Hey North America: Why Aren't You Buying 20 Oz Bottles Of Coke?
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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Comments:
Answer me this: Dasani and Coke are the same price. What does that say about the quality of the water used in Coke? (answer: nothing. But it says a lot about the stupidity of consumers)
Could it be that people are getting sick and tired of HFCS?
I refuse to drink anything with corn syrup in it.
I stopped buying it because I started disliking the way it tastes, and I'm trying to keep my high fructose corn syrup intake down to a maximum of 3 gallons a day. I only buy soda now if I buy Mentos, and happen to get it into my head to send a frothy candy bomb to someone I love.
it tastes better in a can
4C's totally Light Tea2Go costs $.25/20 ounce. Also it doesn't contain the calcium draining phosphoric acid.
Cause I don't like soft drinks, that's why.
I drink one occasionally but much less often than I used to. I drink lots of water now, but don't mind the occasional indulgence.
Water with lemon or iced tea with lemon, in most cases, anyway, has replaced soda pop in restaurants for me.
Juice and water for me. I guess I'm an unpatriotic American, heh.
I started to notice that the older I get the less soda I drink. For one, I don't like the taste anymore and prefer to drink no carbonated drinks. Also, I rarely finish a 20oz can these days because by about half way through, the craving I had for the soda is gone and I just don't want to finish it.
@sleze69: That's a good suggestion. Personally I prefer the caffeinated Crystal Light flavor packets.
Actually, the only reason I stopped buying the 20oz Cokes is because whoever owns the vending machine in my office decided to raise the price to $1.30. Yeah, you need that extra nickel to buy a drink now. I'm lazy enough that I refuse to carry a nickel on me; worse yet, I hate extra change; so I refuse to put $2 in the machine, only to get 70c back in nickels. Stupid.
@wring: Soda certainly gets colder in a can. And I like my sodas FREEZING when I drink them. They are usually pretty tepid in the 20 oz plastic bottles.
@uomdeacon: Extra nickel? I'd hate to be where you are, as caffeine is the only way I'd make it through my day. They're still sold at a dollar in all the vending machines around where I'm at. Right next to, coincidentally, a mini-mart which sells them for $1.39. Why people ever go in there, I don't know.
Because I like Diet Dr. Pepper in cans, this will not affect me. :)
I pretty much stopped drinking soda all together, trying to avoid drinking straight suger. I don't like artifical sweeteners, so that pretty much means no Coke for me. But I still miss it, and I will still drink it occasionally.
My guess is you'll see a change, but it won't be proportional. They'll make the bottle size 20% smaller (16 ounces) while decreasing the cost only 10%. In the end, their profit margin will be even higher than it is now.
@uomdeacon: Big fan of the flavor packets, especially the Walmart (ducks}Peach Tea.
I still drink enough soda though, but Coke Zero is my new beverage of choice.
My guess though is there is just a ton of extra options out there now. Dozens of brands of energy drinks, major label juice/teas, broader distribution of specialty sodas like Jones and Stewarts. Coke/Pepsi still own the 2 liter fridge market, but if Im spending $1.25 for a 20oz coke I might as well spend $1.25 for a 12oz Stewarts cream that I will enjoy more.
Because $1.25 is waaaay too much for me to spend at a vending machine. When I worked in an office that had a vending machine with cans of soda for 50 cents, I bought a soda every day. It's pretty easy to scrounge up that much in change to get my caffeine fix.
The office I'm in now only has the 20 oz. bottles for $1.25. I'll get a soda maybe once a week, usually less frequently. The price is just ridiculous.
The only liquid I buy now is the Minute Maid OJ that has plant sterols in it and typically one other 100% not from concentrate juice which gets mixed with green tea. Too many damn calories otherwise and the price for soda is just astronomical now. Coke obviously hasn't really learned anything. Take a look at the price of Vitamin Water which is typically fitty cent(pun intended) higher than the same size Coke in a vending machine.
going rom .89 to 1.49 over the last few years at my local gas station didnt help them any either.
Has anyone else noticed they changed the caps on 20oz bottles?
I dont care much, I stopped buying soda all together and actually HATE the taste of it now. I didnt care much for the sickly sweet HFCS junk even when I was a kid (I drank diet soda all my life) but even that stuff doesnt agree with me anymore if I take a sip after not drinking soda for 2 years now.
I found one of those tiny refrigerators (holds about a 6-pack) at a thrift store. I keep that in my office stocked with cans of soda (purchased on sale). Helps my wallet but does nothing for my teeth or overall health :(
@Tracy Ham and Eggs: The Walmart generic Crystal Light rocks and is more than $2 cheaper. It's the only thing I buy from them.
I like me some Diet Coke, but 20 oz. is just too big. It makes me feel like my stomach's going to explode with fizz.
