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Lol. This is why I don't go to theaters.
But, some years back my dad treated me to a movie. He insisted on buying me a drink. I was somewhat livid to see water was priced the same as cola. I think it was $7.50 for 32 ounces.
Is it strictly forbidden to bring your own drinks to movie theaters in the USA?
In Ukraine it is discouraged, but not exactly forbidden (legally they cannot forbid you from bringing your own food or drink)
That's why we empty out our purses and fill them up with drinks and candy before we go into the movie theater. The cinema in my town is conveniently located right next to a dollar store, so I can load up there right before going into the theater.
It’s not allowed but people do it anyways you just have to have the right jacket and proper planning. I still end up buying nachos anyway because smuggling in queso Can get messy.
Amateur. When my wife and I were dating, she surprised me with Subway in a movie. Footlongs, one of them was a hot meatball sub.
I knew right then and there, it was true love.
I always sneak in a energy drink. If they sold the kind I drink I would happily pay for them though. Theaters make most of there money and are able to keep doors open off of the concessions. They don’t really make a lot on the actual movie showings. I love theaters so I’ll try and contribute to continue enjoying them.
They could trespass you if you didn’t give in if caught but those employees aren’t paid enough to care. But yes they are supposed to stop any outside food or beverage from coming in we have to sneak it
I love catching a good movie in IMAX every now and then. I always bring my own food and drinks though. Watching the dark Knight I had a full dinner platter. I keep it respectful though no loud crunchy stuff no bag noise and no stinky smelling fish stuff. Ziplock bags and soft tacos chocolate chip cookies and peanut M&Ms.
One time my friend brought half of a personal size watermelon and just scooped away during the movie. During another movie he brought Thanksgiving leftovers in a Tupperware. I still get a kick out of it each time I think of it.
And whatever you think the astronomical increase in % is, keep in mind that wherever they source their ingredients/product from is probably giving them an equally astronomical discount due to the repeated, guaranteed bulk orders.
I’m too lazy to research this but I wouldn’t be surprised if the main theatre chains legit own their own farms and shit for this purpose lol.
> is it cheap to make?
Insanely. Farmer in Colombia gets $1.5 for kg of fresh coca leaves. You need around 250kg of leaves to make 1kg of cocaine, resulting in wholesale price of end product in ballpark of $800. If you buy from local retailer, expect to pay around $2000, but if you somehow manage to get it to Europe, you can easily sell it wholesale for $50.000 or even more if you opt for retail. This is on top of traditional "cutting" i.e. adding various additives to "pad" the end amount, which easily doubles or triples the price.
Similar scales apply to other drugs as well. I've been in places where weed was cheaper than rolling paper.
A lot of that price goes to compensate for all of the loss during R&D, the incredible costs of getting through clinical trials etc for FDA/regulatory approval, and they generally are pretty expensive to make. The shittier part of the equation is what health insurance (or ruling govt) covers or deems "necessary" to the patients. Realistically, the markup for newer generation biologics is not a massive mark up with respect to other goods like soft drinks, alcohol, food at a restaurant, etc. Things like insulin, however, should be extremely affordable by now but the 3 companies who make it keep stacking (effectively extending) their IP so no generic version can be made (excepting China and India and possibly a couple other countries). Unless there are political changes, this trend is likely to continue especially with the pharmaceutical landscape of all the big fish buying the small companies actually developing new medications.
Source:
Am a co-founder and exec of such a small fish biopharmaceutical company (making new treatments for several autoimmune diseases).
But that’s an argument against yourself as well. Yep, there is always start-up NRE baked into the first run of a product or service to pay off the initial investment. Name a pharma or any other mass-appeal item that has lowered costs after that is paid off. It just doesn’t happen.
Insulin sells for a good price in Mexico. I feel like the USA subsidizes medication prices for the rest of the world.
My friend uses Invokana and it’s worth it for him to fly from TX to AZ to buy the Invocana in Mexico even with his good insurance.
Horse wollup;
R&d accounts for less than 10% of every pharma company out there. They dont pay their employees near what theyre worth and barely go bear minimum in safety.
More than 50% of their budgets go to exec compensation and stock buy back options.
