Items where packaging is more expensive than the contents.

[AaronX]

What a coincidence, I was just thinking of starting this thread.

[Qwakkeddup]

@alphaboi867

I’ve sent refund checks to clients written out for less than the cost of postage (including one for 1¢), to say nothing of the cost of the actual check or envelope.

State income tax refunds? I got it about 10 years ago.

[Minnie_Luna]

Andy Rooney did a segment years ago about cigarettes and the cost of raw tobacco. I can’t find the video on Youtube or I would link to it.

Essentially, he measured the amount of tobacco in a carton of cigarettes and that it was worth X dollars if you looked at the price of raw tobacco. The cigarette companies were charging something like 5-10 times X for the packaging of their product.

I drive by a tobacco shop that advertises “Roll your Own”. The sign out front says that you can roll the equivalent to a carton for half the cost in less than 10 minutes.

My WAG is that the tobacco is the cheap part of the cigarette and the packaging and what not is the expensive part.

[dracoi]

@Minnie_Luna

Andy Rooney did a segment years ago about cigarettes and the cost of raw tobacco. I can’t find the video on Youtube or I would link to it.

Essentially, he measured the amount of tobacco in a carton of cigarettes and that it was worth X dollars if you looked at the price of raw tobacco. The cigarette companies were charging something like 5-10 times X for the packaging of their product.

I drive by a tobacco shop that advertises “Roll your Own”. The sign out front says that you can roll the equivalent to a carton for half the cost in less than 10 minutes.

My WAG is that the tobacco is the cheap part of the cigarette and the packaging and what not is the expensive part.

Well… the paper and plastic in the packaging isn’t the expensive part either. What’s expensive is the factory, labor, transportation and taxes.

I know that there are disputes with these roll-your-own places about how taxes should be applied to them in jurisdictions that tax loose tobacco differently than cigarettes.

[Omar_Little]

It’s usually not even the packaging that’s the expensive part of what you buy. It’s the brand and advertising that supports the brand that costs the producer the most. That’s why manufacturers agree to produce store brands for similar products that compete against their own brands. They make a higher margin producing Wal-mart’s, Target’s or Kroger’s store brand for them because they do not have to advertise it. They don’t do this exclusively, because these store brand volumes are marginal to their existing production.

[August_West]

Beer.

[thelurkinghorror]

@Minnie_Luna

Andy Rooney did a segment years ago about cigarettes and the cost of raw tobacco. I can’t find the video on Youtube or I would link to it.

Essentially, he measured the amount of tobacco in a carton of cigarettes and that it was worth X dollars if you looked at the price of raw tobacco. The cigarette companies were charging something like 5-10 times X for the packaging of their product.

I drive by a tobacco shop that advertises “Roll your Own”. The sign out front says that you can roll the equivalent to a carton for half the cost in less than 10 minutes.

My WAG is that the tobacco is the cheap part of the cigarette and the packaging and what not is the expensive part.

Usually, the difference is taxes, taxes, taxes. I saw something about these places in NYC, I believe they were considerably cheaper than the ~$12/pack they cost there. In this case, they are not taxed, or at least at the same rate as packaged cigarettes. And they aren’t literally “roll your own,” but you chose what you want and a machine does it.

[Sister_Vigilante]

When I worked at a movie theater (in the 80s), the syrup came in boxes, lasted over a day, and was about a dollar. More than the price of a small soda.

We actually had to charge for the cup if someone wanted water from the water fountain.