It disturbs me slightly that the casual gap t-shirt I'm wearing with Klotz oil stains on it cost me $4.95 on the cheap rack - a full $4 *less* than a quart of Klotz oil. It seems unlikely that there is $4.95 worth of stain on my shirt since I didn't dive into a pool of the stuff or anything, but it disturbs me nonetheless that the oil was more than the shirt.
Other things that, when viewed from a different perspective, seem ridiculusly overpriced:
1. Poland Spring Water - case of 24 16.9oz. bottles - $6.99
That's $2.11 per gallon.
2. Gatorade - case of 24 20oz. bottles - $25.13
That's $6.70 per gallon.
side note: Gatorade was first invented by a team of researchers at the University of Florida to help the Florida Gators football team. In the extreme heat of the southern state the team would often find themselves tired, dehydrated, and low on electrolytes mid way through their games so Gatorade proved to be the perfect potion.
3. Red Bull Energy Drink - case of 24 250ml cans - $39
That's $29.54 per gallon.
side note: Red Bull Energy Drink was originally sold in bottles - little tiny 4-sided glass bottles. They still sell them that way through the European distributor. On them, they have a label on one side in english with 4 active ingredients listed: Taurine, Glucuronolactone, Caffeine, and another one I can't think of right now. On the opposite side they have a label in Thai with... that's right.. 8 active ingredients listed. I'm no expert... and I don't speak Thai... but it still makes me wonder a little bit. And to add to the mystery: ThinkGeek.com reports it as Red Bull - the Austrian Energy Drink... last time I checked, Austrians didn't speak Thai.
4. Vicks Nyquil Multi-Symptom Cold & Flu Relief - 10oz. - $5.99
That's $76.79 per gallon.
5. Vicks Vaporub - case of 6 1.76oz. - $15.95
That's $193.33 per gallon.
Makes $2.00 for a gallon of gas sound pretty damn good to me.
Consider this. Petrol can come from as far as half way around the world, hundreds of feet in the ground. It's pumped up by huge machinery and shipped across the globe in gi-normous tankers driven by highly paid professional drinkers. It's then unloaded on our shores into holding tanks and refined in humungous factories into various grades with various additives for various uses. After that it is loaded into more tankers - this time they have wheels - and it is shipped to the farthest reaches of the land - to Ashland, ME and Fargo, ND, and Kissimee, FL. It's pumped into more tanks - these are in the ground - costly to install, costly to maintain, and costly to remove when they are rusting and posing an environmental hazard. ALL of this ... all of it... and it doesn't cost us more than $2 a gallon... but I should pay $2.11 a gallon for WATER? $6.70 for SUGAR AND WATER?
Balls. BALLS I say.
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the guys: philogynist jaime tony - the gals:raymi raspil