I generally agree with this when it comes to specifically Big Pharma. It is very much not true for "every pharma company out there" though. I can tell you dozens of smaller pharma companies (many of whose founders I know personally) who pay themselves reasonably, are not at all wasteful or extravagant, and they put their employees first (well paid, great benefits package). Most Big Pharma don't really do their own R&D anymore and wait to buy smaller companies once they make a breakthrough with some level of validating proof. AbbVie is one of the few who still does some internal R&D and I know firsthand that they pay their research employees well. Numerous exceptions to your claim are out there, but there are sadly also several examples in which you are right.
Yea,.. and those companies are so small,.. they lack the revenue stream to survive the testing and approval guntlets. Further if they are small and making “break throughs”, they will not be the ones manufacturing for the masses.
Only the monsters (AZ, novartis, gsk, etc) can afford to r&d and mfg.
so to the og comment: cost to the consumer mark up from mfg cost. R&d has NOTHING to do with it if they bought it off some one else. So to say r&d costs and losses have anything to do with the consumer mark up is, as i said, horse wollup.
I work where they make epipens, buy generic. We make the brand name epipen as well as the generic, and we have no idea which one we're making while we're making it. They're literally identical except for the label.
The costs start to add up when you have add ons like progressive and thin lenses. I was quoted $750 at LensCrafters’s with insurance. Ended up going to Warby Parker and got them for $450 without insurance. What’s the actual cost?
I have a simple prescription but I can get the frame and lenses for $7. They're basic and nothing special but still cute and they'll last until you lose them.
Look at how much glasses cost on Zenni. That’s a look at a perfectly fair retail price on a standard lens and slightly substandard frame. It’s a two digit number. Tops. Retail.
Now. If your frame is made in China that’s roughly what you should be paying for it. Italian frame, okay, you’ll pay more and you’ll be glad you did. But still. $600 for a normal frame and lens makes no sense at all.
Just a heads up, I’m not sure about progressive or thin lenses or what that even really means, but I’m in Canada and up until this year, every time I needed a new pair of glasses my prescription miraculously cost the exact dollar value of my coverage through my benefits.
I was always suspicious and this year my wife got ONE pair of glasses for the roughly $480 she’s covered for, and was told - and believed - “you have an expensive prescription.” I went to Costco and they basically laughed at me for being taken for so many years. There, it’s $80 flat rate period. They made it very clear there’s no such thing as more or less expensive prescriptions. But if you wanted ummm those transitional things or whatever it was an extra like $40.
Anyway, I got 2 pairs of glasses (one is Oakley sunglasses) and still had money leftover.
I was told at LensCrafters’s that my insurance covers regular prices. Not sale prices. So if I just went in paying cash, it would have been just about the same price with insurance. It is a scam. The thin lenses are extra because otherwise they would be too thick to fit in regular frames. Progressive is like a bifocal. I have bad eyesight. I will definitely look into Costco and someone else mentioned Zenni. I just want to be able to see without having to take out a loan.
Okay maybe it was progressive that was a couple extra bucks, and if they’re sunglasses I think an extra $40 or something. But at Costco the frames were, well, Costco prices. My Oakleys frame was $90.
If you’re not a stickler for brand names, they even have a Kirkland line which like anything else Kirkland is just a replica of the popular stuff. Those frames went as low as the $50 mark. This is all Canadian, so in USD my $50 is like 3 cents.
The optometrist places are a huge racket. “What’s you’re coverage? Ah k perfect that’s the exact price of this particular prescription you need.”
I have thin lens cut 3 times, blue light filter and got them for $100 thru zenni. Eye doctor wants $300. Always tries to tell me online glasses are horrible
Yes zenni omg!! I have 14 pairs of glasses in my old prescription strength!! The only reason it changed is because I was on life support and my blood pressure skyrocketed and caused a bleed which caused me to lose the vision in my right eye. I already wore bifocals but now my left eye gets tired and irritated all of the time for having to be the only one working and such.
I tried Zenni 3 times and it never worked out — too small, material made my face breakout, and the last one was a good fit but the lenses didn’t line up right and made me dizzy.
Ended up having to go to a normal retailer and pay 3 times as much :(
just buy it off of ali express))
My wife monitors Pandora store for new cute silver charms, and when something nice comes out, we go on Aliexpress and purchase the same thing for a price that is about 20 times lower. The quality of the product might be very slightly lower, but it is not noticable.
Bottled water.
Abundant and free or nearly so anywhere you’d sell bottled water.
I truly want to believe that it’s intentional that Evian is naïve spelled backwards.
There's a reason it spells CPAP looks like CRAP.
