Greeting cards.
The one and only answer is “Because people will pay $6 for a dried out bull dong.”
That’s it. There’s no other reason. It has absolutely nothing to do with what it costs to make, which is the biggest mistake people make when trying to evaluate something’s price.
Worth every penny. When we take Simi and Kizzy to a brewery we bring along a couple for them to enjoy. Cheaper than the $22 elk antler pieces my gf was buying.
The garbage truck in the suburbs sternly frowns on disposing of liquids in the trash - paint, old jugs of fabric softener, and used cooking oil, motor oil - anything liquid. They get crushed in the truck and drip out onto the roads. There are ways to dispose of liquids properly, your county recycling program should know…I had a huge bottle of old cooking oil and I disposed of it a bit at a time in my trash, a half a cup or so poured on to crumbled newspapers so it would mix in and not leak. It took about a month to empty it completely. Now we are told we can bring oil it to the county waste treatment facility.
You ain’t kiddin! I don’t normally give cards unless I’m giving a gift card as a gift and need something to put it/mail it in and when I do I get them from the dollar store for either 2/$1.25 or 1/$1.25. This morning on the way to work I stopped in at Walmart to grab a birthday card for my daughter (the dollar store wasn’t opened yet and I wanted to get it in the mail today). Holy crap! It’s been a long time since I bought a card anywhere but the dollar store. The cheapest one I saw was $6.99!!! I almost bought one, but then decided for a savings of $5 she won’t mind getting her card a day late. I’d rather add the $5 to her gift.
Another “yup” on the greeting cards. Day of a kid’s birthday, I stopped at Target and bought him a Blue-Ray he wanted for $22, then a card was another $6 on top of that. I need to be like my mom and load up on Dollar Store cards to keep in a drawer and pull out as needed.
Too true. It’s not just that they’re too expensive, it’s that there are some sources that are so much cheaper for virtually identical cards. We used to get cards at Trader Joe’s, that were neat and quirky and half the price of Hallmark. There was also the year I bought a comically oversized card (think pizza box+)at WalMart, and it was cheaper than the regular cards on the same aisle.
Good to know. I’ll have to check with ours. Fortunately, we are literally a five minute drive from our Hazardous Waste drop-off site; it’s a drive-through. Easy peasy. Not that I need to be doing any deep fat frying.
I sometimes buy a fancy candy bar instead of a card. Like, if I am giving a girft card as a thank you gift, I tape it to a $3 imported chocolate bar rather than stuff it into a $5 card. Accomplishes the same purpose, is itself a little treat, is cheaper.
You can also get a whole box of rather generic “thank you” cards (On Amazon, for example) for about twice the price of a single card today at a Hallmark store. Also available are “Happy birthday” and even a box with several occasions.
I fear the day when chicken leg quarters become trendy. I got a ten pound bag of them for $6.90 last week. Since the thigh is the prime rib equivalent in chicken, these work out well for me.
MandaJo,
I believe this is surely by design. Between the doctor’s office and the insurance, there is usually no way you know how much you are paying. I had to go to the emergency room 2 months ago. i am still waiting to see how much the bill is going to be and as a result I am not buying anything anticipating a large outlay of probably 5-700 dollars.
I can’t wait until a company like Amazon or such disrupts this business model. I am not saying they are a savior or anything but it is not like I pay more and get better service. They (doctors office/insurance) should have to sweat it out too and try and compete.
Our IT Manager asked me to change some toner cartridges as he was* 99.9% remote. I weighed a full and an empty cart. A full one is about 520.9 grams vs 439.5 depleted, a difference of about 81.5 grams for a $200 cartridge.
*We learned today that he passed away over the weekend 
Okay but… anybody carrying a bag with a leather handle is also holding a piece of dead meat when they walk, right? I don’t see how the fact that it’s only the skin part of the dead meat really makes it any better.
(Disclaimer: I have no particular objection to sustainably sourced leather and no particular interest in bull-pizzle leatherwork, and I agree that the hur-hur-snerk aspect of bull-pizzle leatherwork is tiresomely childish, but rationally speaking it’s all equally just preserved dead cattle tissue.)
Glasses. At least the lenses involve some sophisticated technology, but the frames are 3 chunks of plastic, 2 hinges, 4 little screws… $300 thank you very much.
Eyeglasses are a monopoly controlled by Luxottica.
“There is no competition in the industry, not anymore,” he told me. “Luxottica bought everyone. They set whatever prices they please.” SOURCE
I haven’t bought any lately, but glasses used to be available online super cheap – like $40 for a pair of progressive lenses that cost $500 at any store. You need to know your eye & face measurements to get the right fit, but even if you get it wrong a couple times, you’re still saving money.
That’s a great idea. But this one has to go in the mail. I stopped at the dollar store ($1.25 store) and bought a really nice daughter card with the perfect sentiment for 50 cents. And it was a Hallmark!
I don’t buy cards. I just write a note if I need that kind of thing. Yeah, they are way over-priced.
Glasses are a good one, too.
any soda … prices have doubled even for the store and regional imitation brands (ie faygo,Shasta and the like)