Hardware store racks are filled to the brim with these sort of overpriced one-off purchases. Things you never think about until you need them, like a light switch chain, or a single eye hook screw latch, or a little light bulb specific to a stove hood. Things that seem like they should cost under a dollar given their small size and simplicity end up costing five or six times that much.
I’ve noticed that about those small weird things in hardware stores, like when I pay a buck or more for a small bag containing three or four screws or machine nuts. I figure the extra cost is worth it for the store to be the one to have to obtain such small things and stock them in a way that makes it easy for me to find them. This is better than me having to try to keep such things at home in an organized fashion.
Marijuana.
Is marijuana more expensive now that it is legal?
That’s surprising.
Not legal in my neck of the woods. I live in Nebraska, the Moral Center of the Universe. Pot will never even be decriminalized here. Luckily I got a guy, and he even delivers. Fuck the law.
Perennial plants.
Why, I remember (cue up old-timey bluegrass record) perennials being considered expensive at $5-6 a gallon pot not so long ago. These days, it’s not uncommon to see them at $15-20 each.
And a heapin’ shovel of manure on those businesses that have stopped selling six-packs of vegetable starts for $2, and only offer four-inch pots for $5 each. I’ll start my own seeds, thanks.
Dirt cheap in WA now. Who would’ve thought you’d see legal weed advertised at $30 per ounce? Not me.
What’s the quality of that $30 pot? At that price, I’d be tempted to call an ounce a “lid”.
Pre-punched printer paper. For example, I have a comb binding machine at home that I use to produce reports and some student workbooks. I don’t use it often, but when I do it is a PITA to punch the holes for any substantial quantity of paper. The punch part of the machine only accepts about 15 sheets at a time and it is easy to get the paper misaligned.
A 500-sheet pack of pre-punched 8.5" x 11" paper is currently $24.69 on Amazon. For heaven’s sake, all they are doing is running the paper through one simple punching step. They aren’t gold-plating it or anything. It isn’t even particularly good quality paper to start with.
I would never buy in that quantity (an ounce would last me forever), but there are plenty of options at that pricepoint. If you are curious, look at the online menus for Spokane, WA bud stores. I’ve seen what is for sale, in person, and it was buds, not “shake”.
I looked around Wa shops alittle, and typical prices are $20 for an eighth and up. Way up, some of them. So the prices aren’t super low compared to the free market, afaict.
Sure, just like you can buy a $10 fifth of tequila, you can also buy one for $100. What is expensive to you for an eight of weed?
In Pennsylvania’s medical program the problem is that the wholesale cost has dropped since the beginning of the program but there hasn’t been a corresponding drop (yet) in retail price.
Once the pharma companies get involved the price will skyrocket.
Once it becomes legal to grow, the price will plummet for those that decide to grow. And while it may not be legal to grow in WA, there are people doing it fairly openly now so I don’t think cops care about it.
Light bulbs. Once technology developed longer lasting bulbs, the price rose in my opinion to allow the suppliers to maintain their revenue levels, since replacing the bulbs would not happen as often as traditional bulbs. I know nothing about the technology, but it’s hard for me to believe the production costs are that much pricier.
Actually, I can believe that. Old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs are fairly simple devices; just a resistor in a glass envelope but my understanding is that modern LED bulbs have quite a bit of electronics in them.
Light bulbs actually have a VERY interesting history in this respect, for those that don’t know…
You can still get super-cheap headphones - try a Five Below or a dollar store. They won’t last terribly long, but at that price, who cares?
The ones that are 20-30 dollars may not be much better, to be honest, especially if they’re the wired bluetooth variety (the two buds are connected to each other via a wire, but are NOT connected to the device). I’ve never had those last more than about 4 months, which is very frustrating. A regular wired headset - that plugs into the device - is a lot more reliable.
I agree with you on the Beats. I’ve never heard anything about those that suggests they are worth the price. A headset has to have REALLY good features to warrant that kind of money (my Bose QuietComfort set is just about worth it).
Sure there was - they figured out that they could put lumps of zinc inside the earphones for the sole purpose of making them feel heavier, and thus higher quality. Cite:
https://www.cnet.com/culture/the-four-bits-of-metal-that-make-beats-headphones-feel-less-flimsy/