Kiwi1 Loc: New Zealand

Unfortunately, while we all feel for the lady its not a scam and its not illegal. A lot of retailers have what they call 'loss leaders' making low margin on the main product, the camera body, and making up the lost Margin by selling up or overcharging the small items. The same practice goes on in almost every retail sector. In fact the Motor Vehicle Industry is one of the worst. They don't like Cash Buyers as they can make huge profits from Finance Deals way more than the margin on the car sale. New cars are often sold at very low margin because the Dealer knows they will get a lot of Service business for many years if they just get the new Sale. Why do you think McDonald's have a policy that the customer must always be asked if they want chips with the order, its because the chips have very high margin. I have a close friend at Coke and he told me the markup on Coke concentrate is 400%. How would you like 400% on regular photo gear? that's about what the poor lady was charged. She ordered the 'chips'. About the only way to counter the practice is if consumers know prices well and there is good competition close by. Yes travelers are good marks as someone said because the retailer knows they will probably never see them again, happens all over the world. I see it happening on eBay especially for product supplied direct from Hong Kong when I know the local price with genuine warranty is cheaper, but it obviously works well for them they get enough of the high prices to keep doing it.