Today was the Labour day holiday in Melbourne, and the Melbourne Motor Show was on as well. So this morning, when we decided on to do, we decided to visit the motor show and spend the day in the city. The weather was nice, and warm. My son had a terrific day at the motor show, he wanted to jump into every car he saw and drive it away! He has a great imagination for a two year old.
To finish the day, we bought some ice-cream. When I am paying for it, I fail to notice the sign indicating that a 10% surcharge is applicable because of the public holiday at this ice cream shop. At first I was a bit annoyed that I did not notice this sign, but paid for the ice cream and enjoyed it with my family along the Yarra River. I also noticed that not all the shops are applying the public holiday surcharge.
Later today, I thought about it a bit more, I realised what really annoyed me was that the sign on the ice cream store also state that the surcharge is also applicable on weekends as well. I have a real problem with the fact that the cost of an ice cream is cheaper on weekday that it is on a weekend. I wonder how many other ice cream or side street business operate this way?
In the future, I am going to be more wary of the what I am really paying for, in particular of the surcharges. By the way, if the surcharges are not displayed, the shop could be applying the surcharges in an illegal manner.
2 comments:
Why shouldn't there be a surcharge on a public holiday or weekend? For most businesses, wages represent a huge proportion of their costs. Laws require the payment of penalty rates over and above base salary rates on public holidays and weekends - why shouldn't this cost be passed on to the purchaser? If the surcharge is not added on these days, then effectively weekday purchasers are subsidising the weekend and public holiday purchasers.
I don't have a real problem with having to pay surcharges as such. I think I was more annoy that I was not more discriminating to which shop I should go to.
At the end of the day, it is the shop keeper's decision on what price they should charge for their goods, and it is my decision, as a consumer, if I want to purchase the goods at that price. Gotta love that free economy!
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