Coke spread
$8.42 in Texas versus $14.99 in Anchorage.
Five stores. One exact grocery basket.
The basket ranged from $40.84 in Victoria, Texas to $52.25 in Anchorage, Alaska—a spread of $11.41, or 27.9%.
Final basket ranking
All accepted observations retain source and evidence links. Human approval remains required before publication.
| Rank | Retailer | Location | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | H-E-B plus! | Victoria, TX | $40.84 |
| 2 | Kroger | Indianapolis, IN | $45.05 |
| 3 | Smith’s | Jackson Hole, WY | $46.76 |
| 4 | Harris Teeter | Washington, DC | $51.55 |
| 5 | Fred Meyer | Anchorage, AK | $52.25 |
The story in the data
Episode 1 produced several useful reversals and market-level contrasts.
Cheapest Red Bull
Jackson Hole delivered the episode’s unexpected low.
DC nearly caught Alaska
Washington finished just seventy cents below Anchorage.
Data integrity
What sat behind this episode?
- 2,684 raw observations
- 228 accepted Kroger-family observations
- 688 incorrect product candidates rejected with explicit reasons
- 14 candidate columns evaluated
- 25 final show observations selected
- Evidence retained for every accepted observation
Review note: H-E-B rows require additional manual review because its product pages do not expose UPCs.
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