10 Outrageous Markups

Know before you spend. A few helpful calculations:

1. Bottled water: 4,000 percent markup

2. Text messages: 6,000 percent markup.
A typical text message costs you 20 cents and the phone company 0.3 cents to transmit, according to the Chicago Tribune. If the phone company applied text-message rates to a short phone call, you’d pay $120 for the call.

3. Movie theater popcorn: 1,275 percent markup

4. Brand-name drugs: 200 to 3,000 percent markup

5. Hotel minibar: 400 percent markup

6. Coffee on the go: 300 percent markup. A $3 cup made by a barista costs 25 cents at home.

7. Wine at a restaurant: 300 percent markup

8. Greeting cards: 200 percent markup

9. In-room hotel movies: 200 percent markup

10. Precut produce: 40 percent markup

PLUS:
Top Ways to Waste Money
Riskiest Places to Disclose Your Social Security Number
8 Things to Pay For No Matter What

Originally Published in Reader's Digest