On May 27th, according to domestic media reports, after Coca-Cola entered the era of 3.5 yuan in 2022 from 3 yuan, prices have once again risen.
Taking the most common 500ml plastic bottled Coca-Cola as an example, in a chain convenience store in Chengdu, both Coca-Cola and Pepsi of this size are sold for 3.8 yuan per bottle, with the cashier stating that the price increase started this year.
It is reported that Coca-Cola recently issued price adjustment notices in regions such as Hebei, Henan, and Shandong. Previously, several sodas under Pepsi Beverages had also explicitly raised prices.
Some convenience store owners have stated, "Previously, the purchase price of a 500ml Coca-Cola bottle was 1.9-2 yuan, now it's around 2.1 yuan per bottle, and it's estimated to reach 2.3-2.4 yuan per bottle by summer. Originally, businesses were afraid to raise prices, fearing strong competition, but as a result, manufacturers uniformly raised prices, and the 2 yuan purchase price is probably no longer obtainable."
In fact, you will find that apart from mineral water, beverages priced below 3 yuan are few and far between, while products priced above 5 yuan are occupying more space in the beverage section.
Being low-priced and maintaining stable prices year-round is one of Coca-Cola's key competitive advantages. Since returning to the Chinese market in 1979, Coca-Cola's product prices have not seen a significant increase in over forty years.
According to a report by Guosheng Securities, from 1990 to 2019, Coca-Cola's product unit price had a compound annual growth rate of 0.42%.
With existing products increasing in price and new products priced even higher, beverages are becoming more expensive, a common sentiment among consumers. In response to this situation, some experts point out that raw material costs, logistics costs, personnel management costs, etc., in the food and beverage industry have all experienced a certain degree of increase, leading to retail products having to adopt price increase measures.