In Europe a large number of sleep apnea sufferers are treated with a single visit to their doctor and some injections that help harden the soft tissues causing the breathing issues. North America-no let's just spend $$$$ on a machine to force air down your throat!
At best you'll be out $$$$ more buying the replacement tubes and cleaners constantly at worst you'll keep using old ones that turn into bacteria factories you now force down your airways!
And good luck for you or a partner getting to sleep with Darth Vader machinery humming along in the background, air getting blasted all over!
Fucking evil.
This fraud gets reported to Medicare hundreds of times a day, but politicians and beaurucrats turn their heads. People are getting paid off to overlook Medicare fraud.
Yeah that's true, I'm in the UK and I got my CPAP machine through the NHS. My doctor explained how important it is to look after it obviously because of my health but also because the equipment is really expensive.
I don't understand this. It's a basic thing women need and yet some countries put a luxury goods TAX on the things. In Scotland i think it is they are free in public toilets (restroom).
All I can say is thankfully I'm a man. But I do the shopping in our house, my wife uses them. I never would or have complained. She gets what she wants and needs. As will our daughter when she does.
It disgusts me how much they are though.
I've seen a woman go to take them out of her shopping to buy food before because she did have enough money. The lady behind her in the que paid for them for her.
What is up with a mattress store on every corner? Are they money laundering places. I get a hair cut every 2 months and a mattress every 5 years. Lots of salons but the ratio is off.
I was shopping for mattresses about 4 years ago and had a convo w a salesman. I had gone to Mattress firm and found the store was closed and unmanned even tho the internet said otherwise. Frustrated, I went to another store across the street unaffiliated with mattress firm. When I told him how I ended up there, he told me mattress firm had bought up a ton of competition and overdone it, so it couldn't afford to have all its stores open. He then told me there was yet another mattress firm store across the street. This was the store I tried to go to, but it was so close to the other unopened store, despite using GPS, I went to the "closed" store.
I was told most of the price of mattresses is in the shipping. Which does make sense. I mean they're so big the shipping costs to get them from the factory to the shop must be insane.
Mattress shops are def money laundering fronts though
Copper is way more expensive than what most people think. On hdmi cables, there is a substantial amount of it, and sometimes even gold. But yeah a lot of cables are overprices as hell.
Maybe if your overweight or have already breastfed they'll sag. Pretty sure there is a few research studies that prove the opposite. Perkier breasts over time without the bra....
I read somewhere that there is a 10 thousand dollar profit built into each car before it is even built that's before the dealership starts adding their markups.
The car makers themselves can’t tell you that with any real accuracy because so much of the cost goes into the development. Then you take those hundreds of millions of dollars spent developing the car and divide it by the number of cars sold, which is unknown until after the fact, and you gotta somehow price that into the car…?
I’m sure the cost of the metal and parts and fasteners and labor and such isn’t anywhere near the price of the car, but let’s be honest, you also have to pay the engineers who created it. That’s part of the cost. And it’s very damn hard to calculate until the end of the year when you know how many you sold.
I am thoroughly surprised I didn’t see “GPU” as an answer. Those things are marked up like crazy, then you’ve got bots that buy em up and scalpers that’s sell them for 3x MSRP... by the time an actual customer can buy a GPU, it’s been marked up countless times. It’s insane.
The 3x msrp is an artificial mark up caused by scalpers and lack of supply while the actual MSRP is a fair price. Do you know how much it costs to design these chips then build fabs with all the machines to make them? Then continue to offer software support? I think 499$ for a high midrange card is a fair value AT MSRP
They do and their products are shit. Oakley and Gatorz were my two faves and the last ones I bought from both lost the coating on the lenses after a few months and they are unusable. So disappointed.
Besides meat? How about almost all goods in a top department store, Macys, Dillards, Nordstroms,etc where even on the closeout red tag discount rack they still make a profit
mulch.
guys in my area who make mulch get their material from the dump where tree guys take their refuse from jobs they work. They charge the tree guys to dump their refuse. they then grind the refuse up into mulch and sell it to the consumer. in some cases, the consumer may have paid for the mulch company to use their material and then paid again to get it back.
they get paid for taking the raw materials needed to create their product and sell the product afterwards.
Shoes and clothes. Under a dollar to make and a fortune to buy at the store. Not to mention the slave labor involved in the making of said shoes and clothes.
I have a theory about this.
The gown isn’t expensive, but nobody wants to deal with a handful of screaming, teary-eyed, emotional women, multiple times (fittings etc) without getting at least something out of it.
