The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#12This story is so interesting! - Lawyers screwing up the Coca-Cola founder on bottling - Founder strikes back by advertising low bottled prices - Price stable for 30 years - They then try to raise price to 6c - Company discovers that 1-coin pricing boosts sales - President tries to convince the US Treasury to mint a 7.5c coin (?!?!?) - Company using alternative strategies to bring the price up like placing empty bottl…
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Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#13This story is so interesting! - Lawyers screwing up the Coca-Cola founder on bottling - Founder strikes back by advertising low bottled prices - Price stable for 30 years - They then try to raise price to 6c - Company discovers that 1-coin pricing boosts sales - President tries to convince the US Treasury to mint a 7.5c coin (?!?!?) - Company using alternative strategies to bring the price up like placing empty bottl…
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Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#14 [they] briefly implemented a strategy where
one in every nine vending machine bottles
was empty ... this effectively raised the
price to 5.625 cents.
(This might be illegal, since, it's a lot like gambling, but both versions should be equally illegal.)
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#15This story is so interesting! - Lawyers screwing up the Coca-Cola founder on bottling - Founder strikes back by advertising low bottled prices - Price stable for 30 years - They then try to raise price to 6c - Company discovers that 1-coin pricing boosts sales - President tries to convince the US Treasury to mint a 7.5c coin (?!?!?) - Company using alternative strategies to bring the price up like placing empty bottl…
> President tries to convince the US Treasury to mint a 7.5c coin (?!?!?)
Shows you how much power the Coca-Cola company had at the time, that they would even consider trying to make this happen.
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Levy says the folks at Coca-Cola thought about converting the vending machines to take a dime. But doubling the price was too much. They wanted something in between. So they asked the U.S. Treasury to issue a 7.5-cent coin."
>In another attempt, The Coca-Cola Company briefly implemented a strategy where one in every nine vending machine bottles was empty. That is an absurd strategy.
According to the planet money episode, Coke never actually implemented it. They just discussed the merits of it and if it would actually work.
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#17[they] briefly implemented a strategy where one in every nine vending machine bottles was empty ... this effectively raised the price to 5.625 cents. Instead, charge $0.10 but 44% of the time you get your dime back along with the bottle. Effective price is the same 5.6 cents, but people are excited to get free bottles instead of mad and disappointed. (This might be illegal, since, it's a lot like gambling, but both v…
The problem was that the vending machines were not set up to take dimes at the time.
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/11/15/165143816/why-c...
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#18[they] briefly implemented a strategy where one in every nine vending machine bottles was empty ... this effectively raised the price to 5.625 cents. Instead, charge $0.10 but 44% of the time you get your dime back along with the bottle. Effective price is the same 5.6 cents, but people are excited to get free bottles instead of mad and disappointed. (This might be illegal, since, it's a lot like gambling, but both v…
The problem was that the vending machines were not set up to take dimes at the time. http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/11/15/165143816/why-c...
They were willing to lobby for a 7.5 cent coin and update their machines to recognize that, so it sounds like they could have handled dimes. The reason they didn't want to switch to dimes is that it was too big of a price jump.
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#19I love the idea of the blanks in the machine! It's an impressively awful idea. The problem of enraging your customers is obvious of course, but an even bigger issue would be if people could predict when the blanks would appear.
They'd have to randomize them. But then you might get several blanks in a row. But you could still count the total number of blanks in a particular machine like counting cards at blackjack and buy only when opportune. So you'd need to randomize them nationally. But then you'll get machines that are entirely empty and dispense only blanks on any given load!
Re: The Fixed Price of Coca-Cola from 1886 to 1959
#20I love the idea of the blanks in the machine! It's an impressively awful idea. The problem of enraging your customers is obvious of course, but an even bigger issue would be if people could predict when the blanks would appear. They'd have to randomize them. But then you might get several blanks in a row. But you could still count the total number of blanks in a particular machine like counting cards at blackjack and…
> ... an even bigger issue would be if people could predict when the blanks would appear.
Recall that old-fashioned vending machines typically did not have the see-though, glass front panel.