My problem with soda prices

I am an unabashed fan of soda. I don't overconsume the crap - and yes it is crap - but I do love the sugary treat on a daily basis. I typically limit myself to one 12 oz. can per day and I'm happy after that. I don't know whether it's the sugary goodness of it or that I am a caffeine addict. Whatever the case, I do spend a certain amount of our household grocery budget on the worthless sugary crap. Lately, though, the prices have come to piss me off.

I remember when I was a new full-time employee at my first job. Nearly every day as I returned to the office after lunch I would stop at a friendly convenience store and plop down a cool dollar and even with tax I'd be the temporary owner of a 20 oz. bottle of sugary, delicious soda.

I reluctantly accepted a price hike from 94 cents to 99 cents per bottle. That left the plus-tax price at $1.05 for a 20 oz. bottle.

Fast forward a decade and a 20 oz. bottle of soda at a convenience store can now cost upwards of $1.59! Did production costs of the sugary crap truly increase over 50% in a mere ten years? I doubt that because a less-than-portable two liter bottle of soda (more than three-times the size of its 20 oz. counterpart) can easily be found for one dollar.

Is the convenience and portability of the 20 oz. bottles in our rush-rush world of today the reason for the rather insane price hikes of soda or is there something more going on here? Would we be better off making our own soda from some bizarre online recipe or should we resort to drinking nothing but water? And what price is the breaking point? At what price will you say "no thanks" to 20 oz. bottles of soda?

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