This price has everything to do with what consumers will pay for convenience and almost nothing to do with manufacturing costs, which are a tiny fraction of that. (Shipping and delivery are probably more, both for energy and labor.)

Sellers do not determine the market price for anything. Buyers do by what they will pay. Sellers can specify a price, but any transaction actually happening is only determined by the buyer. (Setting the price can be intended to apply psychological manipulation to the buyer, which often works.)

If you are complaining about the prices of anything, your complaint is not with the seller, it is with other buyers who have proven they are willing to pay it.

I remember when it was $1 for almost 7 years, then went to $1.49. It hurt because now you had to feed 2 bills into machines that could barely take 1 reliably, and were always out of change.

How that didn't drive the price back down to $1 or up to $2 I'll never understand. It had to have increased labor on the parts of the vendors and decreased demand for the vendors at the same time. That's about the time I started just stocking a 6 pack or 2 liter (depending on which was cheaper per oz) in the fridge for the week, too, which drops the unit price.it also decreased the total volume of soft drinks that I bought.

I don't know how soft drinks can continue to increase in prices under that dynamic. My guess is that the majority of people just buy it and don't notice anything that costs less than $10 anymore, so convenience stores can get away with movie theater prices as long as they don't cross that trivial threshold. People will pay for convenience under $10.

As someone who use to drink a lot of coke and quit.. this is very true here (Ontario, Canada) as well.

I remember buying 2L bottles for $0.99 on a regular basis (they often had sales). I don't drink it anymore (one month and counting) but i do check the prices weekly out of habit and never see it below $2.29/2L now?

I actually just checked and it has gone up in price once again, now $2.49/2L

Crazy.