When I was preparing for my trip to Toronto last week I went to the drug store to look a travel-sized container of body wash. I wasn’t sure if the hotel had any so I thought I’d bring my own. The drug store had a large selection of travel-sized toiletries. I was immediately shocked by the stupidly priced items. A small container of body wash, about 100 mL, was more expensive than a full-sized one, at over 700 mL. It was the same for the rest of the items in that aisle.
It’s clear that companies are charging you a premium for the convenience of a smaller container of what they hope you consider to be essential travel item. Earlier in the summer, a report out of the UK showed mark-ups in the vicinity of 645% for travel-sized items. A money-grabbing practice for sure.
In the end, I balked at the idea of paying that price. Instead, I just decided that I’d wait and see if the hotel did have body wash in the room. Luckily, they did. A much cheaper way around this is to just buy a set of empty of toiletry plastic bottles. You can then just fill them with your own supplies from home. It saves money and because they’re re-usable, better for the environment as well.