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Anyone notice that brand name soda (looking at you Coke) has increased almost 100% while the generic/house brand has had slight increases. I feel like Coke is t

Anyone notice that brand name soda (looking at you Coke) has increased almost 100% while the generic/house brand has had slight increases. I feel like Coke is testing the pricing limits of its customers especially with the smaller packaging and these prices will not come back down.

bombcar 4y ago
Prices around here have stayed the same or gone up a bit, but the sales have dried up. You could almost always get Coke on sale at the grocery store for half the "list price" now that's much rarer.
gre 4y ago
What is inflation if not the capitalists raising prices?
theyeenzbeanz 4y ago
A 20oz bottle is easily 2.29 now compared to roughly 1.79 not long ago.
- jackcviers3 4y ago
  I remember when it was $1 for almost 7 years, then went to $1.49. It hurt because now you had to feed 2 bills into machines that could barely take 1 reliably, and were always out of change. How that didn't drive the price back down to $1 or up to $2 I'll never understand. It had to have increased labor on the parts of the vendors and decreased demand for the vendors at the same time. That's about the time I started just stocking a 6 pack or 2 liter (depending on which was cheaper per oz) in the fridge for the week, too, which drops the unit price.it also decreased the total volume of soft drinks that I bought. I don't know how soft drinks can continue to increase in prices under that dynamic. My guess is that the majority of people just buy it and don't notice anything that costs less than $10 anymore, so convenience stores can get away with movie theater prices as long as they don't cross that trivial threshold. People will pay for convenience under $10.
- kennend3 4y ago
  As someone who use to drink a lot of coke and quit.. this is very true here (Ontario, Canada) as well. I remember buying 2L bottles for $0.99 on a regular basis (they often had sales). I don't drink it anymore (one month and counting) but i do check the prices weekly out of habit and never see it below $2.29/2L now? I actually just checked and it has gone up in price once again, now $2.49/2L Crazy.
- vikingerik 4y ago
  This price has everything to do with what consumers will pay for convenience and almost nothing to do with manufacturing costs, which are a tiny fraction of that. (Shipping and delivery are probably more, both for energy and labor.) Sellers do not determine the market price for anything. Buyers do by what they will pay. Sellers can specify a price, but any transaction actually happening is only determined by the buyer. (Setting the price can be intended to apply psychological manipulation to the buyer, which often works.) If you are complaining about the prices of anything, your complaint is not with the seller, it is with other buyers who have proven they are willing to pay it.
hristov 4y ago
Then buy generic. This is one way to fight inflation. Coke will get the message very quickly if their sales start coming down.
- vsareto 4y ago
  If you drink neither and choose water, then it'll really come down. Bonus: you'll feel better
  - hristov 4y ago
    That's what I do. But I did not want to get too preachy towards the GP poster.
  - supertrope 4y ago
    And then your medical expense category of the CPI will not go up as much.
  - BeetleB 4y ago
    Water is healthier, but not a substitute. Something like Spindrift is a partial substitute. A real substitute is Izze. Less sugar, but still sugary. Tastes awesome - better than Coke. http://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2021/Dec/taming-my-soda-addiction-what-worked-and-what-didnt/ http://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2021/Dec/taming-my-soda-addictio...
    - kelnos 4y ago
      > Water is healthier, but not a substitute. It can be, if you commit to really reducing your sugar intake. I did it, 20+ years ago, completely giving up soda. My go-to drink for every meal is water, and I drink water throughout the day from a large water bottle. I still consume sugar here and there in food (or the occasional cocktail), but I eat much less of the stuff than I used to. It's hard in the US, where everything has so much sugar, but it's doable. The less sugar you consume, the less your body/brain will want and need it. It's like an addiction...
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
boole1854 4y ago
If you check Coke's financial statements, you'll see that although revenue has risen quickly, cost of revenue has risen about as fast, leading to relatively unchanged gross profit margins (36% so far in 2022, compared with 40%+ in every year from 1985-2014 and between 33%-39% from 2015 to 2021). Word from industry press is that the rising price of aluminum has been a major driver of the increased costs. I don't know why pricing for the generic brands wouldn't increase as much. Perhaps some stores see the large price increase in branded soft drinks as an opportunity to get people to shift to the store brands and are willing to tolerate lower profit margins to see if that strategy pays off.
- danuker 4y ago
