Consumer Checkbook's 1995 survey of 14 supermarkets in the San Francisco Bay Area compared the price of a basket of food at each store [Angwin, Julia, "You'd Better Shop Around," San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 1996:B1-2; Consumers Union, "Are You Paying Too Much for Auto Insurance?" Consumer Reports, 62(1), January 1997:10-7)]. The average price was assigned an index of 100 (as with the CPI). The least expensive store, Food 4 Less, had a price index of 84—16% less than average—and charged the lowest prices on everything from meat and produce to toilet paper. The most expensive store, Andronico's, had a price index of 110. Although some of the price differences reflect variations in the quality of meats and produce or differing overhead costs by area, much of this difference cannot be explained by relative costs.

Prices of auto insurance vary widely across firms. A Consumers Union study of auto licenses did not find that one company or one area of the country had consistently low insurance rates. The range in prices between the lowest- and highest-price firms is large: As much as fourfold differences in premiums for a particular level of coverage. The lowest-price annual policy for a married couple with a teenage driver and two cars in a San Francisco suburb is $1,416. The next-lowest-rate policy is 70% higher, $2,382.