.... in which the Seattle Times discovers that grocery stores use items at or below cost to lure in buyers to purchase other things at the store.

12 packs of coke were often sold at a loss at grocery stores. I'm not sure what they cost now, but cost use to be in the $3.50 range in 2007. Costco was usually about a bit more than the cost but they were selling 24 can flats, so probably still turning a profit. In 2007 it wasn't uncommon to do 4/$10 deals and even 5/$10 deals occasionally around the super bowl. 3/$10 was the average sale if they wanted to try to boost sales. Other examples include family packs of NY Strip/Ribeye.