• UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Soda is such a fucking profitable scam because it’s mostly water and that resource is mostly free. The syrup and carbonation should be pennies compared to what it actually sells for.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Water is far from “mostly free”, especially at the amounts used by soda makers

      • 0xb@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Don’t know the situation in america so what you say may be true, but on some countries (developing ones where the power of the state is diminished) water is not free for everybody else, but multinational corporations get almost unlimited use concessions for their bottlers for a laughably low fee if any, drying out the area and sometimes literally leaving towns or regions with no public water left for other uses, forcing the people to have to pay for other sources. I don’t live in a place in that situation yet, but some other regions in my country are going exactly through that. In some cases, those beverages are for the american market.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          It probably not that cheap anywhere in the U.S., but on the other hand, they probably get enough tax breaks to make up for it.

      • WallEx@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        Here in Germany they can extract millions of liters for a symbolic euro, that is basically free and also far from a third world country. Coke has enough power to get through with this.

  • Zess@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Fuck corporations but I don’t believe this for a second. People are just making this shit up now. Some dude scribbles some prices on a piece of paper and this whole website loses its mind.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I was going to say… who the fuck was paying $1.06/can for Coke to begin with? Hell, I saw one of those 32oz Big Gulp cups selling for $4 less than a week ago.

      This all just looks made up and hysterical, because Americans cannot handle not having their sugary treats.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        10 months ago

        Not from the US, Coke was always around 1.05 - 1.20 USD where I lived in the early 2010s. Haven’t been drinking too much of it since then so IDK. But Coke is irrationally cheap in the US apparently. Or it’s just the old before/after taxes shenanigans again?

        • BaardFigur@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Not from the US either. 0,5l Coke was 2-2,50$ even in the early 2010s in Norway. The price hasn’t really budged much since that, though. And since our currency used to be really strong in the early 2010s, the price has actually decreased in terms of USD (not in terms of our currency, though)

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      This is testable. Go to the grocery store. Buy staple goods. Keep receipt. Buy the same products the next week.

  • darn@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    if you’re buying coke in america, you should get the 12 packs at grocery stores instead. it’s anywhere between $5.99 to $8.99, which is less than a dollar per can

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      That’s fucking crazy. I stopped buying soda pre-covid, but I regularly got 4 12packs for $2.99 each up until at least 2019.

    • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      most people are getting cans like that in a pinch tho, if you want a lot of cola, regular 2 liter plastic bottles (or even better, 6-packs of 1.5/2l) are a much better deal

    • force@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Or get the 2L bottles, which are usually around the same price as the 500 mL bottles (for some reason).

          • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            IME, not only no, but they will yell at the housemate who does for putting it on too tight.

            • Gabu@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              It used to drive me mental when people would complain about how tight I’d screw the cap on. What do you even think the point of that thing is?!

          • the_artic_one@programming.dev
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            10 months ago

            Yes, it probably won’t be completely flat after half a liter but the fizzyness will be noticeably weaker and will only get worse the more you drink, especially if you don’t get to it soon. Two liters are ok if you’re sharing them with multiple people who will finish it right away or the next day but they suck for one person unless you drink a ridiculous amount of soda.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not on sale? Where I am, I only see the $7 price when it’s on sale and you have to buy 3. So it’s 2 for $10 and get one free. Without that the normal price is about $10. The best sales that come around during big holidays only are buy 2 get 2 free, which brings it down to $5.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      It’s not always an available option. If an ink maker deprecates old containers and starts selling smaller ones for almost the same price you can’t just buy something else if you need consistency. Coca-Cola probably thinks that you can’t just replace Coca-Cola®™© with substitutes and I know some people would agree

      • apprehentice@lemmy.enchanted.social
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        10 months ago

        Well, I meant within brands. Drug packages are the worst. I’ve seen two boxes of the same drug side by side and the smaller box had more tablets. That is to say, containers can be deceptive. Look at the volume and weight of the product.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 months ago

      do other countries not have comparative price? here in sweden that’s listed right under the absolute price, e.g. a bottle of soda might cost 2 bucks and the comparative cost is 1.8$ per liter.

      my dad drives me mad because he utterly ignores that and instead manually tries to estimate the comparative price, it’s baffling

  • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    …do people think the tall can is bigger? If anything, I’ve always assumed that they were smaller 🤷‍♂️

      • moistclump@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        In my highschool psych class we actually went to an elementary school and did this experiment with the kiddos. It was a while ago but if I recall correctly, 9/10 times they thought tall = bigger. I bet some people never grow out of that mindset or at least at first glance our less smart brain goes “tall is big!”

