zacharyv

you can walk into a gas station and get a pack of cigarettes, and then walk out and walk right across the street and pay up to a dollar more or less for the same pack. this is not true with a 20 oz coca cola.

Chrissey

It is pretty ridiculous how one place will charge one price and another place will charge a different price. I know down south smokes are alot cheaper than up in the north.That goes the same with gas prices......................

tonalc14316

Stores are free to charge whatever they want for their products.

bonairetrip

Short answer: because they can.Long answer: A rational store owner will price things in a way that s/he thinks will maximize overall revenue. But that can be a hard thing to always figure out.So, store A sells cigarettes for $5 a pack and store B sells cigarettes for $6 a pack. Lets say that the cost of the product to the store is $4. Under this example, store B has to sell twice as many cigarettes as store A to generate the same net revenue (after cost of goods sold). Here is where the wrinkles come in: store B might be attracting people to the store who would otherwise not shop there AND those people would buy something besides cigarettes. That is the concept of the loss leader. But store B might get a better deal from the wholesaler than $4 if they meet certain volume targets.OTOH, store A might be able to charge more than store B because it has gas pumps and gets more traffic. Or store A might be more attractive from the outside. Or the clerks might be nicer and quicker or...