Support NeoGAF

[wanders]

Best buy has no SKU for case pricing on existing Dasani water so they're priced individually.

None of this falls on the company - corporate didn't ask that store to bundle and sell. What likely happened was a fucking scum manager who is taking advantage of the awful situation since water bottles have big margins.

Why aren't guy guys getting this

 

[SuperBanana]

I work at a grocery store and our store brand water bottles have a UPC on package for bulk sale, and UPC on each bottle itself for being sold chilled

Store brands generally do. Most don't.

 

[Kite]

And internet pricing is in many cases lower than what someone pays at a brick and mortar.

Not here

Edit: my bad, cheaper by a dollar or two.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I remember when I lived in Florida during the '00s when it got some bad hurricanes, this type of shit was prevalent enough that the state had to make PSAs and hand out flyers. These types of opportunists are the worst.

 

[Greigor The Fellhand]

isn't this illegal? I hope everyone thats caught doing this gets hit with significant charges, I want jail time

 

[Geist-]

Why aren't guy guys getting this

1. Read title.
2. Don't read article.
3. Look at picture.
4. Leave outraged post.

 

[shira]

I work at a grocery store and our store brand water bottles have a UPC on package for bulk sale, and UPC on each bottle itself for being sold chilled

Chilled water?

 

[XMonkey]

isn't this illegal? I hope everyone thats caught doing this gets hit with significant charges, I want jail time

Yup, it sure is. The places that do this are going to get fined out the ass if it's documented.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

Capitalism at work.

 

[rrs]

for price consideration, here's what said items cost at sams club in Atlanta, Georga

 

[JetBlackPanda]

isn't this a capitalists bootstrap wet dream? (pun intended)

 

[Peccavi]

Meanwhile, we're doing 3 for $10 on 24 packs (16.9 oz bottles, though).

 

[GoldenEye 007]

6 pack 1 liter Smart Water on Amazon = 8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0111JYE1E/?tag=neogaf0e-20

And for non-prime people:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Glaceau-...3785&wl11=online&wl12=189205299&wl13=&veh=sem

 

[Kite]

for price consideration, here's what said items cost at sams club in Atlanta, Georga

Sam's Club.. membership? So you're the same as the idiot posting the Amazon Prime member's only pricing lol

 

[Zepp Twofist]

In Corpus Christi, a RaceWay gas station drew ire after a woman said she was charged more than $60 for two cases of beer, ABC News reported. RaceWay told the station that the overpricing was caused by a clerical error, not price-gouging.

As a Norwegian that is the greatest deal I have heard.

 

[neorej]

This is the Republican dream scenario. Let the free market work out the price. Eventually it'll become cheaper, right. Just let the economics do their thing.

 

[rjinaz]

I mean I get the whole Best Buy pricing thing, $2 per bottle x 24 but come on. Any manager worth a lick would have stopped this from happening. It's a crisis and you are selling packs of water for $42 that in normal conditions can be picked up for $5.

How that store even manages to function with that leadership is beyond me. That's assuming the person that did it didn't do it intentionally because they didn't give a shit.

 

[Sakura]

Don't really see the issue with Best Buy. For the Dasani they only sell individual bottles. They don't have cases of it in their system. They put it there because hey if you want to buy a whole case of it then sure go for it, but it's just going to be 24x the bottle price. It's not like the employee who put it there is making some extra money or something by doing that.

And regarding the beer, I'm sure it is price gouging which is shitty (honestly though, no idea what beer costs in the US) but it is hardly a basic necessity.

 

[RS4-]

Need some hard ass fines, where the money goes to disaster relief etc.

And not in the pocket of some scum fuck.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

Dumbasses.

Even if it was a technicality due to SKUs, did the leadership not realize the optics of such a thing?

SKU or not SKU it's shows up as $99 for freaking water bottles.

As someone mentioned, a manager could have easily price override all of it to a more manageable bulk price than the gouge that it shows as.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

I mean, it's clearly a mistake by an employee. You can see right next to it that the Smartwater pack is a more standard price. Someone took the price of one bottle and multiplied it by 24.

