this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 50 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Both Come and Pepsi doubled - tripled their prices in the time between 2020 and 2023.

In 2019 (in my area) you could get a 2 liter of soda for $0.79-$1.00. Non-sale price was $1.49. A 12 pack of cans was $2-$2.50 on sale with a none-sale price of $4.

2 liters now are “on sale” for $2-$3 each and non-sale price is $3-$3.50.

Cans sale price is $4 at minimum and non-sale price is $7.99–8.99 depending on the store.

I have significantly cut back on my diet soda intake as a result, so i guess there is that?

To put another way, in the best of times in 2019 I could buy a 5x12 pack of cans for $10. Today I would have to pay $20-$45 for the exact same product depending on if it was on sale or not.

When our economy finally falters, these companies will be the first to scream for bailouts and other nonsense.

Like dude, just go back to pre-pandemic pricing.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They raised prices and left them there because enough people are paying these prices.

Them asking for bailouts because of their prices hikes makes exactly 0 sense btw, if they need to sell more, they'll just lower them again. The nice thing about margin is that it's margin - as long as you're making money, you're making money, it just depends how much.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah they jacked up prices and realized that while they may be losing customers, they're still making more money. They'd need to take a tangible financial hit to stop this shit.

This same basic math is going right now at every other company that decided to opportunistically price gouge us.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's prima facie evidence of price fixing. Not that I expect it to ever be prosecuted, or even seriously investigated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I think maybe they make an example of a few companies but that the fines are considerably less than the windfall of cash the price gouging got them and the rest of the offenders out there (many of which I bet are even worse) will get off scot-free

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Price fixing is when multiple companies collude to raise the price, companies charging more on their own is not price fixing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Who says they're all doing it on their own?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Do you have any evidence of collusion?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The prices being kept in sync. Which I already said. There should be an investigation.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's not evidence that they are working together, it's not even enough to start an investigation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

What do you think would be enough evidence to start an investigation?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

Hearsay that executives discusses setting prices, or that executives met or talked before the price hike.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The really frustrating part is that cheap generic stuff skyrocketed too. Walmart embraced inflation enthusiastically, and their knockoff mountain dew went from $0.62 to $1.70. Supply chain issues I'm sure...

I used to get that stuff 10 bottles at a time, and it was one of the few things that made it worth going there. Now I just get whatever is on sale at the local employee owned grocery chain. The price difference is negligible, almost everything else is cheaper, and I get to support some place that isn't evil.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yea it’s always good to support local businesses, i gave up my soda/pop since it got expensive and checked my locally-owned store instead, lo and behold they had more drink variety and usually for cheaper. Plus it means your money isn’t going to some already-rich company

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Yeah I too have their prices to thank for finally quitting their health damaging products.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Come on down to Philly, we’ll show you how tax sodas.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Soda price increases have done wonders for my health.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yours too? I swear I lost ten pounds just by drinking water and tea instead of soda.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I think the main reason is cutting out all of the sugar that's in sodas. I also started drinking a lot of tea. Mostly chai, but it's much cheaper and without most of the sugar.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I'm a dirty slut for iced tea, but not the cloyingly sweet stuff that you'll find in restaraunts. And you're right it's much cheaper. A box of 22 gallon-sized tea bags is like $5.

There is a great XKCD that shows comparisons for the amount of sugar in a soda, and it's wild. A 20 oz coca-cola has as much sugar as three cadbury creme eggs.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The U.S. company said in October it planned "modest" price increases this year as demand held up despite rises, leading it to hike its 2023 profit forecast for a third straight time.

They will simply keep raising prices until demand plateaus. It has nothing to do with production costs or shipping costs- they will gauge us for every single penny simply because they can. And if sales drop they will still make more money than before because a bag of chips that used to be $2.49 is now $5.99.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Good ol' capitalism. Everyone thinks it's having an open market, but nope! These are the innovations of capitalists: Attaining and retaining more capital than last quarter. That's it. That's all capitalism is good for: ripping off workers.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

People should stop drinking sodas anyway.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

PepsiCo owns far more than just Pepsi (Ocean Spray, Tropicana, Aquafina, Lipton, Quaker, Lay's, Cheetos, and many other brands)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

Oatmeal isn't too bad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

water from plastic bottles are full of microplastics. Not to mention the water is often sourced unethically.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Bottled water is bad for the planet and not worth paying for. I still do, on occasion, but let's not pretend PepsiCo sells any healthy food or essentials. All is discretionary. We should remind them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

They sold Tropicana a couple of years ago

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Another example of inherently predatory “what the market will bear” pricing.

Thankfully in this instance it’s not an essential…