A can of Coca-Cola costs more than three times as much in Finland as in Spain, a McDonald's Big Mac costs about twice as much in Helsinki as in Athens, and a standard French car is cheaper anywhere else in the euro zone.
Now that goods are being priced and paid for in a single currency, the citizens of the dozen countries in the eurozone can easily see just how wildly prices vary.
This so-called price transparency, which took a leap on January 1st with the introduction of euro notes and coins, may give the eurozone's 300 million citizens plenty to moan about, but economists are not expecting price collapses as a result.
For one thing, the range of factors that determine prices - such as tax rates, labour costs, transport costs and the fierceness of competition - means retailers have ready-made reasons why price differences exist and will persist.
Moreover, consumers are not going to shop across borders for most day-to-day items, reducing the clout they have when it comes to driving prices down.
"There will be a tendency for prices to converge, but I don't know that we are ever going to see an absolute single price," said Jim Murray, director at BEUC, the European consumers' association.
"Prices depend on a lot of things. Also, while people might come back from abroad grumbling that a Coke is cheaper, they are not going to go to another country to buy a can of Coke."
Then there are national monopolies which also limit flexibility.A Reuters survey showed that a stamp to send a postcard from Ireland costs less than 40 cent, but just over 50 cent from Germany.