Stores are certainly trying to maximize profits, but how optimal they are about it is going to vary. Who's doing the best job in maximizing profit - the gas st

Stores are certainly trying to maximize profits, but how optimal they are about it is going to vary. Who's doing the best job in maximizing profit - the gas station selling lots of gas at $2/gal, or the one across the road selling far less at $2.50/gal? (I don't know, but surely one is doing better than the other!). In other countries where "no reason" returns are not the norm, are stores missing out on profit they could be making by adopting this policy and adjusting prices accordingly, or is it the American stores that have it wrong? If all stores in unison dropped no-reason returns then there's be no competitive reason to drop prices, but if only one or a few did it then presumably they'd have to (else why pay same price for less flexibility). More to the point, they might WANT to drop prices as a result of this reduced cost-of-goods since that'd be a way to attract more customers, as non-stop "10% off" sales attest.