  Store brands have very little advertising costs, for one. Coke spent $4B on advertising in 2021 [0], which is about a quarter of their costs. [1] [0] - https://statstic.com/coca-cola-advertising-costs/ https://statstic.com/coca-cola-advertising-costs/ [1] - https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/cost-goods-sold https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/cost-g...
  - eatsyourtacos 4y ago
    I guess I must be wrong, but I'll never understand why Coke needs that much advertising. Or anything "that well known". The argument is maybe they are that well known because of advertising, but I just don't think that's the case. Maybe for a crappy product, but not a good product. With Coke it's the quality (and consistency) of the product. I've never tasted anything "as good" as Coke. A new fresh cold can has a bite that simply nothing else has. 4 billion a year on advertising something everyone knows about...
    - RC_ITR 4y ago
      Coke’s advertising isn’t “hey this is what Coke is” it’s “hey aren’t you thirsty and don’t you remember how much fun you’ve had in the past while drinking Coke?”
alistairSH 4y ago
Of course they are. There was a much-watched video that went around a few weeks ago that composed quite a few CEOs talking about pushing the pricing envelope to take advantage of inflation news (effectively saying: "People now expect price increases, we can leverage that to our gain!"). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psYyiu9j1VI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psYyiu9j1VI
- dmix 4y ago
  There's not really much we can do about this. Artificial price ceilings were tried in Venezuela and it only contributed significantly to their massive food shortages they experienced. Most notably it resulted in a big reduction in the variety of food available because while some of the biggest companies could survive with the new lower prices (and work with the gov directly to set those prices) the bulk of small/medium sized ones couldn't, often as other expenses eventually increased while prices didn't.
  - aaomidi 4y ago
    One thing we can do is give the NLRB actual teeth to enforce its laws.
    - whimsicalism 4y ago
      I agree that that would be a good thing, but it won't lower consumer prices.
      - aaomidi 4y ago
        It would create more competition, and put more money into people’s pockets.
        whimsicalism 4y ago
        Putting more money in people's pockets will not reduce inflation. I don't see how it will create more competition.
cl0ckt0wer 4y ago
"Food at home" is up 12% year over year. Table A in the link is good reading.
staticman2 4y ago
I'm surprised to hear house brand cola still exists. My local Giant supermarket no longer ever has any in stock.
trashface 4y ago
I'm pretty low income ATM and I simply don't buy Coke zero or anything like that much anymore. I drink water, or tea. Loose tea is still pretty economical, even considering water and heating costs.
- javchz 4y ago
  Yeah, coke can get expensive. I recommend you try cold brew tea, it's almost as refreshing as soda in hot days. You only leave water with tea in the refrigerator at night and enjoy it the next day.
  - zie 4y ago
    Or make Sun Tea: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sun_tea/ https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sun_tea/
    - javchz 4y ago
      Oh, I didn't knew about that one. I'll try it, thanks for sharing!
JKCalhoun 4y ago
Is Pop Shoppe still a thing? http://old52blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/pop-shoppe.html http://old52blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/pop-shoppe.html And bring back the "White Label" groceries from the 80's while you're at it. http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/generic-products-of-80s.html http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/generic-product...
prepend 4y ago
I’ve noticed this with many items. Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers are $4.5 and Publix store brand are $1.5. I’m not sure how much they’ve increased as I don’t remember the old price of crackers but I remember them being really cheap. It seems odd that the inputs vary substantially between the two so is it just that Nabisco has very different labor costs? Or are they just jacking up the price because they can? I suspect store brand have a very fixed cost-plus style of pricing where they just sell for a fixed markup over whatever their costs are and don’t really do market research for price points.
claudiulodro 4y ago
The biggest crock is the increase in price of sparkling waters. Literally just carbonated water with a squirt of flavor, somehow more expensive than soda nowadays.
- massysett 4y ago
  This doesn't surprise me much. Most of the cost of these things is the cost of packaging and trucking them around - the cost of the sugar syrup in Coke isn't adding much cost versus the sparkling water. The soda maker might have a more efficient distribution network that allows a lower cost per unit. That, and the customer who's buying sparkling water (instead of buying soda, or just plain bottled tap water) probably is willing to pay more.
- reducesuffering 4y ago
  That's probably because the people drinking La Croix aren't too price-sensitive. However, if you actually care about buying them with little margin, Costco has em for $0.30/can and Trader Joe's for $0.40.

