I posted this in GQ since I believe there’s a factual answer to my question.
Dr. Brown’s soda seems to be highly expensive compared to other canned sodas. My Jewish delicatessen in Baltimore sells it for $1.75 a can, and I’ve noticed the increased price everywhere else, too. What gives?
Law of supply and demand. People think it’s good enough to pay that price for it.
Factual questions on food and drink can still go in Cafe Society. The sort of thing that might go in GQ would be a question about the chemistry of sugar or the physiology of alcohol absorption.
Exactly. It’s positioned as a “premium” soda, and priced accordingly. If sales didn’t prove that people were willing to pay that sort of price, I can guarantee you that they’d lower it.
The value of a thing is what that thing will bring.
The long answer. (Way too long and repetitive and, as is typical with books of this stripe, has no useful word about “how you can take advantage of it.” But skimming will give you the gist of how we perceive consumer good pricing and how we are manipulated into paying what sellers want us to pay, despite all reason and common sense, in many cases).
It’s kosher, isn’t it? In my experience shopping at a grocery store with a large kosher section, they can charge more because there’s a high but limited demand. A goy like me can buy Dr. Browns if I want a premium soda but I have greater options for premium, non-kosher soda that might be cheaper. Or I can go buy a bottle of Coke or something else bottled locally or even the house brand. It’s a good product, but you’re paying for the positioning.
Not sure sodas as a rule are non-kosher? And Dr. Brown uses high-fructose corn syrup, not sugar.
In supermarkets here (NJ), 2-liter bottles of Dr. Brown occasionally go on sale for 99 cents, tho I don’t think I’ve ever seen jugs of Cel-Ray.
Virtually all sodas are kosher. Pepsi, Sprite, even Coke (thought they don’t have it on the label). Now some aren’t kosher specifically during Passover, but that has to do with using corn syrup, which is prohibited then. Rest of the year it’s fine.
I don’t find Dr. Brown’s more expensive generally, just at Jewish style deli’s where they are playing to the special affection that people have for Dr. Brown’s.