Bottled water price gouging pre/post increased security measures
 

Have you noticed how bottled water prices have skyrocketed ever since the increased security measures were put into place? In SFO for example, after security (international departures) the cost of a very small bottle is $3.75 in the news stand / snack areas. I travel through there regularly and it went from $2.20 to $3.25 to $3.75 in the period of about three months after the 'water through security' restriction went into place.

Restaurant operators that have locations in the city are barred from jacking prices (Peets Coffee for example is supposed to charge 'street' prices) but the retail operators can rob you blind now that pax are barred from carrying water through security.

It was always a ripoff before, but now that pax are restricted airports should enforce their price gouging prohibitions!!

ive never seen it more than $2 post security, and lately <$2 inc tax. still expensive but not the prices you're seeing.

for 20oz dasani.

I almost always see water in the $2.25-$2.50 range. I don't fly through SFO much, so no comment there. When I see vendors doing this kind of stuff, it will make me not buy anything from them.

my cheap a$$ usually carries an empty plastic water bottle that I fill when through security.

Mrs Sweet Willie usually just :rolleyes:

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I don't think I've paid more than $2.75 for a 20-oz. (or thereabouts) bottle, and I didn't notice prices rising after the TSA smackdown. But I'll look when I'm at SFO on Saturday. It would be nice if the government, having prohibited us from bringing cheap bottled water through security, would ensure that we didn't get gouged ... but I'm not holding my breath, frankly!

Maybe I just got ripped off / overcharged being jetlagged ... would love to hear back if it is now $17.50!!

For those prices you should just drink beer! :p I can't imagine paying over $2.50 per bottle for water. It still burns me when I have to pay $2.00 or more for any kind of 20 oz. bottled drink.

Worst beverage rip-off I've experienced:

I ordered a draft beer at the Blue Note in Memphis and paid $8.50. Needless to say I though that was drastically overpriced!

I wanna say at Fenway Park, Boston, you could buy the small bottled waters for $4.50 a piece during a game. I think they still let you bring your own in but some day there will be rules against that too for security reasons./ Anything over like $1.30 is highway robbery in my book! Sad that people even pay more!

It's quite strange, but I'd almost want to suggest that there has, in fact, been the opposite trend. A few years ago, truly outrageous water bills, $3, and sometimes even $4 and up, were quite common. More recently, however, there seem to be water "sales," and often bottles can be had at bargain prices ($1.75) formerly unheard of at airports.

This thread reminds me of a customer of mine who had a friend who was a local soft drink bottler for one of the major household name cola giants. He also was in the bottled water business....and lovin' every obscenely profitable minute of it.

"You don't have to MAKE anything. You get your product from a hole in the ground, then charge as much as you do for the stuff you manufacture....or even MORE"!

The prices have increased a bit at some airports but I haven't seen the increase in prices you describe but I'm not surprised. They were already ripping off the customer before, it's now a totally captive audience instead of just those that forget/don't want to carry with them. That said - I only buy spring water (none of that dasani or aquafina stuff for me) and a lot of it at that. My experience is in the UA terminals across the country. Now that UA is going to once again be carrying spring water, I'm hoping to reduce the amount I buy and carry by a bit as its really hit the wallet hard.

SFO is the one airport where I refuse to purchase water or only buy a single bottle if I'm desperate. Their prices are absolutely ridiculous since before the food court area re-opened. Not sure why but they are out of line with downtown and other airports by a significant degree.

At DEN, there is a store in the atrium area that sells spring water (most of the merchants only do filtered) that is priced high but not insane. That's my stop.

At IAD, they are also a bit higher than outside (but much more than the 25cent bottles in the back of my car :( ) but not ludicrous and you have your choice of the Paradies/Hudson stores or Starbucks if you want to carry the liter with you. It's sad when I think 1.75 for a .75l bottle is a good price but that is market across many airports.

ORD is similar for the most part, the good thing there is I can also buy a diet mountain dew at the Grove ;)

does no one cart around an empty water bottle, as I do, and fill it post-security?

I drink spring water, what would an empty bottle do for me? :confused:

Absolutely!

And when at home, I fill a 20oz soda bottle for the car with soda from my 2 liter bottle in the fridge. I don't consider myself particularly frugal, but given that the little bottle usually costs more than the big one, I save around twenty bucks a month that I can spend on other stuff.

(Coke Zero is my tipple of choice, BTW).

Thirst for bottled water may hurt environment

America's infatuation with drinking high-priced "natural" water from a bottle rather than from the tap is contributing to global warming and could even qualify as an immoral act


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