bombcar 4y ago

Prices around here have stayed the same or gone up a bit, but the sales have dried up. You could almost always get Coke on sale at the grocery store for half the "list price" now that's much rarer.

gre 4y ago

What is inflation if not the capitalists raising prices?

theyeenzbeanz 4y ago

A 20oz bottle is easily 2.29 now compared to roughly 1.79 not long ago.

jackcviers3 4y ago
I remember when it was $1 for almost 7 years, then went to $1.49. It hurt because now you had to feed 2 bills into machines that could barely take 1 reliably, and were always out of change. How that didn't drive the price back down to $1 or up to $2 I'll never understand. It had to have increased labor on the parts of the vendors and decreased demand for the vendors at the same time. That's about the time I started just stocking a 6 pack or 2 liter (depending on which was cheaper per oz) in the fridge for the week, too, which drops the unit price.it also decreased the total volume of soft drinks that I bought. I don't know how soft drinks can continue to increase in prices under that dynamic. My guess is that the majority of people just buy it and don't notice anything that costs less than $10 anymore, so convenience stores can get away with movie theater prices as long as they don't cross that trivial threshold. People will pay for convenience under $10.
kennend3 4y ago
As someone who use to drink a lot of coke and quit.. this is very true here (Ontario, Canada) as well. I remember buying 2L bottles for $0.99 on a regular basis (they often had sales). I don't drink it anymore (one month and counting) but i do check the prices weekly out of habit and never see it below $2.29/2L now? I actually just checked and it has gone up in price once again, now $2.49/2L Crazy.
vikingerik 4y ago
This price has everything to do with what consumers will pay for convenience and almost nothing to do with manufacturing costs, which are a tiny fraction of that. (Shipping and delivery are probably more, both for energy and labor.) Sellers do not determine the market price for anything. Buyers do by what they will pay. Sellers can specify a price, but any transaction actually happening is only determined by the buyer. (Setting the price can be intended to apply psychological manipulation to the buyer, which often works.) If you are complaining about the prices of anything, your complaint is not with the seller, it is with other buyers who have proven they are willing to pay it.

hristov 4y ago

Then buy generic. This is one way to fight inflation. Coke will get the message very quickly if their sales start coming down.

vsareto 4y ago
If you drink neither and choose water, then it'll really come down. Bonus: you'll feel better
- hristov 4y ago
  That's what I do. But I did not want to get too preachy towards the GP poster.
- supertrope 4y ago
  And then your medical expense category of the CPI will not go up as much.
- BeetleB 4y ago
  Water is healthier, but not a substitute. Something like Spindrift is a partial substitute. A real substitute is Izze. Less sugar, but still sugary. Tastes awesome - better than Coke. http://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2021/Dec/taming-my-soda-addiction-what-worked-and-what-didnt/ http://blog.nawaz.org/posts/2021/Dec/taming-my-soda-addictio...
  - kelnos 4y ago
    > Water is healthier, but not a substitute. It can be, if you commit to really reducing your sugar intake. I did it, 20+ years ago, completely giving up soda. My go-to drink for every meal is water, and I drink water throughout the day from a large water bottle. I still consume sugar here and there in food (or the occasional cocktail), but I eat much less of the stuff than I used to. It's hard in the US, where everything has so much sugar, but it's doable. The less sugar you consume, the less your body/brain will want and need it. It's like an addiction...
- Dylan16807 4y ago

boole1854 4y ago

If you check Coke's financial statements, you'll see that although revenue has risen quickly, cost of revenue has risen about as fast, leading to relatively unchanged gross profit margins (36% so far in 2022, compared with 40%+ in every year from 1985-2014 and between 33%-39% from 2015 to 2021). Word from industry press is that the rising price of aluminum has been a major driver of the increased costs. I don't know why pricing for the generic brands wouldn't increase as much. Perhaps some stores see the large price increase in branded soft drinks as an opportunity to get people to shift to the store brands and are willing to tolerate lower profit margins to see if that strategy pays off.

