Rip off merchants in this world

[BolshieBastard]

Main dealer car servicing, they charge upwards of £110 an hour and pay the grease monkey who does the work a tenner an hour if he's lucky!

£100 an hour mark up, phaff.

[SantaClaus]

...
Oh, and vacuum cleaner bags. FFS, why isn't there a standardised bag?

Get a Dyson or other bagless vacuum cleaner.

[Swiss Tony]

Car Manufactures, cars have the second biggest mark up after diamonds I have heard.

[gingerjedi]

Car Manufactures, cars have the second biggest mark up after diamonds I have heard.

Still nothing compared to what cinemas charge for popcorn, 900% markup I believe.

[fullyautomatix]

Still nothing compared to what cinemas charge for popcorn, 900% markup I believe.

Superb! That one is on the top for ripoff.

Point to note, you can make popcorn at home in 5 minutes flat. No special equipment needed.

But you cannot manufacture razor blades, printer cartridges, coke etc. In other words, importance given to merchants who hold us to ransom.

[Scary]

Of course if you don't like any of this you're quite entitled to start up your own business in competition offering goods or services at a more competitive price.

[TimberWolf]

Superb! That one is on the top for ripoff.

Point to note, you can make popcorn at home in 5 minutes flat. No special equipment needed.

But you cannot manufacture razor blades, printer cartridges, coke etc. In other words, importance given to merchants who hold us to ransom.

No way. Contact lenses beat that by miles. Cost of stamping out a piece of plastic 2cm square a million at a time, being what 0.0001 each? And sold in the shops for about whatever they can fleece out of you. The mark-up must be in the tens or hundreds of thousands of percent.

[The_Equalizer]

Still nothing compared to what cinemas charge for popcorn, 900% markup I believe.

That soft 'ice cream' from the vans. Now that's mark-up. I was very tempted to buy a van (bit like the KLF), but realised that I'd probably have to discuss my business with big men with tattoos.

[Menelaus]

Of course if you don't like any of this you're quite entitled to start up your own business in competition offering goods or services at a more competitive price.

a la Sleazyjet

[gingerjedi]

No way. Contact lenses beat that by miles. Cost of stamping out a piece of plastic 2cm square a million at a time, being what 0.0001 each? And sold in the shops for about whatever they can fleece out of you. The mark-up must be in the tens or hundreds of thousands of percent.

You need a technology and research to design and manufacture contact lenses, they come in different sizes and strengths, they need to be specially packaged in a sterile solution not to mention the different variates in terms of hydrating properties and UV tints etc.

Compare that to a sack of corn and a spotty teenager scooping it out at £4 a pop, the premises is already geared up for retail so that's only a fraction of the cost.

Edit, just saw this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvggsnVbHdw

A little more complex than just punching bits of polythene.