$40.00 for case of water at a Best Buy in New Jersey

That sounds about right to me. Shady stuff like price gouging always happens during an emergency. During the northeast blackout in the summer of 2003, I was stuck in Brooklyn with $1.00 in my pocket. I couldn't get money out of the bank and obviously couldn't use credit cards or debit cards because the power was out. However, a local bodega was open, so I went there to buy a small bottle of water but couldn't because the owners jacked up the price from $1 to $10.

I lived in the Bronx at the time and couldn't get home, so I spent the night sleeping outside a synagogue. When the blackout ended, the pricks at the bodega went back to selling water for a buck. I cursed them out real good.

Disasters bring out the best and worst in people. There will be plenty of scumbags gouging prices due to Irene, but I'm sure there will be people helping others and demonstrating amazing courage.

Originally posted by MidnightTide
Not Cool, Best Buy

As hurricane Irene bears down on the Jersey Shore, the Best Buy in Howell, NJ has taken it upon themselves sell cases of Dasani water for $40.56.

Read more at:

thechive.com...


Seems to me a fine case of price gouging.

Price gouging is a pejorative term referring to a situation in which a seller prices goods or commodities much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a crime that applies in some of the United States during civil emergencies.


Though some say this is a good thing, as normal pricing will just allow people to hoard.....what says ATS?

edit on 27-8-2011 by MidnightTide because: mods - move this if in the wrong section....

Wow, that is crazy but I guess it's capitalism and free market doing their magic. Sad nonetheless.

Who in their right mind would buy Dasani water? I would take tap water over that overpriced sewage. Then again, I've had access to tens of types of bottled water, so maybe Dasani is the only bottled water available in certain areas.

Those poor, poor souls.

reply to post by MidnightTide


Its really a damn shame. Before this MINIMAL storm even hit North Carolina, the media was so fixated on New York, gimme a break. This victimization crap has gone on long enough.

reply to post by MidnightTide


never shop or buy goods there ever again, in their short term greed they may actually end up losing out.
thats what i would do along with a complaint in the shop when the storm passes at the busiest time of day so that all those in the shop can hear how much they value their customers.

Why would they even need to buy water during a hurricane? Collect the flipping rainwater. That is a no brainer.

Ahh yes. I remember them price gougers after Hugo. $300 generators for $2000, etc. Funny story...... some guy drove up from Georgia with a pickup truck loaded with ice. Tried selling half melted 5 lb bags for $50 each. I'll make it short. I'm going to bed. Anyhow, when he 'regained consciousness', he found his keys in the ignition and all his ice was gone. There's a moral in there somewhere

reply to post by MrWendal


Sounds kind of like the experience I heard from a traveler during bad weather. After all the rooms in the hotel were booked up, the general manager of a national chain approved charging $20 per head for persons to sleep on the floor in their lobby. He was "kind" enough to provide them with a pillow and blanket... and the lobby was soon packed like sardines......Guess that falls under the category of any port in a storm etc.

give your neighbour 5$ and they will give you as much water as you want/need.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


No.. I don't think that's right.
When you buy cases it's always way cheaper (50-75 cents for a can of sodapop versus 4-5 bucks for a 24-30 pack) also the price you quoted is more likely applied to 20 oz bottles.

I usually buy generic brand water when I buy cases and then reuse the bottles, but not matter the brand 40 bucks for a case is not normal.

A bit off topic, but a little common sense here. Be prepared ahead of time. I buy the 5 gallon bottles of water from Deep Rock (for the water coolers like they have at the office) for $5 per bottle. Thats a dollar per gallon. That $40 for the case of water at best buy would buy 40 gallons of water for emergency use.

Really. Lets apply some common sense to the equation before we start bashing a store.
Best Buy does NOT sell cases of water. Normally.
They sell individual bottles of water. Just like they sell individual bottles of Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Mtn Dew, Sprite, Root Beer, Orange, etc...etc....etc...

All they did was throw out there a case and offer it for sale for the same price it would sell for normally, if sold individually.

At 1.69

1.69 times 24 = the price they are offering the case for

Well....at 2.00 a piece which is how Best Buy most likely sells water most of the time it would 48.00. That price is most likely in their system and to change it would require someone that actually knew what they were doing. Most of the water they sell is a bottle at a time at the point of sale so 2.00 is the same what you wou;d pay any where else. For Water...I know this is where we are headed as a world 2.00 for a bottle of tap water which is what Dasani is and stolen by Coca Cola from city supplies all over. I am sure they pay a water bill like everyone else but it does not cost them that much.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


What are you talking about? Soda costs less than 1.40 per 8 oz...

I buy cases of bottled water all the time, store brand, 35 bottles per case, 16.9 oz per bottle, and it costs 4 bucks...

You are talking about 8 oz for 1 dollar? So i guess im getting heck of a deal for 591.5 oz per 4 dollars?

actually this is not price gouging

Dasani bottle water= $1.69 at every gas station or food store.

Best Buy does not sell cases of water. This is how water is shipped from Coca Cola.

24 bottles at $1.69= $40.56

same concept with Smart Water.

If someones talking about gouging, stay the hell out of theme parks and stadiums.

Price gouging?

What happened to the constitutional right to do what you want when you want? Isn't that what most of you always talk about? Your constitutional rights for this, for that, for ridiculous things... Less government involvement, less laws, less of everything... Don't you want companies to have the freedom to choose how much they want to charge for goods and services? Isn't that the "brilliant" american idea behind a FREE CAPITALISTIC MARKET?

Well in that case, you can't pick and choose to use to constitution when it fits your purpose and to say "I have a right under the constitution to do what I want, screw the government" sometimes, and other times say "the government should get involved and make laws restricting actions of others!" when you get screwed...

Hypocrisy at it's super best!

Sure, let's make laws against price gouging during a hurricane, and then months later when the weather is pristine let's continue to use these laws to raid dairy farmers who raise the price of their eggs a nickel. Enough with the laws. Maybe these people should have storable food and water LIKE WE SAID YEARS AGO, if you can't take care of yourself in a hurricane you better move to a better climate. I didn't run to big brother when I couldn't find a snow shovel in the middle of a blizzard, so how will you rectify that? You can't sell water for 40 dollars, so stores just won't sell! Then what? You'll try and arrest them for NOT selling goods? Is this capitalism or is this fascism? How about enough with the laws?

reply to post by MidnightTide


Well DAMN! You just gotta love that "FREE MARKET" Capitalism...hurray, on another note, you could just decide to buy it somewhere else, maybe not an electronics store? IF I was in NJ, heck I would just go to Home Depot and buy a water filtration system one of those camping type doodads...screw the bottled crap!!! Overpriced GARBAGE!

I would like to know,where in the hell is anybody finding cases of water for 30-40 dollars at????????


...what these mofos are doing is selling their cases based on what THEY would sell 'em individually for a profit.Still its damn ridiculous for best buy to do that shhhhhht.....they dead wrong for that.

People need to be looking after one another in times like that,but then again i'm on planet earth sooooooo thats just a fantasy.

reply to post by morder1

Simple math. The name brand waters always costs more than the generic brands.

Dasani costs about the same as a bottle of soda, times 24, and if there is a tax involved, then that is how you would get the price. The question would be how much does 1 8 oz bottle of Dasani water cost in New Jersey, if there is a tax on it, and then that would dictate the cost of 24 bottles, or one case.