Thursday, 18 March 2010
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What Little Rip-Offs Do You Hate?
I just saw a new blog post over on Time.com that totally struck a chord with me. Its about all those "little rip-offs" in life that just annoy you, like overpriced popcorn at the movies, the cost of printer ink or the price of razors and blades. The Time.com post focuses the cost of razor blades in particular, and I couldn't agree more.
While the post is bemoaning the trend in more blades and fancier handles (battery powered?!) in men's razors, women's razors have the same thing happening- more blades and fancier extras. I personally can't tell the difference between shaving my legs with a 3-blade razor or something higher. And don't even get me started on the ones with the stupid block of soap or whatever that goes around the blade. I used to buy Venus razors, until it started to cost nearly $20 just to buy a refill pack. My favorites now are some 3-blade disposables from Noxzema- they've give a great shave and cost less than $3 for a 4 pack.
I also refuse to pay full-price for body wash. I love the way the Dove Deep Moisturizing wash feels, but it's stupidly expensive compared to the store brand versions. And really, the store brand versions (and I've tried versions from 4 different stores) feel exactly the same! I refuse to pay the $2 difference just for the Dove bottle.
What little rip-offs do you hate? What lengths do you go to in order to avoid them?
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- From: Cara
- Name: Cara
- About Me: I'm a 24 yr old back in the Midwest for law school. I've survived the first semester as a law student after working as a paralegal for two years. Let's see how the rest of the time goes!
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Comments (33)
$4 for a bag of potato chips and it's only half full!
I hate when you go out somewhere & they change the size but keep the price. Like Einstein's bagels coffee drink. They had a medium & a large size & the large was like $4 & some change so we always got that. Then we didnt go for a while & when we asked for a large, they said they only had one size & it was the MEDIUM cup for the large price. We told them when we came before they had a large & this heifer argued with me saying she worked here & knew the menu & we told her we knew what we bought. I havent gotten one in almost 2 years. Had they just said the company went to the smaller size, it wouldnt have been a problem, but lie? They lost business.
this is so true! especially as a college student, i think name brand prices are simply ridiculous. one time i bought all brand name items one week and only generic items the next week, and the difference in total cost between the two was 30 dollars! i did this experiment back in the summer, before my university tuition bill started to vacuum my wallet.
@TurquoiseDots@xanga - You pay for chips by weight, not the size of the bag. The bag's full of air on purpose to keep the chips from getting crushed in shipping.
Girl Scout cookies! Costs more for less and there weren't that much cookies in the box to begin with.
-WATER. Sometimes it costs more than gas.
-Textbooks. The value drops immensely after the next edition.
-Alcohol @ Bars and Clubs. $4.50 for a 14 ounce of beer is a JOKE.
-Home Delivered Milk
-Epson Printers and ink
-Free Weights. Seriously, it's just a heavy casted rock.
-Starbucks. More like FiveBucks.
@k_Skrap_moua@xanga - Yea, I agree with the textbooks and printer inks. Most of the time, I rarely even read the books (due to my lazy nature) and I can't even sell it back to the store anymore, since there's a new version released. Sometimes it's not even worth bothering, as you said due to the price reduction. Inks as well, you'd be better off using the printer on the school library considering how many pages you need printed sometimes.
I don't mind the razor blade rip off so much, because they do last a long time. What really bugs me the most is the cost of printer ink. That is probably the biggest ripoff in modern technology.
You can buy an entire new printer, (WITH THE INK IN IT), for well under $100. When the time comes to get new ink, it will cost you $40 - $50 JUST FOR THE INK!!!!
What the hell is that all about?
The other thing that bugs me about printer ink, is the lack of standardization. All flashlights use a standard battery, so why the hell can't all ink jet printers use a standard cartridge?
That is part of the rip off.
I've seen a lot about printer ink lately and it confuses me as I pay next to nothing for ink and haven't since I got my new printer. I get this double pack of HP ink at walmart for $35 and it gives me two blacks and two colors, and that lasts me for like ever. I guess I'm lucky and have a cheap printer.
Most things I buy generic as others were saying, except for things that go on my skin. I have extremely sensitive skin I inherited from my mother and I can only get away with certain products because of that. I can use Dove soap and body wash (love the new nutrium kind, makes my skin so soft), and Aveno moisturizer, and All or Tide Free & Clear laundry detergent. I've tried the store brands many times even the sensitive skin kinds and I still end up breaking out. So I've given up trying and just pay the extra to know deal with the redness, itching & burning.
hmm working at a job, i kno toners can cost alot.
Lets see:
Air at the gas station. 25 cents? ITS AIR!
Cups of water. Numerous occasions where people tried to charge me.
Concert beer, food (even tho its delicious), or even sporting event beer. $8 a beer? Thats not even a buzz, could have just bought a 5th of captain morgan and came trashed.
Bank of america charges me for taking money off my credit card and putting onto my checking. My credit card is supposed to be the 'backup' so i dont overdraft my account but then im charged a fee for transfering funds.
