If you’re in business you know doubt know why grocery stores place high-impulse items in the checkout line. Whether it’s your child or the child inside each of us, big profits are made by selling candies, mints, snacks, magazines, sodas, and yes, gum as an add-on to your order.

I can remember the thrill of having my own money and spending it on bubblegum in the checkout line as a youth. My mother and our circumstances taught me at a young age there’s an advantage to having your own money and the independence to spend it on whatever you choose.

So, I’ve always had a thing about the checkout line. I guess you’d say it’s where I first remember making my own purchase. I loved baseball cards and the bubblegum that came inside them. I loved gum. Clove, Juicy Fruit, Fruit Stripe, Teaberry, you name a gum and I probably bought a lot of it.

But bubblegum was always a favorite until I “grew up”.

Which is what caught my eye in the checkout line recently. Gum has gotten really expensive! I used to buy a pack for twenty-five cents. Now it’s four dollars or more.

And then I saw the difference in marketing and pricing. As you see in the picture, the “bubblegum” is fifty cents less expensive than the “mint” gum.

That got me thinking.  Who is likely to purchase each item? Wouldn’t a younger person be more likely to be attracted to the bubblegum and the adults to the mint gum? That’s when I realized the big brands price according to the target market of each item. An adult will spend more money on gum than a child will.

But there’s really more here. First, children do not go to the grocery store with their parents as often as they did in the past. So it’s less likely a parent has to listen to the whining of a child wanting bubblegum. What’s more, this bubblegum is actually bubble-mint. Is it a gateway gum from sweet gum as a child to mint gum as an adult? Or is it targeted at adults who secretly want to indulge in their childhood joy?

The lesson is that you must consider your target market and their ability to purchase your brand or variation of product when setting a price. And of course you need to be certain there is a market for what you’re selling.

By the way, I tried bubble-mint. And it’s not bad. But fifty-cents less isn’t going to get me to go back. Perhaps I need to find a pouch of Big League Chew.