Poll of the Day > Texas Best Buy Sells Bottled Waters for $42!! Twitter Users were OUTRAGED!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

A Best Buy in Texas is facing harsh criticism after a journalist took a picture of them selling bottled water for $42, nearly TRIPLE the normal price!!

The electronic store was selling the bottled waters at an excessive price gouging as twitter users were outraged.

A 24 pack Dassani water at 500ml is priced jut above $15.50 and another sign showed a case of Smarwater selling at $29 with a sign noting there was "limited supply"

Twitter users have blasted the company that normally doesn't sell water and is taking advantage of residents hit by Hurricane Harvey who are struggling to endure the effects of the natural disaster

A BB representative said the pricing was a "big mistake" and that an employee erroneously priced the entire case of water by multiplying the price of a single bottle. They said "As a company we are focused on helping, not hurting affected people".

Klippenstein, who took the photo said this isn't the first time that the store was accused of price gouging as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said they received hundreds of complaints about their price gouging. He said he promised to crack down on false pricing during the crisis and warns businesses would be slapped a $20,000 fine if they do.

Do you think it's "fair" what Best Buy did?

The shocking picture -

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/30/03/43B2053000000578-4835278-image-a-40_1504060282911.jpg

Klippenstein - took the pic

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/30/03/43B2053400000578-4835278-image-a-45_1504061195909.jpg

Outrage -

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/30/03/43B217EC00000578-4835278-image-a-42_1504061016094.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/30/03/43B217E500000578-4835278-image-a-43_1504061153999.jpg

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/08/30/03/43B217F000000578-4835278-image-a-44_1504061164774.jpg
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Capitalism

that is illegal actually
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ButzKlauser posted...

that is illegal actually

Yep. No one mistakenly charges 40 bucks for a pack of water. Price of a 24 pack is usually around $5.

the money would go entirely into the employees pocket. best buy doesn't sell water, which means one of them bought it from elsewhere to resell there.
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If you think about it, it is probably fair that the person who is the first to load up their shopping cart would have the opportunity to hog all the water and sell them for as high as they would like. But it's a mean thing to do.
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jramirez23 posted...

If you think about it, it is probably fair that the person who is the first to load up their shopping cart would have the opportunity to hog all the water and sell them for as high as they would like. But it's a mean thing to do.

Nope. It's illegal because it isn't fair.

There is nothing fair about artificially driving up demand.

Anyone have a source for this actually being illegal?
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Mead posted...

Anyone have a source for this actually being illegal?

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/cpd/price-gouging

Best Buy said it was "a mistake" on the employees' end, but then what did you expect them to say?

It's just some fucked up management used to heckling people.

helIy posted...

the money would go entirely into the employees pocket. best buy doesn't sell water, which means one of them bought it from elsewhere to resell there.

woke level = 9000

You could extrapolate on the circumstances of this claim even further though.

With the knowledge that there are some people out there that just do stuff in order to get other people pissed off.
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Given that BB is corporate rather than franchisee, I can't imagine that it'd be done deliberately unless somebody there was pocketing the gains. I'm also just surprised that they sell water in bulk in the first place.

helIy posted...

the money would go entirely into the employees pocket. best buy doesn't sell water, which means one of them bought it from elsewhere to resell there.

That would make sense, but BB acknowledged it rather than dismissing the issue entirely by explaining that it doesn't sell water and that an employee was acting improperly.

BlackScythe0 posted...

jramirez23 posted...

If you think about it, it is probably fair that the person who is the first to load up their shopping cart would have the opportunity to hog all the water and sell them for as high as they would like. But it's a mean thing to do.

Nope. It's illegal because it isn't fair.

There is nothing fair about artificially driving up demand.

Unfortunately for you, your conception of "fair" has no bearing on what is or isn't legal. Legality is decided by legislators. More importantly, UNLESS you have another law you want to cite, your consumer protection law doesn't actually apply here because it pertains specifically to businesses not private citizens. So unless that person is also registered as a business in the state of Texas (or selling it through a business), you're out of luck. (Granted, their options for selling it would be limited.)

So yes, unless you have another law, some complete ass COULD buy out the water then privately resell it, either whole or in part.
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Here's some fun facts for you guys:

1) The "price gouged" packs are 24 packs of these: https://tinyurl.com/ycatx85f
2) Those are not meant to be sold as packs, they're supposed to be broken down and the bottles sold individially (you can tell if you look at them, the packs clearly aren't labeled for retail sale).
3) 1.89 x 24 = 45.36, which is pretty close to the price shown here.

tl;dr there was no price gouging
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I'm pretty sure a similar thing happened at a Starbucks during the rescue efforts after 9/11. And, like this Best Buy, it was an isolated incident involving one or two employees fucking up/being shady, and definitively wasn't corporate policy at all.
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Capitalism... but a dick move is terrible PR. It's even worse when your company has become redundant.
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Disgusting

Nothing wrong with what Best Buy did.
At least, they were selling genuine water unlike the king of boycott, the red dragon that sells toilet water in the name of mineral water.
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jramirez23 posted...

If you think about it, it is probably fair that the person who is the first to load up their shopping cart would have the opportunity to hog all the water and sell them for as high as they would like. But it's a mean thing to do.

It's pretty much what the foundation of the U.S. is built on. We should be shedding patriotic tears at least until someone less that elite class does it.

Best Buy does sell water. Individual refrigerated bottles near the check-outs, anyway. It's hard to imagine someone didn't know what they were doing here, though.
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It was either the GM or DM that did it to "improve sales numbers". No part time or full-time floor employee did this.

BlackScythe0 posted...

There is nothing fair about artificially driving up demand.

Isn't that what college loans do?

gravy posted...

BlackScythe0 posted...

There is nothing fair about artificially driving up demand.

Isn't that what college loans do?

Do most people really think the college loan situation is fair?
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24x $1.79 = $42.96. makes sense. That's the normal price for the water that is in the refrigerator. I hate that a 24 ounce water/coke cost $1.79 but it does.
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So the sign should have read "$1.79 per bottle" instead of $42.96? Of course I'd imagine someone is bound to have asked about buying the entire case at which point they'll be floored when told the price.
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GanonsSpirit posted...

Here's some fun facts for you guys:

1) The "price gouged" packs are 24 packs of these: https://tinyurl.com/ycatx85f
2) Those are not meant to be sold as packs, they're supposed to be broken down and the bottles sold individially (you can tell if you look at them, the packs clearly aren't labeled for retail sale).
3) 1.89 x 24 = 45.36, which is pretty close to the price shown here.

tl;dr there was no price gouging

Given this, Best Buy did nothing wrong. People were probably asking about buying an entire pack of water bottles. $1.89 per bottle is a lot and I try to avoid buying individual bottles of water whenever possible, but that's a pretty typical price for one.