Why are whole peppercorns always more expensive than the crushed pepper one can buy?

Near as I can tell, it's superior taste. I've never heard of anyone in the culinary or food service business choose pre-ground over fresh cracked or ground, and those folks know what people like.

I guess it depends on where you buy from. The places I go, the whole corns are far cheaper, and better, than the standard ground pepper bought from the supermarkets. I would imagine that the higher on the food chain (so to speak) you go, the cheaper they all are.

Depends on where you are I guess. Here the ground pepper is more expensive for that same reason, effort of machinery and wages to grind it goes into the extra price for those lazy individuals who want everything pre-done for them....

Same goes for premium coffee beans. Who in their right mind would want to buy pre-ground coffee, as well as it being a much higher price? The taste/flavour is half gone before you have even left the store, and is all over a few days after you open the packet.

Being in the food game myself, I wouldn't touch a coffee that wasn't ground in front of me first....

Another possibilty is that you can grind up all those nasty looking twisted little peppercorns, but people will want to buy nice round whole ones. Also, but a minor consideration, ground pepper takes up less space as there aren't all those air gaps between the corns, so it will cost less to transport. I use a lot of black pepper, and always use the coarse ground version. Don't like the fine powder stuff - can't control it as well.

Baloo has got it right on. About 70% of "peppercorns" cant be used because of their shape. There are also bits of branches and who knows what else that go into the common ground stuff! Transportation also plays a roll in the cost.