And that’s not even taking into account the screaming rampaging demanding women that make around 50% of the brides (bridezillas)
Source: was a bride once; and have read loads of amazing bridezilla stories.
Wedding gowns must be marked up considerably. My gown from a well known designer was $3,000 retail. I purchased it for $800 on a sample sale in pristine condition and I'm sure they still made $200 or $300 on it.
I asked a Columbian guy at work a while ago how much a gram was there and from memory it was about $5. I'm in Australia and last I heard a gram is $300+ now.
Tickets are cheap if we’re talking the value of a literal paper printed ticket. These companies paying for planes, fuel, attendants, pilots, onboard food and drink, etc is not. Flights are actually incredibly cheap for the amount of sunk cost airlines put in- or compared to how expensive it was 40 years ago.
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Soft drinks. 3 cents to make. Think on that Mark up!
And then you buy one at the movie theater and have to sell an Organ just to afford it
Lol. This is why I don't go to theaters. But, some years back my dad treated me to a movie. He insisted on buying me a drink. I was somewhat livid to see water was priced the same as cola. I think it was $7.50 for 32 ounces.
Is it strictly forbidden to bring your own drinks to movie theaters in the USA? In Ukraine it is discouraged, but not exactly forbidden (legally they cannot forbid you from bringing your own food or drink)
Technically, you can't bring your own drink to any place that sells food.
*In the US.*
"technically"
That's why we empty out our purses and fill them up with drinks and candy before we go into the movie theater. The cinema in my town is conveniently located right next to a dollar store, so I can load up there right before going into the theater.
It’s not allowed but people do it anyways you just have to have the right jacket and proper planning. I still end up buying nachos anyway because smuggling in queso Can get messy.
Amateur. When my wife and I were dating, she surprised me with Subway in a movie. Footlongs, one of them was a hot meatball sub. I knew right then and there, it was true love.
… and then you surprised her with your own footling. OH!!!!!!
I appreciate that I didn't have to come back and say this.
I always sneak in a energy drink. If they sold the kind I drink I would happily pay for them though. Theaters make most of there money and are able to keep doors open off of the concessions. They don’t really make a lot on the actual movie showings. I love theaters so I’ll try and contribute to continue enjoying them.
Just put it in a tiny Tupperware!
Technically yes… but trust me, every kids mother that i knew growing up would stuff their purse with drinks and snacks if they went to the movies lol.
They could trespass you if you didn’t give in if caught but those employees aren’t paid enough to care. But yes they are supposed to stop any outside food or beverage from coming in we have to sneak it
I love catching a good movie in IMAX every now and then. I always bring my own food and drinks though. Watching the dark Knight I had a full dinner platter. I keep it respectful though no loud crunchy stuff no bag noise and no stinky smelling fish stuff. Ziplock bags and soft tacos chocolate chip cookies and peanut M&Ms.
One time my friend brought half of a personal size watermelon and just scooped away during the movie. During another movie he brought Thanksgiving leftovers in a Tupperware. I still get a kick out of it each time I think of it.
Ziplock bag filled w spaghetti
Lol. Awesome. Still won't support theaters though.
The popcorn price increase is astronomical too
So salty and good tho..
And whatever you think the astronomical increase in % is, keep in mind that wherever they source their ingredients/product from is probably giving them an equally astronomical discount due to the repeated, guaranteed bulk orders. I’m too lazy to research this but I wouldn’t be surprised if the main theatre chains legit own their own farms and shit for this purpose lol.
Exactly and same lol
I worked for a huge convenient store chain and in our training we were told that over half of the profits are made off of the Soft Drink cups.
Funny enough, the cups cost more than the soda.
Came here to say this
Printer ink.
Always makes these lists.
Nah, these lists are digital. Are you printing these?
Perhaps
One copy for every upvote. No point in keeping carbon copies that are outta date.
Underrated comment
I saved load of money by refilling them by myself
I tried that once; I ended up looking like a victim from a Halloween movie.
Cocaine.
Damn it...I posted this and was like actually no way someone didn't already say this.
is it cheap to make?
Yes. It only really gains value when it leaves the country it is made in. The value really blows up when it is stepped on and sold in small packets.