There are mistakes and there is obvious gouging. Some of the other examples are more worth going after. A large national chain isn't going to be getting into this because the bad press is too much. You generally see gouging with small businesses or franchised places such as gas stations - where there is a local owner just licensing the brand but isn't really corporate controlled directly.

Exactly..

 

[MrNelson]

Best buy has no SKU for case pricing on existing Dasani water so they're priced individually.

None of this falls on the company - corporate didn't ask that store to bundle and sell. What likely happened was a fucking scum manager who is taking advantage of the awful situation since water bottles have big margins.

Why aren't guy guys getting this

Or, the employee just did their fucking job and rang up the number of bottles that were being bought since there was no SKU for a case.

You people acting like this was done out of malice are ridiculous.

 

[AlStrong]

pretty Gross Domestic Pricing

*ahem*

 

[Haunted]

Supply and demand. Free market capitalism at work.

 

[opoth]

Don't really understand people melting down about the Best Buy thing. A national chain's employees of one store aren't going to get rich selling a limited amount of bottled water for a day or two, it's an honest mistake based on pricing one item x24 because its not normally sold in that quantity.

Sometimes I wish GAF chose its battles better. The hotel pricing (and arguably beer, but do you really NEED beer?) is the main egregious gouging here and the parent company was wise to break ties with them.

 

[Vital Tundra]

So are all these gas stations and stuff gonna get the boom thrown at them?

 

[wenis]

The Best Buy stuff sounds like an honest to God brain fart moment.

The rest of the instances of price gouging are gross.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Or, the employee just did their fucking job and rang up the number of bottles that were being bought since there was no SKU for a case.

You people acting like this was done out of malice are ridiculous.

 

[mugoldeneagle03]

If Best Buy cares so much is that Best Buy manager going to be fired?

As someone who works at Best Buy, controls inventory, & knows STORES CANNOT CONTROL PRICES LIKE THIS, I can 100% guarantee someone got fired for this.

Stores can't just control prices, make something more expensive, etc. Which means that asshole employee (And manager no doubt) literally took it upon themselves to upsell the water and then probably pocket the profit or add it as a "register over" the following morning.

Which is scummy as fuck...But there's zero chance Corporate (who runs pricing 24/7) changed prices on water at all at that specific store. That was an employee idea, who a supervisor agreed with and a GM approved. Heads will roll at that location, all to make a lousy extra buck from suffering people.

Makes me embarrassed to be associated with them tbh.

 

[mmazurkiewicz]

In this thread people think bestbuy normally sells cases of bottled water. Lol.

That's the only example here that I think was a mistake. The rest is greed.

 

[Instro]

This reflects worse on the intelligence of people working at Best Buy than anything else.

 

[Zoe]

As someone who works at Best Buy, controls inventory, & knows STORES CANNOT CONTROL PRICES LIKE THIS, I can 100% guarantee someone got fired for this.

Stores can't just control prices, make something more expensive, etc. Which means that asshole employee (And manager no doubt) literally took it upon themselves to upsell the water and then probably pocket the profit or add it as a "register over" the following morning.

Which is scummy as fuck...But there's zero chance Corporate (who runs pricing 24/7) changed prices on water at all at that specific store. That was an employee idea, who a supervisor agreed with and a GM approved. Heads will roll at that location, all to make a lousy extra buck from suffering people.

Makes me embarrassed to be associated with them tbh.

But there is no price for a case. They didn't make it more expensive. They have to do one unit * 24.

 

[Acerac]

The smartwater clearly has a UPC on the package, the other water may not.

However, I don't see why a manager couldn't price override every bottle's cost down to a more appropriate bulk msrp.

You don't see why a manager wouldn't feel compelled to sell items for less than they were valued?

Perhaps it is because he enjoys being employed.

 

[HideyoshiJP]

I think the smart thing to have done in the case of Best Buy would have been to run aome special pricing question up the chain. I'm sure Best Buy corporate would have made some exception. They're in the business of gouging Grandpas for computer services, not disaster victims.

