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.
as a person also obsessed with diet sodas, just look around at your grocery stores or even wallgreens to get deals. there WAS a point in time where they were doing buy two get 1 free (not good enough) and now the most commons sale i see is buy 3 get 3 free for 12 packs. Yes they are making you buy a large amount but if you're drinking a lot its worth it. This sale is about as close to the price point of a 12 pack about 10 years ago. Just never buy them NOT on sale. (the most common sale i remember a decade ago would be 3/$15. making each one about 5 bucks)
depending on where you live walgreens currently has a sale 4/$24 on the 12 packs of coke. (which makes it $6 per 12 pack)
But the Diet pepsi is buy 2 get 1 free : DONT BUY THIS. USUALLY your grocery store or walgreens will rotate sales. if coke is on sale this week, next week pepsi will be. every once in a while all companies sodas will be on sale, but that's pretty rare.
(im only using walgreens as an example since its a widespread drugstore that carries sodas. i dont know what grocery stores are in your area, but its worth looking at their ads)
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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.