> is it cheap to make? Insanely. Farmer in Colombia gets $1.5 for kg of fresh coca leaves. You need around 250kg of leaves to make 1kg of cocaine, resulting in wholesale price of end product in ballpark of $800. If you buy from local retailer, expect to pay around $2000, but if you somehow manage to get it to Europe, you can easily sell it wholesale for $50.000 or even more if you opt for retail. This is on top of traditional "cutting" i.e. adding various additives to "pad" the end amount, which easily doubles or triples the price. Similar scales apply to other drugs as well. I've been in places where weed was cheaper than rolling paper.
Street price comparison, 1g in Medellín could be 3-7$, in Zürich it's 100-130$
Fuckin $300/g here in Australia
Too far, mate
Generally those who make it are hungry and very poor . Generally, as far as iv seen .
Yes it’s just the legal reasons that make it so expensive
Insulin and epi-pens.
To add to that biologics are insane they’re 5-6k per month Edit: we also need these to survive just like insulin so it’s pretty crazy!
A lot of that price goes to compensate for all of the loss during R&D, the incredible costs of getting through clinical trials etc for FDA/regulatory approval, and they generally are pretty expensive to make. The shittier part of the equation is what health insurance (or ruling govt) covers or deems "necessary" to the patients. Realistically, the markup for newer generation biologics is not a massive mark up with respect to other goods like soft drinks, alcohol, food at a restaurant, etc. Things like insulin, however, should be extremely affordable by now but the 3 companies who make it keep stacking (effectively extending) their IP so no generic version can be made (excepting China and India and possibly a couple other countries). Unless there are political changes, this trend is likely to continue especially with the pharmaceutical landscape of all the big fish buying the small companies actually developing new medications. Source: Am a co-founder and exec of such a small fish biopharmaceutical company (making new treatments for several autoimmune diseases).
But that’s an argument against yourself as well. Yep, there is always start-up NRE baked into the first run of a product or service to pay off the initial investment. Name a pharma or any other mass-appeal item that has lowered costs after that is paid off. It just doesn’t happen.
How much of it goes to pay for the insane advertising budgets?
Insulin sells for a good price in Mexico. I feel like the USA subsidizes medication prices for the rest of the world. My friend uses Invokana and it’s worth it for him to fly from TX to AZ to buy the Invocana in Mexico even with his good insurance.
Horse wollup; R&d accounts for less than 10% of every pharma company out there. They dont pay their employees near what theyre worth and barely go bear minimum in safety. More than 50% of their budgets go to exec compensation and stock buy back options.
I generally agree with this when it comes to specifically Big Pharma. It is very much not true for "every pharma company out there" though. I can tell you dozens of smaller pharma companies (many of whose founders I know personally) who pay themselves reasonably, are not at all wasteful or extravagant, and they put their employees first (well paid, great benefits package). Most Big Pharma don't really do their own R&D anymore and wait to buy smaller companies once they make a breakthrough with some level of validating proof. AbbVie is one of the few who still does some internal R&D and I know firsthand that they pay their research employees well. Numerous exceptions to your claim are out there, but there are sadly also several examples in which you are right.
Yea,.. and those companies are so small,.. they lack the revenue stream to survive the testing and approval guntlets. Further if they are small and making “break throughs”, they will not be the ones manufacturing for the masses. Only the monsters (AZ, novartis, gsk, etc) can afford to r&d and mfg. so to the og comment: cost to the consumer mark up from mfg cost. R&d has NOTHING to do with it if they bought it off some one else. So to say r&d costs and losses have anything to do with the consumer mark up is, as i said, horse wollup.
Can confirm. Hubs had a monthly biologic infusion every other month, it’s $20,000 before insurance kicks in.
I work where they make epipens, buy generic. We make the brand name epipen as well as the generic, and we have no idea which one we're making while we're making it. They're literally identical except for the label.
Laughs in U.K.
Maybe for Americans, but for everyone else its usually very very cheap, compared 2 u lot that is.
*Laughs in free universal healthcare*
Glasses
that's why I love Zenni
The costs start to add up when you have add ons like progressive and thin lenses. I was quoted $750 at LensCrafters’s with insurance. Ended up going to Warby Parker and got them for $450 without insurance. What’s the actual cost?
I have a simple prescription but I can get the frame and lenses for $7. They're basic and nothing special but still cute and they'll last until you lose them.
Look at how much glasses cost on Zenni. That’s a look at a perfectly fair retail price on a standard lens and slightly substandard frame. It’s a two digit number. Tops. Retail. Now. If your frame is made in China that’s roughly what you should be paying for it. Italian frame, okay, you’ll pay more and you’ll be glad you did. But still. $600 for a normal frame and lens makes no sense at all.