          • moistclump@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Oh for sure, it’s definitely a whole wing of the organization. People are the ones who spend money, so if you want more money, study and exploit the people who spend it.

    • mcmoor@bookwormstory.social
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      10 months ago

      Area is just hard to discern. Manipulating the radius a little bit will alter area quite significantly (because its quadratic) but you won’t be able to perceive it. By comparison, height is much easier to see. So you can decrease the radius a bit and add height some and you can fool people.

  • Nick@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It’s usually very small, but here, prices must also show how much 100g/100ml of something costs

    • perviouslyiner@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Then you get shops like M&S where all the expensive varieties of (for example) tomato are £/kg and the cheap ones are £/unit so you can’t see the big price gap.

    • ccunning@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Where is “here” approximately?

      In the U.S. retailers are notorious for having the “unit” price of similar items being listed as (for example) $1.57/oz in one case and $2.23/count in another.

      • GHOSCHT@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        Not sure where that commenter is from, but it’s the case for Germany. Pretty useful to compare

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        10 months ago

        EU has a directive about it. Prices must be shown in the proper unit, including all taxes and any “before” price if it’s on “sale”.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          Do they happen to make this kind of sales, too? sale sign but the old price is lower

          I once had a chance to tell our local pub that their Chinese New Year sale sign is incorrect. They decided to put the sign in Chinese but got confused over how the discount is written in Chinese, so they wrote a price of +50% instead of -15%.

          but why?

          In Chinese the sale price is stated as the remaining part of the original, and it is written in tens of percents (折), so the full price is 10折, and 15% discount is 8.5折, but they had a sign of 15折. Google translate seems to think 15折 = 8.5折 but I would guess that it’s just AI outsmarting itself again. Now, a real person would probably be able to guess what was meant anyway, but it’s nice to write things correctly and not rely on guesswork

          • bstix@feddit.dk
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            10 months ago

            The specific rules are implemented in local laws, so it probably varies a bit from country to country, but generally it’s illegal to market something as a special offer unless it actually is cheaper than before. The sign says “save more”, which would be misleading marketing.

            There are other ways to work around it though. For instance by alternating between two similar products biweekly, or simply by not having that specific product before Black Friday, making it appear like a special offer even if it’s sold at full price.

      • fidodo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        At least in California in grocery stores they always have a per weight tag too. Problem is that it’s not always the same weight…

        • lad@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          California also has the benefit of being able to choose the more confusing convenient unit, i.e. showing price in $/ounce, $/lb, $/kg, k$/stone, ounces of gold/handful, etc.

      • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Exactly this, they will put $/oz next to $/unit next to $/lb. It’s infuriating but I still take the time to do the math.

  • mindlight@lemmynsfw.com
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    10 months ago

    We’ve have those bottles for years now.

    The reason for the change to the taller thinner can is because the amount of aluminium used in the top and bottom is less. The top and bottom in an aluminum can is the thickest parts.

    The price increase has nothing to do with it though…

      • mindlight@lemmynsfw.com
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        10 months ago

        Search on YouTube to see how aluminium cans are made and you’ll understand why the “lid” and bottom is where the aluminium is thicker (as compared to the “walls”).

    • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      While the chapter can statement us true, they definitely took the chance to up the price if the dates match. Capitalism at it’s best.

  • fireweed@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    That’s a 2.24x price increase. That’s even beyond Argentina-hyperinflation levels of increase. Are we sure this is an apples-to-apples comparison? Like, was there a sale or bulk discount that made the shorter can relatively cheaper? I’m struggling to believe a retailer would engage in such a brazen markup in a single week. (Not to say it’s not possible, but it’s extreme enough that I’m not taking the word of some random hand-written graphic on the Internet.)

