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price gouging or what?

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29 replies

by jaqui

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I was just checking the websites of a few shops for dual layer dvd disks.

two of the largest chain stores carry a 50 piece spindle of them, same brand, so same product.

these two chains have a $30.00 difference in prices for the product.

Future Shop, usually most expensive place to buy anything, has the 50 pack spindle for $39.99
Staples, usually competitively priced, has the same memorex 50 pack spindle for $69.99

can we say price gouging? :D

I knew we could.

29 replies

by nexs

Perhaps, the funding for the first Terminator is in its initial stage?

by maxwell edison

Price gouging is what happens when there are no other options for a product. You found another option.

Some people might go out of their way to gripe to Staples about their mark-up and price, and tell them about their competition selling the same thing for $30 less. Some might not.

by charliespencer

Gouging is when you don't have a choice - $7 a gallon for gas post-Katrina, for example. The supplier is charging the same, but the retailer is marking it up because the customers have no options, and he's trying to make as much as possible before things return to normal.

by jaqui

since both have a 'price match" guarantee, with a 10% less bonus, I'll head to the closest staples, it's actually easier to get to than the future shop.
:D
get a $33.99 drop of their price. :D

by maxwell edison

If Staples has a [i]price match guarantee[/i], then hold them to it.

My guess is that they'd drop their price on that item by $30.

Free enterprise and competition - gotta' love it!

by delbertpgh

Sounds like Future Mart, usually the most expensive joint, has the item on a special mark-down. Staples' policy may be to discount anybody's regular advertised price. I've seen it work like that.

Life is in the fine print.

by santeewelding

The task falls to me in my business to face a customer in person and set the amount.

I have practice. This practice [i]does not[/i] include a customer setting the amount.

Pity that the circumstances, Jaqui, do not admit of you coming to me about amount.

I would teach you a thing or three...

by jaqui

if there was another shop that could offer EXACT same quality work and they were substantially cheaper.
wouldn't you like to know about it, to avoid losing business to them? ::D

by santeewelding

Exactitude with respect to quality of "work" and your word, "same", leaves you open to all manner of, "epistemological inroads", shall we say?

Further, your "if" presupposes "other -- or, perish the thought, [i]better than[/i] God" in these matters.

Do I intimate well enough what goes into the machinations when [i][b]I[/b][/i] set price?

by santeewelding

I have no competitors. Further, if they are, I do not and have not recognized their existence for all the time I have been in business. Therefore, I set nothing with respect to them.

Remembrances: I attended primary schools in the 1950s. I distinctly remember, with distinct revulsion at that age, a constant exhortation about, "competition".

Didn't fly with me.

My circumstances, Max, both personally and professionally, escape your straightjacket. Maybe it's why I give you fits.

by hal 9000

It wouldn't take you any time at all with all of the equipment that you have here so you should pay me to allow you to use your Play Toys.

Or when I was repairing Sewing Machines. There is nothing wrong with it it works perfectly it's just not sewing.

I've heard them all before and I still have the sign over the counter. :^0

Col

by maxwell edison

..... then you offer value - or lack thereof.

If you're losing customers, you offer no value.

P.S. I don't care when you went to primary school.

P.P.S. I don't want to [i]fly with you[/i].

P.P.P.S. I wear no straightjacket. In this case, you do.

P.P.P.P.S. You don't [i]give me fits[/i]. To the contrary. I laugh at you.

by mjwx

Australia, land of parallel imports. Tax free import for almost anything up to A$1000

A 50 pack of blank DVD's locally is about A$25 at best, but I've seen them at A$60 this year.

However I can order them for HK$80 (A$12) from a Hong Kong supplier.

Unfortunately, due to postage it only makes sense to order them by the box. I suppose local retailers will charge what they can get away with.

by oz_media

Some of the lowest prices in town, but then they tack on that recycling levee of 29 cents per disk. Buy a 100 disk spindle and they add $29.00 to it at the checkout !

by darryl~

That would pretty much bring the 2 of them in line with each other....only $1 apart.

I'd lsay you identified the price difference....very much like the advertized prices of soda pop....they never include the price of the recycling fee for the cans or bottles.

by jaqui

they don't carry the dual layer disks :D
and the tariff on blank media they add to the cost.

not recylcing tariff as you called it, a tax on blank disks to try to prevent copyright violation(s).
same tax, just calling it different.

by oz_media

It began as a license levy, the problem ws millions had amassed with no 'artist' to pay and holding companies in limbo, thus there is a big bankroll right now that just sits there doing nothing, now it is just a blank media levy. My mistake was in calling it a tax/tarriff actually.

It's not technically a tax because it is not collected by the federal government, it is collected by the Canadian Recording 'government' (like our privatized Translink government) instead, and so far they have collected more than they are able to allocate.

by oz_media

A gallon of gas and a gallon of milk are close to the same price in Canada.

Which is a more valued product though?

Gas we may run out of eventually due to over consumption. but perhaps we can save the planet by buying more milk. If all those cows are milked, there is less flatulence and less methane so we get to save the planet from turning into a fire ball next year.

So if we can engineer cars to burn milk, I am sure there's a lot of stored energy in milk that can be efficiently combusted, then we will save the planet in a hurry. But then the price of a MacDonald's hamburger may rise above the price of gas, oh fiddle, what a predicament we got ourselves into!

by ic-it

The blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart

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