re: Retail ripoffs that I wish we'd reject and force change

Vitamins/probiotics

Bottled water

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Funeral homes - They gouge people at a time they are most vulnerable. I'm glad that actually burying bodies seems to be less popular. It's quite frankly kind of weird imo and it's sad when I see poor people go into debt for a coffin and hole in the ground that no one will remember a generation later.

Diamond rings - Western society has been completely brainwashed by a marketing scheme.

Wedding services - Like funerals, it's so overpriced it's laughable.

Concessions at sporting events - I hope the fan friendly concessions starts to take off. I really think the scale has tipped in that they are so expensive now, many people just don't buy. I think they'll make more money at smaller margin and larger volume. At $4-5 a beer I'll by $20-25 worth. At $12, I'm probably buying 0.

Extended warranties, device insurance, and oil change add-ons. Such ripoffs...

The overwhelming majority of furniture stores - Full of cheap shitty overpriced Chinese made crap that chips and scratches. Worse yet, people finance this garbage. You can furnish an entire house with quality stuff for 1/5 the price going to estate sales, FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc.

College tuition - Has education gotten that much better the last 30 years? Doesn't seem so. So why is tuition rising so much higher and faster than the cost of living?

Health insurance - The biggest rip off of all. You have to have it but you get screwed every step of the way.

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its like a coherent oweo post

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You can furnish an entire house with quality stuff for 1/5 the price going to estate sales, FB marketplace, Craigslist, etc. and buying things people have fricked on.

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FIFY

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What makes weddings (extra) overpriced is that the services and venues upcharge for weddings. 

You could price out nearly every single thing that goes into a wedding (aside from the priest/church I guess) and it would be significantly cheaper if it was simply a party vs. a wedding. 

Maybe bands would still charge the same, but venues, photographers, etc absolutely upcharge when it's a wedding and not just a "party"

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When me and the now ex-wife were planning our wedding we did this. We didn't want to spend 20k on a wedding so we went the cheap yet meaningful way.

The actual wedding was very small (10 people maybe) and we had it at the park we first met at (i believe it was like 50 bucks to do it and we slipped the guy doing the paperwork another 50 to clean up the decorations that would have been like 200 dollars extra if the park staff had to do it). My best mans mom is an ordained minister so she did the service.

The reception was the most difficult part (honestly I don't remember most of why this was the biggest issue but she handled that and thats what I heard the most bitching about) i think trying to find the right location that would allow her or whoever to decorate early yet not have the wedding ceremony there (which apparently these places charge for) was a huge headache for her.

We also had friends (or friends of friends) who were photographers, photo booth rentals and whatever where we would get the say 'platinum package' for the 'bronze price'.

The hardest part of a wedding is the bride. She wants to be a princess for the day and will guilt the dude into dropping way more money than needed on a day that she probably won't remember much of because of how hectic it is.

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Diamond rings - Western society has been completely brainwashed by a marketing scheme.

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I like Ron White's bit on the diamond cartel. He targeted DeBeers I believe in one of his shows and went on a tear about how they've brainwashed people.

At one point he said this about their slogan: "Give her a diamond, it will render her speechless" To which he added:

"Give her a diamond, that'll shut her up". And that is the truth of the matter.

And I'm with you on all other points. I truly despise funeral homes and their taking advantage of people in their time of grief. Cremation for me and my wife can do what she wants with the ashes.

Furniture

On the Fuernal Home front, blame your local politicians. In Louisiana , state law states that unless you are buried in 48 hours, you have to be embalmed. Way back when, you had the funeral the next day. Now, uncle John and aunt Betsy have to fly in from New York for the funeral.

Buying a plot and a low cost wood coffin, you can be buried quite quickly and economically. However, everyone wants the big funeral for their folks with all the guest . The industry knows this and charges for it.

pants

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Mattresses

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Interesting one. The markup has got to be tremendous judging by the number of stores and how void of customers they typically are. I buy them soooooo infrequently, I can't even remember being ripped off.... bit I know I must have been.