Dear over priced

Dear over priced family entertainment,

Last Sunday the my wife and I took our boys up to Canada's Wonderland Amusement Park like we do every summer. The only ticket into the park is $62.00 a person but you can find them at places like Costco for around $40.00. This gives you access to all rides and the water park for the day.

Parking is $17.50 which isn't that bad considering parking downtown for a concert or sporting event cost closer to $25.00.

I don't have a problem with the above prices as for a day of entertainment it is cheap good fun. It is the food at these places that has gone insane. A subway sub is $13.99, bottle of water $4.00, large pizza and 3 cokes $35.00, foot long hotdog $9.50 ect.

The games there are even worst like $5.00 to throw one basketball in hopes of winning some dumb stuffed toy.

The thing I noticed more this year over any other I have been there and the park was packed as it was 35 degree sunny day there. Was there were zero line ups for any of these food venders and games.

More people were like we have been for years going out to their cars and unloading their coolers and eating outside the park. We bought a case of 35 bottles of water at Costco for $3.79, case of 24 cans of ice tea for $6.00 and took up snacks and sandwich meats with sub buns.

This is no different then most events families take their children to and I by no means am I cheap person but enough is enough.

When I can by the same sub at any subway for $5.00 why the $13.99? Even if they were $3.00 more I most likely like others wouldn't mind. I just don't see how they can justify these prices and more to the point notice not many people are willing to pay it any more.

Sorry for the RANT.

Great,great point Celtic. I once complained about paying 18.00 for 2 waters and 2 hotdogs at an airport and people looked at me like I just beamed down from the Mothership. It's everywhere, parking at a Lion's game in Detroit is 50.00, beers(watered down) are 14.00 and tickets are, well, completely not affordable for the average family. Same for a baseball game. Same at movie theaters,parks, prices of automobiles, etc.
I always wondered when I took the kids to the zoo, I would see immigrants bringing their lunches in the park in a paper bag. I am now one of them. It isn't cheapness, just common sense that things have gotten completely out of hand and it has stopped being "entertaining"

I am cheap but my wife isn't. What kills me is $6 beers and $9 shots. My wife loves to waste money on mixed drinks when we go out to eat. I bought her a flask and she refuses to use it. That would save us ton. $12 mixed drink my ass. Maybe if it has some ecstasy in it or comes with a little midget companion that does tricks for me for an hour.

I can get a case of Milwaukee's Best for just under $6. That's right, 24 bears for the cost of one beer when you get it other than at a packie.

Also, idiots like my wife buy the subway subs for $15 at parks. Hotdogs and slices of pizza for $7. She is always telling me not to be so cheap and it is nice other people think this is pure insanity as well. Bless you.

Those prices are ridiculous. Maybe I am cheap, but I refuse to pay over $1 for a loaf of bread.

CelticFrost said:

A subway sub is $13.99

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Off topic, but… f*ck Subway! I'll never eat anything from there again. I actually got food poisoning earlier this week from one of their subs. I was puking my guts out all night, and I'm not one to get sick easily.

Unrestigered said:

I can get a case of Milwaukee's Best for just under $6

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Ahh… "The Beast"! At least that's what we called MB up in Michigan. Truly horrible beer tbh, but we didn't care when we were young and just wanted to party.

It's not just in the Americas that you have these situations. I went to a Tennis tournament in Birmingham (UK). The on-site food was expensive (£6 for a baked potato with filling). £2 for a bottle of water is a bit rich when is normally sells for £1 or less. Noticeable the queues were very short.

People around me brought rucksacks with goodies inside.

They have a captured audience so the price and quality don't matter as much as your local cafe that needs repeat trade.

Rant over.

It got me to thinking about older amusement parks ... there was one in central Massachusetts called Whalom Park (here is one of the tribute pages) - it was one that I went to many times as a kid, and we got to take our kids once as toddlers before it shut down for good in 2000.

One of the memories was that there was a 'pavilion' and several picnic tables around the park where you could bring in your food to eat together as a family. IIRC they actually had grilles to use to cook.

