I was visting a supermarket chain the other day where I was expecting the prices to be similiar around the area since stores often have advterised sales that need to be consistent. However, the other regular items were more expensive it seemed compared to other locations.
Apparently the reason for this is this particular location happens to have expensive rent since it is in a busy mall area. Therefore, like most businsess they try and adjust the prices to achieve a certain level of proftability.
Most of the large supermarkets that are on its own chunk of land like warehouse locations can often have cheaper prices I find. This could also be due to local competion of course. But the rent factor can often be the case. People often think that is just a small business thing I find where most people assume a larger company just relies on selling a lot more if the rent is more. But like most businesses they want to maximize profits and this is one way to they do it.