The Big Consumer Rip Off

On Thursday I took my wife and son to the airport. They were travelling to Durban to attend a family wedding. While waiting for them to board I decided to go for some breakfast. I chose a famous bakery that I often used to frequent in Fourways. They make the most amazing bread and croissants. Anyway I sat at a table and ordered some tea and a toasted sandwich. In front of me was the take away section. There was a lot of people bussing around and buying stuff inside the bakery. Above the coffee station I noticed a sign which read “NO TILL SLIP” “NO COFFEE”. I looked at this quite surprised and could not believe that in this day of customer service someone could be so arrogant as to have such a sign. Surely there are other ways of telling customers to please present a till slip before asking for coffee. The sign was big and bold. I wonder what the foreign tourists during the World Cup thought of it or did they just brush it off and say we seen it in other countries as well. The point is we need to show customers we care and present ourselves with some humility. Whether the bakery takes the sign off or not I sure they will continue to flourish. My appeal would be to do it properly.

Which now brings me to the big Consumer rip off? As indicated my wife and son are in Durban so I used the opportunity to go and watch a movie. The movie I wanted to see was “I Hate Luv Stories” A Bollywood movie which was showing only at the Zone in Rosebank. I paid my R49 for the ticket. I stood in the refreshment queue and ordered a Medium Popcorn and Medium Coke Zero, it cost R35. The same size coke instore at a supermarket would cost no more than R10 and popcorn at best another R10. Doing the sums that would mean I just paid R15 more than normal price or 57% more. How do they justify this? Wait it gets worse. I happen to glance at the top of the menu selection of stuff you could buy at a kiosk. Bottle water that I could buy at the Pick n Pay for R6 I now had to fork out R14 for the privilege of drinking it inside a cinema. As with most Bollywood movies there is an interval. So at the interval I was feeling low on Sugar and bought a Chocolate and a Coke Zero which cost a further R40. So my little night out at the movies cost me R124 just to watch one movie. I have not added in the R45 for the dinner after the movie or the petrol getting there. The movie was great and worth the ticket price but the TreatZ that went with it was a bit expensive and I felt that I was ripped off. With the volume of Water that they sell at the cinema I have no doubt that they get a good deal on price. If we assume that they buy it for R5 they sell it for R14 that would make a profit of 280%. A tad much I would say. Even popcorn one could argue that the unit cost is much lower than the selling price. The cinema does not allow me as a consumer to bring my own food beverage inside so I am forced to buy at the cinema at these ridiculous prices. It would be interesting to see how the new consumer act can tackle this issue. I have no issues with the cinema charging whatever it wants for its food and beverage that is their right but then it must allow me as a consumer to choose whether I buy from them or not. I can’t watch a movie without Water and Popcorn. However I would like to buy it at a price I am willing to pay.