Oh no! You know there’s something wrong with the economy when people stop buying (comparatively) expensive 20 oz bottles of Coke. The Wall Street Journal says that sales of Coke’s biggest profit-maker are down and its affecting the company’s bottom line.
From the WSJ:
Sold in corner groceries, vending machines and other outlets since the early 1990s, soft drinks in 20-ounce plastic bottles revitalized U.S. sales for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo Inc. by getting Americans to drink larger servings. Because they are often sold at prices similar to a two-liter bottle, they have also been highly profitable for the companies’ bottlers.
Now, health concerns, aging baby boomers’ waning thirst for giant-size sodas and the softening economy are taking the fizz out of the 20-ounce bottle. While U.S. soda sales in major retail channels overall declined 3.5% in the first quarter, convenience-store sales dropped 4.2%, according to Beverage Digest, an industry publication. The 20-ounce bottle accounts for most convenience-store soda sales.
To win back sales, several Coca-Cola and Pepsi bottlers are conducting pilot tests on a variety of bottle sizes they hope will appeal to consumers put off by the 20-ounce bottle or looking for a cheaper option to cushion the blow of high food and energy prices.
Why have you stopped buying 20 oz Cokes? The WSJ says that Pepsi is testing a 16 oz model. Will you buy that?
20-oz Sales Lose Fizz [WSJ]
(Photo: Ben Popken )
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@JDAC: my Dr Pepper loving son would love that. Is it just Texas in general or a particular store/chain?
All Diet Coke/Pepsi 20oz products are $1.59 ($1.54 + $0.05 deposit) here in Boston.
I’ve stopped drinking caffeinated sodas entirely and purchased boxes of Wyler’s Light at Walgreen’s for $1 per 8 packets. 12.5 cents per 20 oz bottle of water (fillable for free at the water fountain!) – and it’s done wonders for my temperament, i.e. no shakes, no irritation.
I get my CocaCola from Mexico, its made with real sugar! I know… it’s just plain un-American!
20 oz. is wayyy too big for most people IMO. I
20 ounces is wayy too much soda for the average person IMO. I work in a supermarket and 9 out of every 10 “used” bottles I find (usually while hunting for MyCokeRewards caps), there is still quite a lot left in the bottles. (…waits until they shrink the bottles and the price stays the same)
Could be that here in MI it seems the price has been lifted to $1.49 + tax and .10 bottle return. Or you can find the 2 liters for $10 for $10 at Krogers….I’ll gladly stockpile my Coke.
Coke: Ditch the HFCS, and you’re mine once again.
I think they should switch to half-liter bottles (and per AceKicker above) cans. It would be a quarter of a 2 liter and thus should be easy for the public to accept as just the forward march or the metric system. Also, I know you can imported beer and hard cider in half-liter cans, so equipment is available to produce. And having seen them in use personally to half-liter cans of Budvar pilsner in the Czech Republic, I know they make vending machines for half-liter cans.
@jethropew: Not the same taste. I can put a HFCS Dr Pepper next to a cane sugar Dr P, and there IS a taste difference. I’m not claiming one is better FOR me, it’s all sugar water and will rot my teeth and/or guts.
Talking of cane sugar Dr Pepper…
@the_wiggle: Best I can tell, you can get the good stuff most anywhere in Texas. I’ve seen it in Kroger, Tom Thumb and WalMart. Always in bottles, but I know closer to Dublin and Temple you can get it in cans.
Maybe it’s because in most of the country you don’t really have “corner stores” much anymore. You buy them at gas stations and we know how much people are trying to avoid those like the plague these days.
I don’t buy 20oz Coke because (a) I’m trying to cut down my Coke drinking (I was literally addicted to it… I’d drink like a 12 pack a day), and (b) When I drink it, I’d rather run through McDonald’s and pay 50 cents less for twice as much soda, and honestly fountain soda tastes better than the usually flat soda I find out of vending machines.
I’d love to see the glass bottles come back, even though I know that wouldn’t help the price or the profit margin. The soda just tasted better, and drinking 8oz is a lot less guilt-inducing than drinking 20oz.
I guess I’m in the minority here, but bottled-or canned-diet soda tastes much better than the stuff from fountains. I buy 20oz Diet Pepsi when I’m out and about, but I have been taking cold cans from the fridge at home lately since the price of gas has skyrocketed. It’s mainly a conveinence thing-I can cap the bottle and it won’t go flat before I return to my truck.
The past weekend was the first time I had ever stepped into a gas station and the 20oz. pops were cheaper there than in the grocery store where I work; $1.30 vs. $1.40. The price has steadily gone up the past 6 months or so. Funny thing; the coke machines outside the store are still stuck at $1.00. Someone’s been sleepin’ on the job, me thinks.
I work at a retirement home, and in our employee break area there’s a machine selling bottles for $1.20, but if you go into the resident’s coffee lounge they have cans for 55 cents. I think it’s because they don’t want to give the old people a heart attack with inflation, and I’m sure everyone can guess where the employees get all their sodas from.
