Slashdot Mirror
Coca Cola Supply and Demand
December writes "Short article about Coca Cola testing vending machines that raise the price when temperatures rise. " I can see it now: at a hundred degrees it'll cost 2 bucks. And 105 it'll cost 20. At 110 it'll cost as much as a minivan and at 120 it'll cost ya your pension and 401k. It'll still be cheaper than the freakin' movie theater.
hehe, thats an vivid picture your painting there :)
gambling
Here is my two cents worth.... 1. Coke : more demand on a hot day = higher price Programmers : more demand in a "hot" year = higher wages. Before complaining, go out and get paid minimum wage for IT work... then tell Coke that they are bad boys. 2. "freezing" the machine via various methods to get the coke "for free" would be effective only if it was engineered by some cluesless moron. There is such a thing as a moving average (for the temperature) and a set minimum price irrespective of the temperature. 3. Coke is not a product necessary for life. You can actually live without it, Pepsi or any other soft drink..... heresy in the US, I know.
...have it register tempature changes over long periods of time. This way, if the temperature suddenly drops 50+ degrees in one minute, the machine can tell that someone is messing with it.
When you're hot and thirsty and just want a drink. Who really cares about a pissy 50c?
If Microsoft charged per use of office... I would suddenly be using Star Office for everything. If Coke charged more on a hot day for Coke... I would drink bottled water.
I had a really nice laugh when I heard this on the news. I bet all the economists are grining ear-to-ear. Now all they need is a way to sense how much money you actaully have on you :-) I don't know if anybody has noticed, but Coke is already sold at higher prices where the demand is higher - like at a stadium or from a vending machine - both of these are much more expensive ways to buy it than getting it from a grocery store.
drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. drag the coke machine's, strip them NAKED, and PETRIFY them. i miss segfault.
alrighty coke, thanks for making dentists' petitions all the easier to follow now I will stick to ice tea or some clear drink from the competitors...
"Press 1 for Coke,
Press 2 for Diet Coke,
Press 3 for Fanta",
*click*
"You have no, new, messages."
I could never get that, why does Coke need to advertise? Everyone who have live and breathe knows it exists...
The other side is that, due to the bad press one store got from selling electric generators at prevailing rates after one storm (he had them shipped at a premium due to the demand), he no longer stocks them at all. His actual profit was the same, after shipping cost (not that that is relevant to the basic concept here, but it seems relevant to some folks) After the next storm, no generators were available. (read: price controls create shortages, one of the basic axioms of economics, inherant in "supply and demand") _The generator story was from Reason Magazine_ The economic theory is an application of the conservation laws.
As an economics major back in the late 70's I remember being taught about price discrimination even back then. One of the possible applications at the time was raising highway tolls at rush hour, and how the government was stupid for not soaking people @ $100 a head to get into Yellowstone. I am suprised schemes like this haven't taken off sooner, based on the mentality our business schools have been drilling into students for years.
Its called Supply and Demand. It happens every day, on everything you buy. You just don't see the prices change in real time.
for giving me a reason to switch to Pepsi. You gotta love having a choice.
Cold Spray (compressed "cold" gas in a can...) is avaliable in many local electronics stores for under $10. As a bonus, it will often fit in your pocket. Good for many, many, many, sprays (enough to get your money back... ;-). Or, if you are stuck, simply spray a computer cleaning can of compressed air upside down... If you work in the IT industry, you can probably get these for nothing less than a five finger discount... catch the drift? Just leave a can beside the machine in the workplace for convenience...
But cooling off a vending machine isn't illegal right (you are doing the company a favour, plus since no lasting effect is had, it isn't vandalism)? But using your cooling power to steal is...
...and enough of this "freeze the sensor" stuff. This is a perfecr business opportunity.
1) Find a college dorm / beach with a coke machine
2) Put a heating pad over the sensor. Drive the price up
3) Stand next to the machine with a cooler and sell "discount" coke
Sounds easy enough to me.
A vending machine made from free software would naturally have to dispense free beer.
Doesn't pepsi also have carmel color? What the hell are you talking about.
I haven't paid for a movie for ages, I just download them b4 they come out. Drink my own Coke at wholesale prices, charge my friends admission and sit on my own couch. I wish Linux had support for .asf files, the only good to come out of redmond in a long time... -Barrier Everything good in life is free, or pirateable.
Rip the machine open with a chainsaw and get all you want for free..... Anarchy, the only non-corrupt form of government....
Interesting idea... DoS attacks on vending machines.
I live in Canada, have been to the US, Cuba, and the UK. I can tell you that all those countries get Classic Coke by default. Although it is a little different in Cuba... >;-)
A few well placed "Out of Order" signs should do nicely.
The enterprising student(s) will set up times & stock the desired product(s) at reasonable, yet profitable to them prices. This takes care of the dorms & such.
For other buildings, I expect a few determined folks may carry small coolers and take advantage of the situation.
Screwing your customer only does one thing - help ANY competitor. (Unless your business is prostitution, I suppose..)
Gee, sounds like the perfect place (in the US) to 'accidently' feed it Canadian coinage. Or oops, musta tripped over that power cord...
Yes, not nice. I know.
Where I live, a movie is $10, and a Large Popcorn and a Large Bucket of Ice with a little soda added for flavour is $8. Rip-Off! I can BUY the movie for that in 4 months (which is why I won't see the Phantom Menace in the theater, not to mention that my home theater rocks the butt off of quite a few of the local theaters).