Yeah, long time gone. Now, like you say, the last time we went we also left the park for our picnic lunch.

JDR13 said:

Off topic, but… f*ck Subway! I'll never eat anything from there again. I actually got food poisoning earlier this week from one of their subs. I was puking my guts out all night, and I'm not one to get sick easily.

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Shame on you, as a true patriot you should praise them!

On the topic, it's all business.
The price is there, you don't want to pay for it, feel free to go away or visit some other place.
You're forgetting that what you're paying for is de facto luxury. Not a need. And when it comes to luxury, of course it'll be superexpensive. Oh, hot dog is not a luxury? It's not - in your home. But on places tourists visit? Everything is.

Water too. Seen mentioning it... Bottled water? Excuse me, but... Why are you visiting places where water is so polluted you can't drink it from a sink but need to buy it bottled?

There is something else that you should always check when it comes to luxury and that's discounts. Every now and then, things get discounted. You want to pay less? Look for discounts.

Finally, we're on RPGwatch so...

Are videogames overexpensive? To some, of course they are. To some, it's a pocketchange.
But videogames are also a luxury. Of course a luxury won't cost a dollar or two.

We also have DLC. Bottled water practically. Hot dog.
Some games have free water, some have superexpensive water.
And you're doing what? Ranting but still buying the bloody horse armor?

When I played Zoo Tycoon, I learned a bit or two about prices and customer feelings. Even although it's an simulation.

People whine here over the prices for Oktoberfest beer going up each year. It's like pushing the envelope : How far can we go ?

In September our business unit (is this the right term ?) makes a small tour to one not too far away amusement park - the Phantasialand. I'm curious about the prices there.

JDR13 said:

Ahh… "The Beast"! At least that's what we called MB up in Michigan. Truly horrible beer tbh, but we didn't care when we were young and just wanted to party.

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We called it the Beast also. Ice bear came out when I was young, and Milwaukee's Best Ice had 5.9% alcohol, the other Ice beers had between 5.1 and 5.3 and cost twice or more as much. I've always been a cheapo, so I would always go with MBI and my friends would have their fancy regular priced beers.

Do you remember Red Dog? It came out in the early 90's and for no apparent reason everyone loved it and then it just died away.

Unrestigered said:

Do you remember Red Dog? It came out in the early 90's and for no apparent reason everyone loved it and then it just died away.

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Yes, I used to drink that too sometimes. I believe it's made by Miller. It's still around in some places, but it's not very popular.

I'm a lot pickier about beer now than I used to be. I generally won't drink anything from most of the popular mainstream brands like Budweiser, Miller, Coors, etc.

Neither does any sane or intelligent person; that stuff makes bottled water taste good!!

Corwin said:

Neither does any sane or intelligent person; that stuff makes bottled water taste good!!

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Inversely, you can say any sane or intelligent person doesn't waste money on fancy smancy beer, but instead uses the money saved to do good in the world. You could save the black babies in Africa (or at least a black baby somewhere), or buy heroin and give it to people going into methadone clinics so they can get some of the good stuff again.

And does all water not taste good, or just bottled water? What about it tastes bad? Nothing, water tastes like water and water is good. We literally are hard-coded into thinking water tastes good. When someone is dehydrated and their body needs water and you hand them a bottle of cold, purified, and filtered plain water 100% of the time they will not drink it, spit it out in disgust, and go, "Yucky Poo!"

Also, what is the function of an alcoholic beverage? What does it do that other non-alcoholic beverages do not? Answer - it gets you drunk if you drink enough of it. So, coming from an efficiency perspective, or a form over function perspective, there are only two important factors for a sane and intelligent person to consider

1) Alcohol content
2) Price

(taste's function is form, or flavor, in which case if it is considered above the two function factors it is putting form over function)

Maybe you should hang out with my wife and you guys can spend $12 on top shelf liquor drinks with strawberries and kiwi so it doesn't taste yucky. Or put Oranges in your beer, or drink this new fruit beer crap that is everywhere, and giggle, and skip around holding hands while singing the theme song of Lavern and Shirley.

