Slashdot Mirror
The Golden Age of Cup Manufacturing
jonerik writes "The Washington Post has this article today on the disappearance of traditional 'small' (8 oz.) cups of coffee in favor of a larger concept of 'small' (12 oz.). In the case of Starbucks, for example, a truly small 8 oz. cup of coffee is still available, but it's called a 'short' and isn't listed on the menu. Why not? 'We still have it,' says Starbucks spokeswoman Lara Wyss, 'but we don't advertise it because of the size of the menu board, the physical constraints.' Yeah, sure. Disposable cup manufacturers have taken notice of the popularity/compulsory nature of larger cup sizes. The Sweetheart Cup Co. started manufacturing a successful 24-ounce hot-beverage cup about two years ago, and Kathy Deignan, the company's national vice president of marketing and account sales says 'The eight- and 10-ounce cups are pretty much gone.' Sweetheart also manufactures 7-Eleven's 44-ounce Super Big Gulp cups, and Deignan says the company is considering producing an 80-ounce cold drink cup - that's 5 pints, folks. Christ, how much do these companies think people need to drink, anyway?"
I was going to reply, but I have to piss...BRB.
....Guy took a job at a simple little manufacturing company, hoping for a stress free position, and then out of nowhere... his web servers get slashdotted....
I lost my concept of community when my community lost all concept of me.
Meanwhile, the 8 ounce asscheek has been upgraded to the 24 ounce asscheek.
There will be trickle down from larger pants to larger chairs to larger coffins.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem
I'm in favor of the steady increase in cup sizes. I suppose this trend can benefit the ladies, too, since guys also wear cups.
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When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop--even you heart!
A sneeze is nothing more than a spontaneous brain abortion.
Be assured it's just as silly here. I can't comment about Pizza Hut, but I know darn well that several fast food outlet pre-programmed droids get mighty confused when you ask for a small size of anything. "We have medium, large, extra large, and colossal -- what size would you like?"
To which I reply, "I'd like small, but you're not going to play along, are you?".
Blank stare, followed by "Medium, then, sir?"
"If that's the smallest you have, then yes."
Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to then ask me if I'd like to supersize that? Apparently, approximately as stupid as a significant proportion of American high-schoolers, who really make me want to say, "see, now, that's why you're wearing that silly hat".
Anyway, I digress. And, apart from that, I'm getting off the subject.
It's marketing, I'm sure, pure and simple. And the most depressing thing is it evidently works. Well it must, or they wouldn't keep doing it, now, would they? Yes, we really are stupid enough that we accept them calling the smallest size on the menu "medium", in blatant contradiction of all that is sensible and logical in the world, and buy drink sizes that ought to have a health warning from the surgeon general about over working your bladder and other sundry bits of internal plumbing.
Well... I think it depends on the drink as much as the culture or country.
For example, in my one experience in a Munich beergarden, I found that Coke came only in small glasses.
Beer, on the other hand, could be ordered in a few sizes, including "large", "very large", and "2 litre, two-hands-required-to-lift the 20-pounds-of-glass-and beer" size.
That was a good size.
Torrey Hoffman (Azog)
"HTML needs a rant tag" - Alan Cox
Never introduce abstract concepts to someone who needs pictures drawn on the register buttons.
"Ask me about Loom"
You turn and say "Bitch, hold this" like any normal person. Sheesh.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
At one typical "yay for us" session where the publisher/CEO was trying to drum up support for an initiative the editorial staff opposed, I was obliged to clap with the majority. It would have been inappropriate not to. I noticed that one of the editors was not clapping, and I asked him how he could get away with that.
"I don't want to spill my coffee," he said, pointing out several other editorial staff members who were not clapping and holding coffee cups. "Next time, bring a cup."
So the next time I grabbed an empty coffee cup on my way to the meeting and just stood there holding it when everyone clapped. It was a good lesson in civil disobedience. When I left the company over a year later, and my boss was giving a BS speech about how much I meant to the company, I brought a coffee cup.
I hope they never do make that 80-oz cup. If I put one of those in my cup holder, the whole damn computer would tip over.