Philadelphia Phone Service

Phone services are all so different, yet all the same. Each service, whether it is providing a line for your home or for a cellular plan, has their own little pitch to get customers in. Even though Chicago phone service is roughly the same as Philadelphia phone service, the plans and promotions being offered in these two cities probably seem completely different. All cell phones seem to work the same (or at least that is the way it looks to me) so how come every different service provider has a different pitch? I just don't understand how different providers selling basically the same thing can have such different prices sometimes. It just baffles me when gas stations have different prices for the same type of gas or different stores have different prices for the same thing, like a loaf of bread or a jar of jelly. The same thing goes for phone service providers. How come Verizon wireless can give me a phone or a service plan that is basically the same as U.S. Cellular, but the price is way off? Thank God I will be taking econ in the fall, because that is going to be my first question. I guess being a pre-pharmacy student has its drawbacks, like all of my classes are labs or science and math related. I should probably throw more econ classes into my schedule so I can learn more about how the real world operates. It just doesn't make sense to me at all. Something that has always been way over my head is the dollar store. I remember when I was in 8th grade I drove past a dollar store with my dad on the way to dinner and I asked him about it and he really didn't know much about it. Then when I was at school my freshman year of college a few of my friends were looking for something so they tried the dollar store. That was the first time I had ever been in one and I just don't get it. I'm not sure if I'm just dumb, but how can everything be a dollar? Some of the stuff was name brand and the same items at the local grocery store or even at Target or Wal-Mart would be more than a dollar. So how come this particular store got to sell things for only a dollar? It all just seems way over my head.