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      It probably costs more to distribute the new can shape since our entire civilization’s can infrastructure is built around a standard can.

    • Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’m more inclined to blame the manufacturer for the price increase (in this case Coke) as opposed to the retailer. Especially in this case, I kinda doubt a company as large as Coke would allow retailers to stray from the price they want by more that a few cents.

    • Sestren@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I mean… I’ll regularly go to the grocery store and see soda prices vary by 200-300% week-to-week. Sure, it’s all based around “sale” value, but it amounts to the same thing. If it’s $9 for 2 12-packs one week and then $11 for a 12-pack the next week, it isn’t an invalid markup because you had to buy 2 to get the first price.

    • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      It’s not an apples to apples comparison. This was a reddit post made by someone who went out of their way to buy things for different amounts to make ragebait.

      It’s a dumb post and it is safe to ignore it. Sadly someone reposted it here.

  • computerscientistI@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    Maybe you want to have a cup of tea instead? Way more cheap and healthy. Or buy some off-brand soda. It is just as much garbage as coca cola but at least it’s cheap.

    • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of 2 liters of coca-cola was in 2015, when the price dropped by $-1.79, or -100%.

      Coke was free in 2015? Or is there a script filing is these paragraphs and it’s counting missed data points as zero?

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      Worked for Virginia Slims and other brands.

      Remember the connotation was slim cigarette, slim figure. I imagine the same psychological trick is at play with the slim can.

    • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      One advantage of the tall narrow 12oz cans is they take up less horizontal space in the refrigerator

  • vrek@programming.dev
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    10 months ago

    Several years ago mountain dew had the following prices

    20 oz - $2

    1 liter - $2

    2 liter - $2

    1.5 liter - $1

    It wasn’t a sale, they had these prices on several stores for over a year.

    • kevincox@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      These units hurt me. For others with the same pain 20 oz is a bit over 1/2 a liter

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        When I was in college a gas station a block from me would do incredible deals on soda 12 packs abouth once a month. Like buy one get two free. We’d stock a full month’s worth every time and basically have a soda mountain for people to rummage through

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Honestly kinda based

      Soda costs pennies, the plastic container is the bulk of the cost, and not much changes in plastic quantity between container sizes

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      A 12oz can was around $0.28 (when you buy a case). Today you’re lucky if you can pay $0.45.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        I’ve had the best luck with Dollar General for affordable drinks. You have to wait for a decent sale and stock up though, and use coupons when available.

        For example: recently for Dr Pepper they had two 12-packs for $14, but you could buy three for $15 and there was a coupon for $2 off when buying three, making it $13 for three 12-packs. So you would pay a dollar less for 36 cans than you would for 24. Comes out to about $0.36 per can.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yeah, they’re happy to offer lower prices for people who are willing to climb barriers. It’s just a way of doing tiered pricing.

        • Duranie@literature.cafe
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          10 months ago

          You know how many smokers have/had their hard line on what price would make them quit smoking? For me (a 52yo woman) that was when pop breached $5.99 a 24 pack case. I would buy it again occasionally if sale prices dipped into that range, but having crossed that line it broke my habit. The thought of $7 for a 12 pack is just painful.

    • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.uk
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      10 months ago

      20oz are more expensive per volume because they sell faster. There’s less of a demand for larger sizes typically go flat too fast for people unless they’re having a party or something, and even in that case they don’t have the convenience of being able to drink from the bottle.

      • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Do you leave your soda uncapped or something? I buy almost exclusively 2 liter bottles and they very rarely go flat on me. I’ll drink one over the course of about 4 days.

        • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.uk
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          10 months ago

          No. I never had any issues with larger soda bottles. I would usually buy the 1 or 1.5 liter bottles because they were usually the best deal.

          I did some sales work for one of the local soda distributors, and it was crazy how much better the 20oz bottles did in comparison to everything else.

          It was the same with energy drinks. Most people would buy single cans for $3 when they could get a 4 pack for $10 or a 12 pack for $20.

          We would usually just open the 12 packs at our accounts because the singles simply sold better.