Times are hard and everybody has to find ways to make money even if it means raising the price a little. You can either come up with other creative ways to promote your business and products or you can just charge an extra few cents to the item.
While there’s technically nothing wrong with raising prices for certain items especially if there’s high demand and/or if there’s a shortage of supply for these items, sometimes people can go overboard with setting the prices. GSC was recently found guilty and is currently being fined RM45k for overcharging. Here’s what happened:
When you think of Golden Screen Cinemas, you’d think of luxury. The company aspires to deliver the best movie experience for movie viewers. One of the best ways to enjoy a movie is with snacks but would you buy snacks and drinks that cost as much as (or more than) your lunch?
Apparently the GSC at Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall, Melaka increased their prices for their Spritzer mineral waters (600 ml) and Mister Potato potato chips (75 gm). According to the Melaka Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) Director, Norena Jaafar, the company charged RM3.30 for the mineral waters and RM5.00 for the potato chips.
Normally the mineral waters would cost not more than RM2.40 and the snacks would cost about RM3.40. The movie company is now being fined RM45k after the court examined all sides of the story including from prosecution witnesses, defence witnesses and submissions from their counsels.“(Session Court Judge) Nariman Badruddin has ruled that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case,” said Norena.
So far there is no official statement made by GSC but the movie company did leave a (now deleted) comment on China Press’s Facebook post about the issue saying, “Did you know that every movie ticket is charged with 30% entertainment tax?” However, they failed to defend and elaborate how this correlates to the actual issue of overcharging the drinks and snacks.
Honestly, people might turn a blind eye if there was only subtle changes to the prices but RM3.30 for a water bottle? You might as well just drink your own tears after spending that much money.
Sources: TheRakyatPost, Utusan, ChinaPress