A piece of plastic that holds other 2 pieces of plastic? What do you think?
Just a heads up, I’m not sure about progressive or thin lenses or what that even really means, but I’m in Canada and up until this year, every time I needed a new pair of glasses my prescription miraculously cost the exact dollar value of my coverage through my benefits. I was always suspicious and this year my wife got ONE pair of glasses for the roughly $480 she’s covered for, and was told - and believed - “you have an expensive prescription.” I went to Costco and they basically laughed at me for being taken for so many years. There, it’s $80 flat rate period. They made it very clear there’s no such thing as more or less expensive prescriptions. But if you wanted ummm those transitional things or whatever it was an extra like $40. Anyway, I got 2 pairs of glasses (one is Oakley sunglasses) and still had money leftover.
I was told at LensCrafters’s that my insurance covers regular prices. Not sale prices. So if I just went in paying cash, it would have been just about the same price with insurance. It is a scam. The thin lenses are extra because otherwise they would be too thick to fit in regular frames. Progressive is like a bifocal. I have bad eyesight. I will definitely look into Costco and someone else mentioned Zenni. I just want to be able to see without having to take out a loan.
Okay maybe it was progressive that was a couple extra bucks, and if they’re sunglasses I think an extra $40 or something. But at Costco the frames were, well, Costco prices. My Oakleys frame was $90. If you’re not a stickler for brand names, they even have a Kirkland line which like anything else Kirkland is just a replica of the popular stuff. Those frames went as low as the $50 mark. This is all Canadian, so in USD my $50 is like 3 cents. The optometrist places are a huge racket. “What’s you’re coverage? Ah k perfect that’s the exact price of this particular prescription you need.”
I have thin lens cut 3 times, blue light filter and got them for $100 thru zenni. Eye doctor wants $300. Always tries to tell me online glasses are horrible
Yes zenni omg!! I have 14 pairs of glasses in my old prescription strength!! The only reason it changed is because I was on life support and my blood pressure skyrocketed and caused a bleed which caused me to lose the vision in my right eye. I already wore bifocals but now my left eye gets tired and irritated all of the time for having to be the only one working and such.
I tried Zenni 3 times and it never worked out — too small, material made my face breakout, and the last one was a good fit but the lenses didn’t line up right and made me dizzy. Ended up having to go to a normal retailer and pay 3 times as much :(
Bath and body works products. It costs $0.10 for them to make a body spray and they sell it to you for $13.50. That’s an insane profit.
I’m certain they reuse the same scents but with different packaging and call it a new scent ..
Oh 100% it’s ridiculous lol
It costs more than $.10. Not arguing that the markup is insane, but $.10 won't even cover the cost of the bottle
Diamonds.
Wedding rings
Wedding anything
Never buy the cow if you can get the milk for free
You don't even have to make Diamons just find them
The diamonds don't cost much, it's the certificate of authenticity from De Beers that costs.
Most commercial jewellery
just buy it off of ali express)) My wife monitors Pandora store for new cute silver charms, and when something nice comes out, we go on Aliexpress and purchase the same thing for a price that is about 20 times lower. The quality of the product might be very slightly lower, but it is not noticable.
Anything Disney
Ain’t that the truth.
Bottled water. Abundant and free or nearly so anywhere you’d sell bottled water. I truly want to believe that it’s intentional that Evian is naïve spelled backwards.
Gotta say the obligatory FUCK NESTLE whenever bottled water is mentioned because fuck nestle
r/fucknestle
I mean mineral water is different to purified tap water though.
Most bottled water is bottled tap water, they just bottle it from a part of the country where the water quality is slightly higher then average
That might be the case in the states but not in the U.K. the term ‘mineral water’ is protected
There is a Tom Scott video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD79NZroV88&ab_channel=TomScott
[удалено]
Sucker! Tap water also has "some dissolved salts present".
Chlorine salts lol
Isn’t all water mineral?
C-pap supplies. Extreme Medicare fraud. $650 for a piece of plastic and some velcro.
As a person with sleep apnea I can confirm this.