Lastly, I'd like to please say winning. Thank you, good sir. Why, yes I am. Good. We are in agreement. Intelligent and sane people buy cheap beer, usually Milwaukee's Best, which we can all agree isn't. But, it does the trick.

You are 100 percent wrong about the filtered purified water tasting bad to a dehydrated person. I live in a hot climate and cycle a good bit so am frequently dehydrated. That bottle of filtered purified water taste like sweet sweet nectar. The more dehydrated you are the better it tastes.

I also disagree on beer. Tonight I was drinking some tasty lemon beer. Well worth the extra cost compared to the cheap stuff. You may drink to get drunk cheaply but many of us prefer to not get drunk at all. I also eat steak a lot, I'm sure your cheap soup is good also. No not really.

Water is for washing up my dirty beer glasses!! Seriously though, having drunk beer in many countries around the world (and I mean ordinary standard beer, not boutique stuff) I found basic American beers the second worst; they are tasteless swill. Come down to Oz Roqua and try some REAL beer!!

Corwin said:

Water is for washing up my dirty beer glasses!! Seriously though, having drunk beer in many countries around the world (and I mean ordinary standard beer, not boutique stuff) I found basic American beers the second worst; they are tasteless swill. Come down to Oz Roqua and try some REAL beer!!

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I can appreciate a good beer (and I've been to a lot of countries too, and had their offerings). And when I eat at a good Indian restaurant that has a beer worth spending money on I will since beer seems to compliment Indian food very well.

I'm just too cheap to buy it for myself. I like Olive Garden a lot more than Chef Boyardee, but I'll be damned if I'm going to eat and spend a ton of money at Olive Garden every time I'm hungry.

You are 100 percent wrong about the filtered purified water tasting bad to a dehydrated person. I live in a hot climate and cycle a good bit so am frequently dehydrated. That bottle of filtered purified water taste like sweet sweet nectar. The more dehydrated you are the better it tastes.

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Touche?

I also disagree on beer. Tonight I was drinking some tasty lemon beer. Well worth the extra cost compared to the cheap stuff. You may drink to get drunk cheaply but many of us prefer to not get drunk at all. I also eat steak a lot, I'm sure your cheap soup is good also. No not really.

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There is no such thing as lemon beer. I find it hard to believe a guy is walking around Texas drinking lemon alcohol drinks and hasn't been shot yet. What good are gun rights if no one is using them?

Mate, let me outline the Theory of Limited Capacity. During your life you will have the opportunity to drink only a certain number of beers. Therefore, it behooves you to make those beers the best beers you can afford. Everytime you drink some cheap, tasteless swill that's one less decent beer you have available to you. Think about it this way; if you KNEW that you only had 10 more beers left in your life would you drink the cheap stuff, or would you go for quality? Ponder this Grasshopper!!!!

The best beer i ever had was called "Viking". My schweigervater (father-in-law) brought it home from Iceland when he stayed there on a trip home from Salzburg,Austria, his birth place. Although I don't care much for dark beers, the Spaten Oktoberfest is one I do like. Unfortunately i cannot indulge any longer.

Corwin said:

Water is for washing up my dirty beer glasses!! Seriously though, having drunk beer in many countries around the world (and I mean ordinary standard beer, not boutique stuff) I found basic American beers the second worst; they are tasteless swill. Come down to Oz Roqua and try some REAL beer!!

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We have very good beers in England - especially since the success of The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) at the end of the last century. Unfortunately though these beers don't taste nearly so good when bottled or canned, since the gas they use to pressurize them for preservation ruins the taste.

Corwin said:

Water is for washing up my dirty beer glasses!! Seriously though, having drunk beer in many countries around the world (and I mean ordinary standard beer, not boutique stuff) I found basic American beers the second worst; they are tasteless swill. Come down to Oz Roqua and try some REAL beer!!

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Plenty of good American beer - stuff that takes me back to how much I loved some local German beers when I would travel back and forth for a joint research program in the early 90s ... mmm.

The key is this - don't buy something where you can get 30 beers for less money than a 6-pack of Coca Cola ...