ATM fees. $2.50 to get my own money. THANKKSS.
Gas prices. Why do they always vary by neighborhood? Its not like the next neighborhood is so much different.
RAZORS yes. Venus is about to kiss my ass with that $16 for 4 deal. And then I have to get the sales associate to get it off the locked rack for me.
Grocery stores in general. Every price has seemed to jump about $1.50..and that begins to add up. But yea what can you do, you gotta eat right?
And no matter how many times the minimum wage is raised, it still doesnt make a difference.
Yes, the price of razor blades bugs me. And the air at gas stations too. My biggest gripe though is all those 3D movies. $3.50 extra! No way am I paying $3.50 extra and still have to return those goofy glasses. Whose stupid idea is it to starting filming everything in 3D. My local theatre charges $3.50 even if you don't want to use the glasses. Nope I'm not buying into it.
@chickensrule - why wouldn't you want to use the glasses?
I only use the Gilette 5 blade fusion razors. They work best for my thick hair and I DO notice a BIG difference.
Rip offs I hate are:
salads cost $5 at a fast food place while a burger can cost $1.
@chickensrule - 3D movies are way better though, and you don't have to see it in 3D anyway. The $3.50 isn't for the glasses either, it's for the production and usage rights of the movie itself on a 3D equipped screen.
3D movies are so dumb. theatre, ballet, operas are naturally in 3D. heck, life is in 3D. go outside and look around...for free!
half empty patatoe chip bags!!!!!!!! how annoying...
@lloydkuhnle@xanga -
Printers come with 'tester' cartridges which are just a fraction of full, so don't get too excited about them!
One theory of why cartridges cost so much is that printers are sold below cost, so it has to be made up somewhere. It makes sense to me to charge the use more heavily than the startup costs.
Another explanation is that cartridges are actually sophisticated pieces of technology and it takes a lot of money and resources to continue to develop and improve them.
I hate hate hate gas variance. I pass one gas station and it's $2.97 and I look across the street and it's $2.87 BUT if I drive down the street and around the corner it's $2.57. Seriously??? I'd almost be better off walking for the rest of my life.
Traffic tickets. Yes, i was speeding and I'm terribly sorry but I don't see how my going 5 over should cost $70. :(
....uhhhhhhhhh what else do I complain about.
Oh yeah! Video rentals at places like Blockbuster. GO NETFLIX!! :) Oh yeah, and the candy at movie rental places. $3 for that box of candy? Can you say hello dollar store for $1?
Flimsy, practically see through shirts for $20. Seriously, you sneeze trying to get one of those on and *poof!* there goes you shirt! I think almost anything designer is a complete joke. There isn't anything in this world that could ever, EVER convince me some of that crap is worth several hundred dollars. Nothing. It probably only cost $6 to make in the first place!
texting. in reality, three texts equal a penny.
AND DRINKS/FOOD AT AMUSEMENT PARKS D:<
25 dollar blow job? Sure, but it comes with a black eye.
Ah you guys are too funny
Hubby & I just went out to eat last night at a pretty nice
restaurant. We chose to split an entree, since each entree was about
$20, with salad an extra charge (which also bugs me). When they
brought our food, it was very nicely arranged on 2 plates with more
food still than we could eat. We were really thinking what a classy
establishment this was, until the bill came. $6 PLATE CHARGE?! I can
understand them instituting a plate charge, especially since it
appeared that we got just as much of the sides as a full size entree.
But no where was this mentioned in the menu, our waiter didn't see the
need to mention it, and 6 DOLLARS is WAY too much to charge for such a
perk!
As far as Girl Scout cookies, you have to realize, this is
mostly a donation. If you don't want to donate, buy your cookies from
the store. My boys sold popcorn through the Boys Scouts, and yes it's
way over-priced, but you buy it because you want to support the Boy
Scouts.
@SicTransitGloria19@xanga - you can go into the gas station and say "I am a regular at this gas station and I am putting air in my tires" and they will not charge you the 25 cents. trust me I know how ridic it is. LMAO your thing on beer/capt morgan cracked me up. :)
@lifeonacitybusem4@xanga -
I agree that the printer cartridges are a high level technology, but ink itself is cheap. Why not perfect refillable cartridges? It is available but not perfected. In fact it's a mess. We live in a time of recycling. I'm sure if companies like HP wanted them recyclable, they would be.
You are right. The printers are sold at quite a low price, but not below cost. Most of them are manufactured in Asia, at VERY low labor costs, and in high volume.
@lloydkuhnle@xanga -
Yeah, I didn't know if the whole selling printers below cost thing was true, it's just something I read.
I used to work at Office Max and therefore sold lots of printers and ink. We used to collect empty HP cartridges from customers and gave them $3 off their purchase for each one. Then we would put them in these huge boxes we got from HP and shipped them back. So clearly HP does something with the empties and is willing to pay for them.