wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (07/11/85)
We all know that name-brand sodas are vastly ovrpriced; after all, it is nothing but flavored & treated water, with the cost of the canning or bottling being rather low per-item. The recent "cola wars" have seen a lot of price-based advertising for these colas, with 2-ltr bottles for 78 cents with no limit (Coke), cans at two 6-packs for the price of one ($2.89), etc. For those who want this stuff, these price breaks have been a welcome relief from the usual idiotically-high prices. Unfortunately, I expect that the prices will soar back up as soon as all this fuss dies down. My question is: can anyone suggest methods that the ordinary single consumer can use to force the bottlers to keep the prices at the current lower levels indefinitely? Just "refusing to pay" the higher prices will NOT work; enough other people will just go ahead and buy the stuff anyway. Maybe holding the children of all bottlers as hostages...? Naah, that doesn't work too well... Any suggestions?
andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (07/13/85)
[]
"We all know that name-brand sodas are vastly ovrpriced; after
all, it is nothing but flavored & treated water, with the cost
of the canning or bottling being rather low per-item ... Just
"refusing to pay" the higher prices will NOT work; enough other
people will just go ahead and buy the stuff anyway. Maybe
holding the children of all bottlers as hostages...?"
And software is nothing but bits on magnetic media. Hogwash. The
fixed overhead component of the soda industry (as opposed to the
cost-per-unit) is extremely high, as you can tell just by watching the
commercials aired during TV network prime time.
But this is beside the point. Refusing to pay the higher prices will
work perfectly: do so and you will no longer have to pay high prices.
Soda pop is not a staple, you have no right to ask that soda makers
charge anything less than what the market will bear. They're in
business to turn a profit, not to provide you with cheap flavored
water, and, if industry management turned their attentions away from
profit, the stockholders would assuredly replace them.
And, speaking as the uncle of two children, ages 3 and 5, whose father
is a bottler, I find the kidnapping suggestion to be abhorrent, even in
jest.
-=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP]
(orca!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]joel@peora.UUCP (Joel Upchurch) (07/15/85)
I hardly ever buy national soda brands at the store unless they have a real good sale at the store. My staple soda drink is the Chek brand they sell at Winn-Dixie. It goes for 75 cents a 2-liter bottle. I also avoid soda in cans since the price per ounce is much higher and I prefer to drink by soda over ice rather than straight out the can anyway. Actually I think it is good idea to try out the store brands and esp. the plain label goods if your store carries them. You'll often find they're just as good as the name brands and a lot cheaper.
jerry@oliveb.UUCP (Jerry Aguirre) (07/16/85)
> And software is nothing but bits on magnetic media. Hogwash. The > fixed overhead component of the soda industry (as opposed to the > cost-per-unit) is extremely high, as you can tell just by watching the > commercials aired during TV network prime time. > -=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!orca!andrew) [UUCP] Speaking of which, why does the government subsidize commercials? Jerry Aguirre @ Olivetti ATC {hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|tolerant|allegra|tymix}!oliveb!jerry