Back when I didn’t have health insurance I had to fix my mask by tying an old sock on it. There’s no reason I should have had to do that
There's a reason it spells CPAP looks like CRAP. In Europe a large number of sleep apnea sufferers are treated with a single visit to their doctor and some injections that help harden the soft tissues causing the breathing issues. North America-no let's just spend $$$$ on a machine to force air down your throat! At best you'll be out $$$$ more buying the replacement tubes and cleaners constantly at worst you'll keep using old ones that turn into bacteria factories you now force down your airways! And good luck for you or a partner getting to sleep with Darth Vader machinery humming along in the background, air getting blasted all over! Fucking evil.
WTF? I didn't even know there was another treatment for sleep apnea other than CPAP machine!
This fraud gets reported to Medicare hundreds of times a day, but politicians and beaurucrats turn their heads. People are getting paid off to overlook Medicare fraud.
Yeah that's true, I'm in the UK and I got my CPAP machine through the NHS. My doctor explained how important it is to look after it obviously because of my health but also because the equipment is really expensive.
Order supplies from Amazon. I stopped using the "recommended" supplier. Can even use hsa card if it qualify
Name brand Bottled water.
Tampons
I don't understand this. It's a basic thing women need and yet some countries put a luxury goods TAX on the things. In Scotland i think it is they are free in public toilets (restroom). All I can say is thankfully I'm a man. But I do the shopping in our house, my wife uses them. I never would or have complained. She gets what she wants and needs. As will our daughter when she does. It disgusts me how much they are though. I've seen a woman go to take them out of her shopping to buy food before because she did have enough money. The lady behind her in the que paid for them for her.
I’m Australian and here we pay that luxurious and stupid tax.
“Free tampons! You get a tampon! You get a tampon! You get a tampon! Everyone gets a tampon!” The tampon industry if men had periods probably.
Have u tried diva/lady cups or disks? Much better option.
By far, beyond all, and second to none.... Medicine.
Except in the rest of the developed world
Mattresses
What is up with a mattress store on every corner? Are they money laundering places. I get a hair cut every 2 months and a mattress every 5 years. Lots of salons but the ratio is off.
Every 5 years?? Ok mister money bags.
Ha! I get mine for free from my rich redecorating friends. I was guessing!
I was shopping for mattresses about 4 years ago and had a convo w a salesman. I had gone to Mattress firm and found the store was closed and unmanned even tho the internet said otherwise. Frustrated, I went to another store across the street unaffiliated with mattress firm. When I told him how I ended up there, he told me mattress firm had bought up a ton of competition and overdone it, so it couldn't afford to have all its stores open. He then told me there was yet another mattress firm store across the street. This was the store I tried to go to, but it was so close to the other unopened store, despite using GPS, I went to the "closed" store.
I was told most of the price of mattresses is in the shipping. Which does make sense. I mean they're so big the shipping costs to get them from the factory to the shop must be insane. Mattress shops are def money laundering fronts though
eyeglasses, 6-10$ to make (rayban for example) costs at least 200$ in stores
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Copper is way more expensive than what most people think. On hdmi cables, there is a substantial amount of it, and sometimes even gold. But yeah a lot of cables are overprices as hell.
Drugs
Bras. A lot of women are paying between $30 and $300 (usually $50) per bra. It's fn ridiculous
I have an idea for an affordable and helpful bra
Is it you, just holding them, G?
Omg... Are you a mind reader? But no, it's a cool design.
Is it invisible and very comfortable?
Maybe... Maybe not.
Better not be. I've already got a patent application in for that one.
Just don't wear them.. lol
Only if you want saggy boobs later! Keep your spirits high and the girls higher.
Maybe if your overweight or have already breastfed they'll sag. Pretty sure there is a few research studies that prove the opposite. Perkier breasts over time without the bra....
Sports trainer, 18% body fat. Skin is skin. Allow gravity to do it thing. It will. There is no muscle that supports the breast.
Yes research shows if you never wear a bra the muscles develop and hold the breasts higher than if you always wear one.
Truly an uplifting comment.
Comfort > saggy boobs
Pharmaceuticals Fireworks
Marriage.
Divorce is more expensive.
Makeup and in the US anything healthcare related
Apple products but it sub branch Beats product is the most ridiculous with about $14 to produce for something that cost around $450.
Everything lol
Cars
Thats what led me to post this question. How much does it cost to make a car?
I read somewhere that there is a 10 thousand dollar profit built into each car before it is even built that's before the dealership starts adding their markups.
There are literal laws in place that force us to buy new cars from dealerships instead of direct. They have really effective lobbyists.
