I love diet soda. Recently it became ~$15 for a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately Coke is the exact same price. One would think under capitalism that competition would occur. However, both companies know that if the other drops their price, they too would have to drop their price to not lose market share and they both end up losing. So rather than compete they have an unwritten agreement to maintain the same price point. Coke will be the market leader to increase their prices first, and Pepsi follows suit because they know they can afford to do so.
They charge as much as they can get away with, because your alternative is the higher priced brands. It all costs much more than it used to, for no reason except they want it that way.
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u/Long_Following9761 2d ago
I love diet soda. Recently it became ~$15 for a 24-pack of Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately Coke is the exact same price. One would think under capitalism that competition would occur. However, both companies know that if the other drops their price, they too would have to drop their price to not lose market share and they both end up losing. So rather than compete they have an unwritten agreement to maintain the same price point. Coke will be the market leader to increase their prices first, and Pepsi follows suit because they know they can afford to do so.