The cans are also a lot easier to recycle than the bottles. (And taste better, I think.)
I almost grabbed one at Winn-Dixie last night after grocery shopping because I was so thirsty, but it was $1.39! WHO THE HELL WANTS TO PAY A BUCK FIFTY AFTER TAXES? So, I went home and made some freshed brewed iced tea. The whole pitcher probably cost me 25¢. And, I didn't subject myself to massive amounts of HFCS, either.
@APFPilot: That's one of the reason's I don't get Coke in bottles much anymore. Those stupid new caps cause the soda to go flat just a little faster than the old ones.
@brianala: oh, yeah, that too! They're 89 cents at the supermarket, and $1.25 in the vending machines? Sorry, when we cross the $1 line, I'm going to the cafeteria for real food and a lemon wedge in my soda. It's gotta be a pretty desperate situation before I'll put more than $1 into a vending machine.
I started taking migrained medicine in February, and it made all soda taste like tinfoil. I realized that I didn't NEED soda, and that I preferred to drink tea anyway. I bought an electric kettle for the office ($20), and can buy a box of 25 tea bags for what I used to spend on one 20 oz. bottle of Coke. I've lost a few pounds in the process, and Mr. Merekat has also cut down on his soda consumption.
I think 50 cents for a 12 oz. can is both a sweet spot for both price and amount of soda.
coke is ew. it tastes like soap. not worth the sugar and calories. and besides, cans are better for the environment, no matter what soda it is. you can't keep recycling plastic forever, because it eventually breaks down more and more until it becomes useless. aluminum, however, is a naturally occurring metal that never breaks down from repeated recycling.
I pound down 2 liter bottles. They are often only a few cents more than their 20oz little cousins (usually even cheaper when bought on sale) and you get 300% more for your buck.
Sure I look like a pig guzzling from it, but who cares
Cans or glass bottles FTW!!! I REFUSE to drink soda out of a nasty plastic bottle. Just plain yuck...(and NEVER cold enough)
Umm, did anyone notice the expanding ENERGY drink market? Why buy a 20 oz for 1.29 when you can get 16oz for 2.59! On the job now I see more Monsters and Red Bulls than Coke. I do see a lot of Diet Pepsi Max though.
Could it be due to the fact that they are crappy value?
i don't buy them because you any day of the week i can get a 2 liter coke product for 99 cents and under. if i want a cold drink i can head to any gas station and get a 32 oz soda for around 79 cents...
With Pepsi, less truly is more! [/Cola Wars]
@Pro-Pain:
I only buy diet sodas (yeah yeah, you can forgo the "still going to catch up to me in other ways" line)
I would rather have real sugar soda in a glass bottle not that HFCS crap that they are slinging as soda!
I saw 20 oz bottles of soda in the costco vending machine for 75 cents recently. but if you're already at costco, you're buying 32 cans of soda for $7 and don't really need a 20 oz bottle.
I haven't bought soda bottles from vending machines regularly in years. It always goes flat and gets hot. I used to like canned soda, but recently I've cut out caffeine and have been drinking water and oj. I always thought $1.25 was way too much to pay, $1 is a more reasonable-looking price.
Where I work at the local Air Force base we have 20 oz machines EVERYWHERE! In fact there is one literally outside our room. I maintain the recycle bins for our room and I have to say they are constantly full. I must work with soda drinking fiends. Oh and by the way for price comparison ours are $1.25 and the cans are 75c.
Make larger aluminum cans or bring back the glass bottle like you see in EVERY commercial!
Probably the simple facts that canned or fountain tastes MUCH better, they charge an insane price for 20 oz, people trying to get away from high fructose corn syrup and calories, and people are trying to drink what is free with money being tight for pretty much everyone.
the only soda I drink anymore is what gets mixed with alcohol. Ginger beer rocks btw!
Arggh, why drop it to 16oz? Why not just make a one liter size? I'm not fond of government-mandated conversions to metric but if you're going to muck with sizes, at least take a step in that direction.
I stopped buying soda when I finished college and needed to drop about 70 pounds. I can't even finish a can now without getting sick.
I tried Coke Zero, and even though it has no real sugar it still makes my stomach frown. So I'll stick to Vitamin water... which is owned by Coke so they still get my money :/
Dropped my 2liter plus a day pepsi habit in March. Dropped 40 pounds by doing so.
Only thing I've been drinking lately is sugar free Hawaiian Punch and Hi-C.
I stopped drinking soda about 8 months ago, a two 20oz coke a day habit was tough to break, but the weight loss and sleeping through an entire night is worth it to me.
Plus I don't need all that processed sugar and garbage
Oh thank god pepsi is concerned for me! Downsizing to makeup the lost profits!