Markup Mechanics: How Retail Prices Drift From Cost

Since 1960 inflation has risen roughly 975 percent, which turns a 1960 dollar into about 10.95 dollars of today's purchasing power. That backdrop makes every markup decision heavier than it looks.

The mechanics are not hidden. Retailers set price above cost of goods sold, then use unit pricing, bulk framing and promotional anchoring to make the premium harder to read at the shelf.

What crosses into unethical territory is when the pricing structure is designed to defeat comparison: inconsistent unit measures, peak pricing on essentials and surveillance pricing tuned to what a specific buyer will tolerate.

The consumer defense is arithmetic. Convert everything to per unit cost, compute percent difference across stores, and treat any price you cannot decompose as a price you should not pay.