Friday 13 June 2008

Blatant Profiteering?

Things become clearer...

So, we've just got back from Spinney's with the shopping. Still no ginger ale! But the reason why has become a little more apparent.

There are cans of Schweppes tonic, bitter lemon and soda water; next to them there are bottles of the same products plus bottles of dry ginger, all by the same manufacturer.

6 x 330 ml cans in a shrink-wrapped pack costs AED 5.25 or AED 0.875 per 330 ml.
4 x 330 ml bottles in a shrink-wrapped pack costs AED 18.50 or AED 4.625 per 330 ml.

This represents a difference of AED 3.75 per 330 ml for precisely the same stuff!

To put that another way, the bottles cost 428.57% more per equivalent amount than the cans!

That, to my mind, is blatant profiteering, either by Spinney's, or by Schweppes or by both.

I wonder how long it will be before the cans of tonic, bitter lemon and soda water disappear from the shelves, just like the dry ginger already has.

If you are reading this and you work for either Spinney's or Schweppes, I challenge you to reply!

5 comments:

Em said...

everything's more expensive in spinneys...

CaliforniaKat said...

That's outrageous! Do they think people won't notice?

This post hit home. No matter where one buys A&W root beer in Greece, it costs 1.50 to 1.99 EUR per can. That's right, one can. They claim the high price is due to importing and 19 percent taxes, but that's a blatant lie.

In the USA, this same can cost .50 USD or .32 EUR. That's a 622 percent markup. Needless to say, we make our own root beer. It's not the same, but I can't justify spending that kind of money on the salaries they pay us here.

Keef said...

I seem to remember a similar scenario at Choithram's a few years ago, involving cans of Schweppes Tonic Water. Each priced at about 5 dirhams. I questioned the manager, and suggested there had been a mistake. But no, that was the new price. Canada Dry Tonic at 1 dirham a can tastes much better, and I think I wasn't the only one to balk at the Schweppes price: a few months later it was back down around 1 dirham.

Jayne said...

Ask the manager next time Billy - he's bound to come up with a sufficiently pre-programmed bullshit answer :-)

Elle said...

Oh it is just blatant, but wait a few months, just before the expiry date you'll see it in the 'bargain bin' because who in their right mind would pay such a price.