 

[Nigel McN]

yeah a friend of mine is a bar manager and he told me that a glass of coke which they sell for a dollar, costs them 7 cents. (kiwi money, but the same principle)

 

[Dennis Reno]

The biggest ripoffs:

1. Starbucks or any other "high-end" coffee shop
2. Bottled water - anything over $0.99 for 20 oz
3. Food at sporting events/concerts
4. Movie concessions - "no really, I don't want to buy stock in the company, I just want a box of Milk Duds"
5. Insurance

 

[John Stone]

Diamonds. "Wow, nice $10,000 polished rock. Wait, is it real? I can't tell."

 

[Todd Hochard]

charging nearly five bucks for a piece of bread, and fifty cents worth of tuna and cheese... Then they pay their workers poverty wages

Anyone else see the glaring contradiction here???
You can't complain about both in the same breath. If they need to make a living wage, then you need to pay $10 for that 50c sandwich.
Go to the grocery, and buy the ingredients to make the same Subway sandwich- say a Club, for instance. I bet it'll cost you $3 in ingredients.

Todd

 

[Dan Hine]

I just want to throw in a bit of info on movie tickets and such:

Same thing with Hollywood movies... and more and more commercials before the movie starts. Add to this that movies nowadays make a LOT of money off of rental fees. Yet, ticket prices are going up!

Please don't blame your local theater for this...well, not if it is a good theater anyway. I'm not sure if MickeS was blaming the theater or the studios but just in case...

The BEST a movie theater is going to get per ticket is 50% of the ticket price. Usually it is down somewhere around 10-20% with the studio's taking the rest. So even for a sold out movie (say 250 people) @ $9 a ticket the actual movie theater will make around $250-$300. Doesn't sound too bad, but most theaters don't sell out every screen everyday. That $5.25 new release matinee with 25 people in it? Yeah, they make about $13 off the ticket sales for that one.

It really has gotten to the point that the theaters HAVE to charge so much for the tickets, and concessions, and put up adds before the movie in order to make money. I don't disagree that it sucks to pay $10 for a ticket but I think the blame too often goes to the wrong place. Just my $.02


Dan

 

[LewB]

My biggest complaint is with stuff at the supermarket!
Try finding a pound can of coffee, they are all less than a pound now but the prices have not gone down. Same thing for snack foods, paper goods, etc. Instead of raising prices, the manufacturers take product out of the container and keep the cost the same.
They figure that we are too stupid to realize that we are getting less for our money !