Maybe its because I don’t like to drink 65 fucking grams of overpriced shit. I have not ordered soda from a restaurant in at least three or four years. The only way I’m drinking that is if someone buys it specifically for me. You start to love water and the soda becomes too sickly sweet after a while. Btw I have had fast food once in past 6 months. A mcdonalds ice cream cone. It tasted like ass. Try not eating fast food for six months and then eating one item of fast food. I almost vomited. My body just about rejected it because it tasted terrible.
The price has just gone up too much. When I can refill my 32 oz. fountain cup for 59¢, there’s no way I’m spending $1.39 to put another 20 oz. bottle in the landfill.
I don’t buy Coke because I don’t like it.
I buy Diet Pepsi Max in 12 packs when it’s on sale. Stock up and save.
Many of my friends and I have just stopped buying plastic bottles altogether- be it water, Coke, or otherwise. It’s too damaging for the environment and I could never finish an entire bottle of Diet Coke before it got warm and flat anyway. The only time I buy soda now is if I can get it in a can, in a paper cup from a soda fountain, or (even better) in a glass at a restaurant. I noticed that I go to small, independent convenience stores more frequently because they still sell canned soda and Walgreens and CVS only sell bottles.
If I buy a 20oz bottle of soda, it lasts me a few days at least. They recently replaced the vending machine that dispensed cans with one that dispenses 20oz bottles, and I was pissed. It’s too large of a serving and a ridiculous price. I try to avoid purchasing these if possible.
@jethropew:
Perhaps you missed the part where I said I don’t buy ANYTHING with HFCS in it. The only reason HFCS is commercially viable is because of US subsidies/tariffs.
While the glucose and fructose which are the two components of HFCS are monosaccharides, sucrose (sugar) is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose linked together with a relatively weak glycosidic bond. Sucrose (sugar) is broken down during digestion into fructose and glucose through hydrolysis by the enzyme sucrase, by which the body regulates the rate of sucrose breakdown. Without this regulation mechanism, the body has less control over the rate of sugar absorption into the bloodstream.
they just raised the price by a dime here where i work to $1.10. i don’t drink soda often, so it doesn’t really bother me, but at 10-25 cents more a bottle, i wonder how high their shipping and assembly costs have gone up to constitute a buck more per 4 bottles sold. also, on the UW campus, they’re like $1.75 everywhere, so it’s a deal here for $1.10.
meh. i shouldn’t drink it anyway.
Because every piece of plastic ever made on Earth still exists.
In the last five years, I’ve cut out my use of plastic bottles as much as possible. I don’t really drink soda so as far as coke is concerned, its no skin off my nose.
Still, plastic can be partially recycled but it can never be destroyed. Incineration gives off toxic fumes that are unsafe for humans.
Although its nowhere near as ideal as reducing and reusing, choosing aluminum is still a better environmental choice overall.
I woul gladly pay $1.39 for a half-liter glass bottle like they offered us in the good ole days! Nothing better than an ice cold glass bottle of Coke!
I don’t drink coca cola…too much carbonation, so much that it actually covers the flavor.
I wish they’d stop jacking up the price. It’s a nickel twice a year. It just keeps climbing!
I can confirm the 16oz claim. We are getting the Canadian 16.9oz bottles here now in Connecticut. They are cheaper, but you only get 2 servings in the bottle instead of 2.5….
Ok, we’re all drinking the whole thing anyway!
Like other have said. The extra 25 cents is what stopped me. I used to buy one every day to get through class. They were 1.00 but I stopped when it rose to 1.25. I won’t carry around quarters I always throw it in a jar my wife has. I don’t want to break another dollar to have .75 may lose that day. That .25 cent increase pushed me to use a water bottle and caffeinated flavor packets. Sorry Coke if you think I am just going to sit back and pay more for a soda you are wrong. And it looks like everyone else feels the same way. We are not the push-overs you take us for and since the hay-day of Coke back post WWII the world has come up with better cheaper drinks that don’t rot your teeth and taste good all day. Plus what the hell did you do with MellowYellow? That Vault is just Surge and neither do the job right. You bring back Diet MellowYellow for 1.00 and I might stop by the vending machine more often.
I agree with the last poster. I stopped buying them when they started costing more than a dollar. I can easily put a dollar (no addl. change) into a machine or register, but I don’t carry change, and the chance of having two single dollars is slim since I carry little cash. I’m willing to bet if they put credit card readers on all their machines, they would see a massive upswing in sales.
@discounteggroll: Brian, is that you? (My college roomate) jk.
Update:
Tried Jones and will never drink Coke again. It is sad that a life long Coke drinker, since the 60′s, is boycotting it due to the HFCS. If they added sugar tomorrow, I think I will stick with Jones.
I hope Coke goes out of business someday for making me sick of HFCS.