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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?"
80-ounce cold drink cup - that's 5 pints, folks
1. Can the human bladder even hold that much?
2. Christ, there's not that much blood in the human body! Even on a full bladder, is there even 80 ounces of fluid flowing through one's body?
Take for example, 7-11. I'm sure the bulk soda that 7-11 receives is cheap enough that they can sell as much for as cheap as they like. The idea is to move the product as quickly as possible. Is anybody really going to drink 5 pints of soda, probably not. Definitely not without having some kind of heart attack. However, they might drink three pints. Which makes 2 extra pints that 7-11 sold that it otherwise wouldn't have, because they sold it cheap. Same with coffee, french fries, whatever. The more you sell, the more you cash in.
--What, you ain't know about them country fried sessions?
In Japan, at least, the largest drink size you can get at a fast food restraunt like McDonalds is smaller than the "courtesy cup" that they give people who order water in America. Several of my friends and myself got strange looks and comments from host families when buying 1 liter drink bottles for ourselves. I remember one guy was asked by his host family if he had a party of something when he threw away the empty bottle at home. In talking with a few of my foreign friends after I returned, I've been led to believe that America is the "Land of the Super-Sized Drinks."
Can anyone from another country or who's traveled abroad comment on this trend? Is oversized drinks just an American thing?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
My brother is what I'd call a caffeine addict. He's also a cheap SOB like myself, so when it comes to soda, he did some research to find the best price-to-volume ratio. His findings? Buy a 64oz Double Gulp from 7-11 once, save the cup and refill it for 85 cents a pop. Only problem is he's forgets the cup quite often, so empty Double Gulps litter his desk.
More relevant to the article, 7-11 charges the same price to refill any fountain soda, so there's no cost benefit for showing restraint.
The manufacturers wouldn't make them if people didn't want them.
Do you really know what you want? Ever heard the phrase "something I didn't know existed, but now can't live without?"
What about the old adage about the two shoe salesmen that go to Etheopia. The first calls back to the home office and says, "no one wears shoes here, there's no market," and packs up to go home. The second calls the home office and says, "no one wears shoes here, we can dominate the market, send all available supply."
The marketers make people want their products (yes, this includes you). Next time you're thinking of buying something on impulse, ask yourself why, and dig deep to find and answer. You may be surprised....
moto411.com
I noticed this in early 90's when I went to college. No delivery where I grew up, so the only time you saw a pizza was at Pizza Hut. And a large was ginormous. 16".
So I go away to school. They have delivery, I have no car (stupid rule if ever there was one. Talk about encouraging alcoholism) so order a pizza. Well, dumb me knows that a large is too much, so order a medium. And what arrives, but a small.
Now Pizza Hut advertises "The Big New Yorker". A full 16" pizza.
Yeah. Like the ones you used to sell, before decided that a 14" pizza was a large. BTW, thank you ever so much for not dropping the price when you dropped the sizes.
No, you sir (madam, celestial body, whatever) are not alone in your observation. As a matter of fact, my parents have an official Pizza Hut large pizza pan from the early-mid 80's. One of my father's patients has a couple dozen. For whatever reason, he gave my father a pizza pan. Guess what? It was an old large. The new large pizzas don't fill the pan.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
this is a very geek unfriendly story. i myself need the drug-like crutch of a gallon of sugary soda to keep my mental juices flowing while i program every day, all day. i have a feeling i am not alone.
;-)
sure, the sugar spike of modern soft drinks is completely unnatural for a human body evolved to deal with the slow rise and fall of digesting complex carbohydrates, but so what? and no, i won't become a diabetic because i run every day too. calories in, calories out. and yes, as i admitted, it's a drug-like crutch, but in the larger scheme of things, i can forgive myself my dependence upon sugar to get me through the day. surely there are greater addictions and crimes out there we can all worry about, no? (yes, i am aware the micromanaging moralizers amongst us have something to say here, but we don't care, k?)
programming may not be as calorie-intensive a process as say, the iron man competition, but the brain still eats calories. and is there a single programmer out there who doesn't appreciate the idea of getting into a mental zone and getting their most productive efforts out of that zone? do most of us prop up that zone with comfort-producing stimuli? music, furniture, toys, lighting, etc... but sweets and stimulants top the list. just go visit thinkgeek if you don't believe me and see what kind of stuff they hawk over there. if you've ever drank coca cola while at the keyboard, you have to admit the bonus it produces. what greater comfort-producing aid can there be than something that gives the brain what it naturally craves?
keep the brain sutffed with oxygen and glucose and it will reward you with good code! don't let the guilt-mongers get at you, fellow programmers, enjoy your code red big gulp, and have one every day. (just make sure you exercise too... don't become another stupid fat american.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Every fast food restaurant from Wendy's to McDonalds has been increasing the size of there portions based on demand.
Working for a major pop company, I can tell you right now that premix pop is downright cheap (premix is the syrup that's mixed with water and CO2 to get the pop that comes from the fountain). Since the pop companies don't have to worry about mixing it, packaging it, and labeling it in the bottling plant, they don't have to charge much for it.
Believe it or not, advertisements for "80oz. Fountain Drinks for $.99!!!" actually lure customers there. And they can do it because they don't lose money. So, when the fast food / convenience stores get cheap pop, they get more customers, they don't lose money, and the customer walks away happy.
The stores don't care about sugar levels or diabetes, and most customers don't understand that what they think is a "great deal" isn't doing much good for them, while it works great for the company.
This is the company's small contribution to keeping inflation low. Here in Brazil they used yet another technique - toilet paper rolls are 80% as long as what they used to be. Unit price didn't rise => no effect on inflation. Sweet.
You know, it is funny you think that. Actually, straight from the fountain you will get a "stronger" drink than you will out of a can or bottle. It is optimized for ice, and with melting, therefore a little stronger.
In fact, Coca-Cola optimizes their machines depending on the TYPE of ice used! Ice Cubes have a different "Brix ratio" than crushed or pellets. (Brix being the ration of syrup to carbonated water)
I would know, I used to work at Coke...
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