Unethical Pricing

[gweilgi]

2 hours ago, Wushy said:

Do your homework and if they willing to listen, inform them of better alternatives. Other than that, let capitalism do its thing.

A good argument that I would generally nod through.

But in this case .... according to its own website, "the USO is a nonprofit, charitable corporation chartered by Congress that relies on donations from individuals, organizations and corporations to support its programs".  I find it hard to square its not-for-profit status and the fact that its activities and offerings are financed by the generosity of folk supporting the troops with practices that one could legitimately describe as "fleecing the ignorant".  I also wonder what the donors would have to say about this if they knew...

[Booyaa]

some priceless comments on here.

[Derboesekoenig]

10 hours ago, prodigy said:

No cat is worth cancelling Christmas. Just my opinion of course.

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Yeah no kidding! I could've gotten rid of that problem for you...

[Mercurios]

Sounds like regular Canadian B&M prices...

[JY0]

13 hours ago, prodigy said:

No cat is worth cancelling Christmas. Just my opinion of course.

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Brutal

[BTWheezy]

One element missing from all the comments:  does anyone really know the transactional journey that these cigars took to go from Cuba to a USO in the Middle East?  How many companies were involved? How many middle men?  With each hop, markup is applied, right?  And finally, it’s US Government related.  We’ve all like to joke about the $800 hammer and the $2400 toilet seat, courtesy of Washington, DC.  Just add Monty 4’s to the list.

Yes, it sucks to soak a naive service member.  But as stated before, smoking a CC isn’t a life-and-death activity!  ?

[Derboesekoenig]

Just now, BTWheezy said:

One element missing from all the comments:  does anyone really know the transactional journey that these cigars took to go from Cuba to a USO in the Middle East?  How many companies were involved? How many middle men?  With each hop, markup is applied, right?  And finally, it’s US Government related.  We’ve all like to joke about the $800 hammer and the $2400 toilet seat, courtesy of Washington, DC.  Just add Monty 4’s to the list.

Yes, it sucks to soak a naive service member.  But as stated before, smoking a CC isn’t a life-and-death activity!  ?

I still don't understand how a USO can be selling something like this. I have 6 years in the army, and 3 years living in the middle east and working on U.S. military installations after all of that...and have never seen that before. They sell only goods coming from the U.S. Seems very fishy to me. 

[bpm32]

4 hours ago, Derboesekoenig said:

I still don't understand how a USO can be selling something like this. I have 6 years in the army, and 3 years living in the middle east and working on U.S. military installations after all of that...and have never seen that before. They sell only goods coming from the U.S. Seems very fishy to me. 

I don’t know much about the USO, but if they’re anything like AAFES it’s probably a point of pride that if enough service members ask for something, they’d move heaven and earth to get it. That cuts both ways—I’m old enough to remember when the exchanges offered really, really high end stuff, but the GIs preferred cheaper alternatives, so that’s what they get now. It used to be pro-level camera gear and Rolexes and now it’s $8 ties and “shoulder thingies that go up”. It wouldn’t surprise me if service members asked for CCs, so USO found them on the local economy marked up already and had no idea what they were supposed to cost.