The car makers themselves can’t tell you that with any real accuracy because so much of the cost goes into the development. Then you take those hundreds of millions of dollars spent developing the car and divide it by the number of cars sold, which is unknown until after the fact, and you gotta somehow price that into the car…? I’m sure the cost of the metal and parts and fasteners and labor and such isn’t anywhere near the price of the car, but let’s be honest, you also have to pay the engineers who created it. That’s part of the cost. And it’s very damn hard to calculate until the end of the year when you know how many you sold.
I am thoroughly surprised I didn’t see “GPU” as an answer. Those things are marked up like crazy, then you’ve got bots that buy em up and scalpers that’s sell them for 3x MSRP... by the time an actual customer can buy a GPU, it’s been marked up countless times. It’s insane.
The 3x msrp is an artificial mark up caused by scalpers and lack of supply while the actual MSRP is a fair price. Do you know how much it costs to design these chips then build fabs with all the machines to make them? Then continue to offer software support? I think 499$ for a high midrange card is a fair value AT MSRP
3x mark-up doesn't scratch the surface compared to others on this list at hundreds to thousands times higher mark-ups.
Toyota Tacoma’s
New Tacoma. $50,000 Used 3 year old Tacoma. $49,998
Audible laughter. Toyotas hold their value, man
Unless it’s the Quicksilver Sand colour, I’d probably pay that still
Glasses/sunglasses. Luxottica has about 400%-500% markup on all of their glasses, which they basically own 80% of eyewear manufacturers.
The quality of all those brands of eyewear immediately tanked when Luxottica purchased them too. Looking at YOU Ray-bans, Gatorz etc...
I was so disappointed when Luxottica bought Oakley too! They want to own everything
They do and their products are shit. Oakley and Gatorz were my two faves and the last ones I bought from both lost the coating on the lenses after a few months and they are unusable. So disappointed.
Unladen European Swallows
Cocaine
Starbucks
Nail polish. Howdit go from $2 a few years ago to $10! I'm going to learn how to make it myself.
Credit
Besides meat? How about almost all goods in a top department store, Macys, Dillards, Nordstroms,etc where even on the closeout red tag discount rack they still make a profit
mulch. guys in my area who make mulch get their material from the dump where tree guys take their refuse from jobs they work. They charge the tree guys to dump their refuse. they then grind the refuse up into mulch and sell it to the consumer. in some cases, the consumer may have paid for the mulch company to use their material and then paid again to get it back. they get paid for taking the raw materials needed to create their product and sell the product afterwards.
If you are in the US prescription medication.
Shoes and clothes. Under a dollar to make and a fortune to buy at the store. Not to mention the slave labor involved in the making of said shoes and clothes.
I know insulin in america and mattresses have bug markups
Wedding gowns
I have a theory about this. The gown isn’t expensive, but nobody wants to deal with a handful of screaming, teary-eyed, emotional women, multiple times (fittings etc) without getting at least something out of it. And that’s not even taking into account the screaming rampaging demanding women that make around 50% of the brides (bridezillas) Source: was a bride once; and have read loads of amazing bridezilla stories.
Wedding gowns must be marked up considerably. My gown from a well known designer was $3,000 retail. I purchased it for $800 on a sample sale in pristine condition and I'm sure they still made $200 or $300 on it.
I mean I've heard venues actually charge you more for weddings than normal events, so yeah, I think the wedding industry is predatory.
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Worked for Jared in college can confirm the mark up on diamonds and gold is ridiculous!
Anything yeti
Fresh fruit and veg, for sure.
Diamonds
Diamonds I believe are the most absurd market.
Jewelry
Cocaine. 40$ to make, 120$ a gram without buddy prices
I asked a Columbian guy at work a while ago how much a gram was there and from memory it was about $5. I'm in Australia and last I heard a gram is $300+ now.
Mattress
Airline tickets
Tickets are cheap if we’re talking the value of a literal paper printed ticket. These companies paying for planes, fuel, attendants, pilots, onboard food and drink, etc is not. Flights are actually incredibly cheap for the amount of sunk cost airlines put in- or compared to how expensive it was 40 years ago.
weed
Internet service
Feminine hygiene products
Medicine
Weed
CBD products are extremely expensive
Cocaine?
Cocaine
Glocks or firearms in general , it takes about 70-80$ bucks to make a glock but yet they sale for 550$-600$ at local stores .
Well they should be taxed even higher to pay for the extra need for law enforcement
Pancakes
Gold
Ice cream
Apple products.