We didn’t do any Disney or Universal stuff… although I think next year both my kids will be old enough to enjoy the parks.
Instead we went around to the various Universal Hotel pools (Hard Rock, Royal Grand Pacific) and even hit up the local water parks. We had a blast.
Once when I ordered room service I noticed there was a 20% room delivery feel and 18% gratuity added on to my already ridiculously overpriced $25 burger and fries. Bringing the total closer to $50.
But at the time I was happy to pay it. I had not prepared for the situation and it was my only (and pretty much cheapest) option.
But I am sure you all are used to situational price gouging… The RETARDED price of gas when you return your rental car, The price of can of a extremely small can of Pringles ($7) on a Delta flight, or the reticules 20% sales tax in the Denver Airport. Yes the Denver airport actually has its own city that has 20% sales tax.
Anyway at first I got pissed. Shit like this should be outlawed! or should it? The more I thought about it the more these items moved away from criminal (in my mind) and more into the column of capitalism.
After all we the consumers decide what is allowed… what we will bare…
In 2006 I started selling data cables on my ringtone website. Back then there was no such thing as getting ringtones sent to your phone and you HAD to buy a data cable. Now you could buy data cables on eBay for .50 cents. But I sold them for $19.95… and I sold a lot of them.
Some could say that was situational price gouging because people were already there but some (mostly me) could argue that it was their way of saying THANK YOU for the killer resource I gave them.
Either way I shipped out on average 50 data cables a day. I never had one complaint.
I guess I never complained to the airline stuartess that the same can of Pringles she sold me for $7 are .99 cents at the grocery store.
I was just happy to have them.
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Our economy is in a rough spot so everyone is trying to squeeze that last penny out of every customer..its sad all the round
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Have to say, it isn’t price gouging if you have the option to buy elsewhere. Water that is necessary during a hurricane is price gouging.
The rest like you said is capitalism. The relationship of cost/sales is based on simple economics of elasticity. If it affected sales enough the price would drop so more people bought. Elastic/inelastic demand is what drives your capacity to do this.
BTW – $20 for a cable to get a ringtone – what’s wrong with some people
I agree, it’s not price gouging when you have options. I visit Orlando often and never pay for those overpriced items at the park or in the hotel.
All I can say is … hooray for capitalism!
It looks like you had a nice business with the data cables.=)
we also been to Universal property and noted the same issue. that’s the it works in most places where the demand is high.
They were selling $8 beers like hot cakes at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines the other night. T-shirts at concerts are also notoriously overprice, but you don’t notice or care because it’s in the moment and it’s a souvenir.
Nice post that gets you thinking about these things.
I used to buy/sell items from the Pottery Barn Outlet, right out of the 99-cent “scrap” bin. Some of these items would be discontinued, meaning you couldn’t get them in the regular PB anymore.
Once I sold an Ocean Critters Shower Curtain for $289.00 on Ebay. Some woman wrote me, shrieking “How dare you sell this for so much! It’s only $19.99 in the catalog!”
I replied by sending her the Wikipedia link to “Law of Supply and Demand”.
hii, i’m simon, i want to go there, but i dont have enough money to bring all of member of family. i think if we want to have fun, just stay in front of home, gathrering togather with my family, joking, and making some food. wow, beautiful
It’s pretty easy to find good deals in Orlando. If you search for “Orlando Deals” or the like, you can find disney tickets for free, etc. Most of the time, you have to sit through a 2-4 hour timeshare presentation(hard sales pitch), but you are not obligated to buy anything.
Price gouging sucks
The classic demand supply situation.
Haha…
I grew up in Orlando, city of tourism. It has actually gotten much better than it was before. Disney got in big trouble several years back for gouging on gas and food on their property, but their prices have lowered significantly.
There are areas to look out for: Like making sure you buy gas before you get near the airport. All the airport gas stations are like 2x normal price.
The local government is pretty keen on stopping gouging when it is reported. One good example is when hurricanes pass through. The city gov is all over reports of gouging when hurricanes occur in Orlando. In fact, Home Depot and Lowes have been known to lower the prices of plywood and other supplies during those times, completely disobeying the laws of supply and demand.
Of all the people I would have thought you would have had a line on the bargains to be had. So goes the price we pay for instant gratification brother. By the way best deal of the year I got was your course to teach me to make money so I too can pay for instant gratification.
The outlet malls in Orlando feature retail prices on all goods which are typically sold to the Europeans and Asians. Sometimes gouging is good.
Just back from Vegas. 18% tax on hotel room plus $18-$35/day “resort” fee, $20 drinks poolside at Mandalay. Don’t get me started on the bogus airline fees. The only “value” in Vegas is the $1 water sold on the streets (one dolla wata).
It is really the most annoying type of pricing that you could ever come across but I guess you just end up paying it anyway because like you say a) you have no choice b) most people don’t want to kick up a fuss. The likes of rental car people and vacation spots kind of know that you are never going to be back either. It’s annoying but it’s part of life I guess
$50 for a burger lol.. I can get it at $1 where I live and wait the quality one..
If you can make the money! Do it! : )
you had a nice business
I really don’t get why they make things more expensive in airports or hotels, like it’s the same thing why does it have to be more expensive.
If you go to amusement parks, pack a lunch. Most amusement parks absolutely rape customers on food. Last summer it cost us almost $70 for a McDonald’s meal in an amusement park that would have cost $20 on “the outside.” A 350% mark up for crap food is price gouging. Yeah, it’s capitalism and all-yada yada yada, but it is still a friggin rip off. Hotels are ridiculous too.
The sad thing is, we are ALL being price gouged by big oil at the gas pump these days. They cry “shortage” yet post record profits every quarter. My next car is gonna be bio fuel- I can make it myself in the garage.
Certain types of price gouging should be against the law, and I think it already is. But I’m glad these cases aren’t outlawed. It’s often frustrating, and sometimes I think “there ought to be a law against it!” But the truth is, in those situations, it’s our option.
If you’re on a really long flight, they provide food as part of the ticket price. If it’s not a really long flight, you can bring your own snacks or just be patient.
If you’re in a fancy hotel, you have the option of going out to the nearest McDonald’s if you want. I’ve actually walked from the downtown Seattle Sheraton to the not-so-nearest fast food joint when I was staying there for some IT training.
I’ve stayed in the only-hotel-in-town in a medium sized “city” in a very third world part of a third world country, and eaten like a king from their room service menu. Capitalism is alive and well even there, as the prices aren’t bad. Anyone who can afford to stay in that hotel can afford the room service easily, it’s priced appropriately.
Another point of interest is the baskets of candies and snacks in some hotels, with the terribly inflated price list – in one hotel I bought one of the items every single time they refilled it. It was in another country with my fiancee, where decent chocolate was hard to come by, so I gladly bought the $5 Hershey bar and $X Toblerone for my gal.
It’s a very destructive attitude for folks to think that any unusually high price must be wrong and must be stamped out by THE LAW. If high priced room service were outlawed, the “culprits” wouldn’t lower their prices. They’d stop providing room service.
We may not like price gouging, but economics tells us that supply and demand determine the price. In the case of room order service, there is no competition at all but relatively high demand for people who want to pay for convenience. In a way, most of the time we pay a high price in these situations as a convenience tax.
Of course, it may be cheaper to wait and go to a different place for food or gas but then it will be inconvenient. So it may be worth the price to pay for room service or gas at a rental location.
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