 

[Protein]

State of big business.

 

[mugoldeneagle03]

But there is no price for a case. They didn't make it more expensive. They have to do one unit * 24.

I added that to my edit after I read about it, which IS true. Setting up a god damn make shift kiosk in front of the store, however, probably could've been handled a bit differently.

Also, those talking about notional margins w/ a product like water are 100% correct. We sell about 0.3% of a water product per day at our store. I haven't seen a smart water get bought in months. Absolutely was there a "lets move this product we dont" motive to this as well.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

It blows my mind that there was nobody involved in the management of that particular Best Buy store who wasn't too stupid to realize that having cases of water on the floor, in the middle of a natural disaster, right in the front of the store, for $40+, was at best a case of horrible fucking optics. Like seriously, nobody in management or even on the Nerd Squad or whatever who said "Uhhh, hey guys..."

 

[Septimus Prime]

Looks like it's just the same pricing model they use for HDMI cables, applied to water.

 

[HomerSimpson-Man]

You don't see why a manager wouldn't feel compelled to sell items for less than they were valued?

Perhaps it is because he enjoys being employed.

Management won't get flack over something like discounting water especially during an emergency, especially under a GM that is not stupid. Management can essentially price override anything in the store, that's how they price match in the first place.

 

[Acerac]

Looks like it's just the same pricing model they use for HDMI cables, applied to water.

Indeed. Also, it's nothing new.

For what it's worth I've been bitching about the price of water for years. Is everyone just now noticing how shockingly overpriced it is? I can't imagine higher ups would be too happy with them dropping prices solely to be a nice person...

*reply to the above*

While the upper management may understand, I can't see them being happy with it. It's the nice thing to do, for sure, but pure courtesy is rarely the goal in retail.

 

[dskillzhtown]

I mean, it's clearly a mistake by an employee. You can see right next to it that the Smartwater pack is a more standard price. Someone took the price of one bottle and multiplied it by 24.

There are mistakes and there is obvious gouging. Some of the other examples are more worth going after. A large national chain isn't going to be getting into this because the bad press is too much. You generally see gouging with small businesses or franchised places such as gas stations - where there is a local owner just licensing the brand but isn't really corporate controlled directly.

Not sure why people are focusing so much on Best Buy when there are more clear examples of gouging right in the OP.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

"This makes them smart"

Their grand leader will be proud.

 

[jett]

Earlier this year my city had water shortages due to the el niño phenomenon. Doing this is kind of shit was illegal.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

I understand why they might have arrived at this price, but has anyone explained why a product they don't even sell (packs of water), which is what led to the price error in the first place, are being advertised smack dab in the front of the store like that?

 

[Zoe]

I understand why they might have arrived at this price, but has anyone explained why a product they don't even sell (packs of water), which is what led to the price error in the first place, are being advertised smack dab in the front of the store like that?

Because everybody was buying water like crazy last week?

 

[rjinaz]

You don't see why a manager wouldn't feel compelled to sell items for less than they were valued?

Perhaps it is because he enjoys being employed.

Then you don't sell the case. A manager's job is also to protect the brand and think about optics. They failed miserably here. And no I don't think a manager selling a case of water during a crisis for the retail price would be in trouble with corporate.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Because everybody was buying water like crazy last week?

That doesn't really jive with the "It was just an honest mistake not something nefarious" defense to me.

 

[BlueTsunami]

Like a centralized storm it seems like price gouging miraculously sprung up in Texas. Climate change truly is remarkable for the free market. Once again social media useful for putting these assholes on blast.

 

[Zoe]

That doesn't really jive with the "It was just an honest mistake not something nefarious" defense to me.

All of the regular stores selling water were completely out. They put the water out front because people had nowhere else to buy water, and that was the only reason they were coming into the store.

 

[Devilgunman]

It's the mistake by store manager to sell a case of water because usually they don't sell that. Had they unpacked the water and sell it individually at the normal price nobody would complain.