danuker 4y ago
Store brands have very little advertising costs, for one. Coke spent $4B on advertising in 2021 [0], which is about a quarter of their costs. [1] [0] - https://statstic.com/coca-cola-advertising-costs/ https://statstic.com/coca-cola-advertising-costs/ [1] - https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/cost-goods-sold https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/KO/cocacola/cost-g...
- eatsyourtacos 4y ago
  I guess I must be wrong, but I'll never understand why Coke needs that much advertising. Or anything "that well known". The argument is maybe they are that well known because of advertising, but I just don't think that's the case. Maybe for a crappy product, but not a good product. With Coke it's the quality (and consistency) of the product. I've never tasted anything "as good" as Coke. A new fresh cold can has a bite that simply nothing else has. 4 billion a year on advertising something everyone knows about...
  - RC_ITR 4y ago
    Coke’s advertising isn’t “hey this is what Coke is” it’s “hey aren’t you thirsty and don’t you remember how much fun you’ve had in the past while drinking Coke?”

alistairSH 4y ago

Of course they are. There was a much-watched video that went around a few weeks ago that composed quite a few CEOs talking about pushing the pricing envelope to take advantage of inflation news (effectively saying: "People now expect price increases, we can leverage that to our gain!"). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psYyiu9j1VI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psYyiu9j1VI

dmix 4y ago
There's not really much we can do about this. Artificial price ceilings were tried in Venezuela and it only contributed significantly to their massive food shortages they experienced. Most notably it resulted in a big reduction in the variety of food available because while some of the biggest companies could survive with the new lower prices (and work with the gov directly to set those prices) the bulk of small/medium sized ones couldn't, often as other expenses eventually increased while prices didn't.
- aaomidi 4y ago
  One thing we can do is give the NLRB actual teeth to enforce its laws.
  - whimsicalism 4y ago
    I agree that that would be a good thing, but it won't lower consumer prices.
    - aaomidi 4y ago
      It would create more competition, and put more money into people’s pockets.
      - whimsicalism 4y ago
        Putting more money in people's pockets will not reduce inflation. I don't see how it will create more competition.

cl0ckt0wer 4y ago

"Food at home" is up 12% year over year. Table A in the link is good reading.

staticman2 4y ago

I'm surprised to hear house brand cola still exists. My local Giant supermarket no longer ever has any in stock.

trashface 4y ago

I'm pretty low income ATM and I simply don't buy Coke zero or anything like that much anymore. I drink water, or tea. Loose tea is still pretty economical, even considering water and heating costs.

javchz 4y ago
Yeah, coke can get expensive. I recommend you try cold brew tea, it's almost as refreshing as soda in hot days. You only leave water with tea in the refrigerator at night and enjoy it the next day.
- zie 4y ago
  Or make Sun Tea: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sun_tea/ https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/sun_tea/
  - javchz 4y ago
    Oh, I didn't knew about that one. I'll try it, thanks for sharing!

JKCalhoun 4y ago

Is Pop Shoppe still a thing? http://old52blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/pop-shoppe.html http://old52blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/pop-shoppe.html And bring back the "White Label" groceries from the 80's while you're at it. http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/generic-products-of-80s.html http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/generic-product...

prepend 4y ago

I’ve noticed this with many items. Nabisco Premium Saltine Crackers are $4.5 and Publix store brand are $1.5. I’m not sure how much they’ve increased as I don’t remember the old price of crackers but I remember them being really cheap. It seems odd that the inputs vary substantially between the two so is it just that Nabisco has very different labor costs? Or are they just jacking up the price because they can? I suspect store brand have a very fixed cost-plus style of pricing where they just sell for a fixed markup over whatever their costs are and don’t really do market research for price points.

claudiulodro 4y ago

The biggest crock is the increase in price of sparkling waters. Literally just carbonated water with a squirt of flavor, somehow more expensive than soda nowadays.

massysett 4y ago
This doesn't surprise me much. Most of the cost of these things is the cost of packaging and trucking them around - the cost of the sugar syrup in Coke isn't adding much cost versus the sparkling water. The soda maker might have a more efficient distribution network that allows a lower cost per unit. That, and the customer who's buying sparkling water (instead of buying soda, or just plain bottled tap water) probably is willing to pay more.
reducesuffering 4y ago
That's probably because the people drinking La Croix aren't too price-sensitive. However, if you actually care about buying them with little margin, Costco has em for $0.30/can and Trader Joe's for $0.40.