Yesterday after I went to the 5 for $5 Chinese joint on 34th street, I decided to buy a drink. As always I did not want to pay a lot, so I went down to the K-Mart that is inside the Penn Station. I picked a 20oz. bottle of Tropical Fantasy drink with bold printed-on price of $0.99 a-la Arizona tea style marketing. When I came to the checkout line, it was like 5 miles long and I figured that I had to stay at least 30 minutes in line to pay for the drink, so I put the drink on the random shelf and went to the nearby Duane Reade inside the Penn Station. All the drinks in the DR are expensive: cheapest bottle of plain water is $1.39, a 20-ouncer of Coke is $1.99; same as the 2-liter bottle of Coke for $1.99. I figured that a regular 16oz. glass bottle of Snapple would be cheap, but it turned out to be $2.29. It took me a while to find the cheapest drink, and it turned to be a 16oz. can of Snapple, right next to the more expensive 16oz. of glass Snapple. The can only cost $0.79 (plus dep. & tax). Are soft drinks becoming the next luxury?