This, if it was implemented, would just scream "Business Opportunity" for anyone nearby and willing to stock a cooler. I doubt Coke would actually do this, it is a very self-limiting and counterproductive thing when looked at.
Most vending machines I use are indoors - so temperature wouldn't affect price. What would work is keeping track of machine usage. If the machine is experiencing higher demand on a particular day, raise the price. If its an off-day, lower the price. This lets the MARKET automatically set the price to some degree You could also work time-of-day into its calculations to try to predict demand. Making an expert system of sorts. Kindof cool from both a technical and economic point of view. Ultimately, I think the industry will head this direction. It seems easy to do technically. And eventually, you could get into cases where if Coke's program fit demand "better" than Pepsi's - the program could earn Coke an extra million dollars (?) to its profit in a VERY competitive marketplace. Tom
The law of supply and demand is the reason that all my neighbours don't buy the $7 Coke cases (24 can packs). They buy the $4 supermarket soda, that tastes EXACTLY (by blind-taste test proof) the same. Of course, I hate Coke, so I buy Pepsi, which tastes decent! ;-)
But to go back to my original point, if you don't compete, you lose... And coke is beginning to lose supermarket share. Sales seem to be higher for non-cokes, than Coke (at least from the fact that the fake stuff seems to sell out faster). If Coke continues to refuse to compete, it will relegate itself once again (just like the old days) to restaurants and vending machines. This market, while big, gets HEAVY competition from Pepsi. Over here (Canada) it is a 50/50 split from what I see. Coke is going to stick itself between a rock and a hard place if prices go over $10 (my best guess).
Oh, and at my college (3000 full time students), I rarely see anyone ever buy a $1 soda (coke or anything). The $0.65 milk machine and $0.65 hot drinks machine get some heavy usage, though... But, this is a College, this isn't everywhere. Hmmm, but come to think of it, College and University students are Coke's upcoming market... I'd think it would be best to gain their will now then later when they are less malleable. But, like you say, it's supply and demand.
(BTW: When was the last time Coke ever ran out of supply of it's product? Never to the best of my knowledge, so the argument of supply and demand is moot. It is acutally price vs. demand in the Cola market, whatever way you slice it.)
My rule: If any comes out of a vending machine and costs over $1, don't buy it, even it you want it. If you need it (ie. You are having a heartattack, and the vending machine beside you has Asprin on sale for $50 per pill), buy it. I _never_ _need_ Coke or Pepsi, but sometimes _want_ it.
Purchase coke for 2.00 at 100 degrees f. Pour half into the machine to chill the sensor to a blustery 40 and get the next one for 50 cents.
Sounds like the marketdroids are at it again. Somebody comes up with a braindead idea, they publish to the world before thinking about the reaction, people get pissed, and then the retractions start flying.
Sounds like the guy who pushed for New Coke finally got his job back.
For all you folks saying you'll switch to Pepsi - who's to say Pepsi won't do the same thing? In many respects, the soft drink market is like our political system - two major players with lots of representatives (products). There are a few competitors, but some not worth wasting your vote on. IF one party comes up with a really good idea to screw the voters, and they can't do anything about it, the other party jumps on the bandwagon. So where does that leave us?
Injured software engineer wins against Mattel!
here's proof...
What I hear is that it was intended to go this way. Coke was going to change from sugar to corn syrup, right? However, if they changed it all of a sudden, it would be noticed. So they came out with new coke justlong enough to get all the old classic off the market, and then they came out with the 'same old' Coke Classic with corn syrup.
dude, new coke tastes like shit no matter where yyou live. I've visited Canada, Saudi Arabia, China, and Japan, all have the good ole original.
Most local coke machines here have a phone cable on em, so i guess they wont use a sensor but the main headoffice would get the average temp of the city and send it that, even if its cold at 6am, it will still sell it high price coz it might be 110 by 11am.
I guess they are incomingl ines only, so you couldnt get free calls.
This really strikes a nerve with me.. My campus was acquired by Coke this past summer for $3 million over 10 years; a pittance, a spit in the bucket. And now there is no Pepsi, no Dew, no Dr. Pepper, no Arizona... Personally, there's not a Coke product I would buy were the decision left to me (I occasionally purchase a Minute maid orange soda and choke it down because I'm desperate), but the decision was not left to me. Is this a common practice? How large an area has to be affected by non-competition like this before it becomes illegal? Would it be legal for Coke to buy a town? A county? A state? Where is the line drawn? My drink purchases on campus have gone from roughly 95% (Dew) to about 5% (Sunkist when available and Minute Maid juices). Lime
HAHAHAHAHAH! Then why does the fake stuff, still made in the USA by workers in the USA with USA supplies, that has the same amount of water and sugar (the "expensive" supplies) cost 1/2 that of Coke? Get real! I think Big 8 cola wants a ROI (return on investment) too...
First off, coke is, and has always been the market leader in cola sales. Pepsi, being #2, thus had to take a more aggresive approach to their marketing campaign. We must have different memories of the new coke fiasco of 1985. If anything I remember people buying cases and cases of coke before it disappeared. If anything it strengthened the brand, as Coke has had strong growth and a sharp increase in stock prices since the late 1980s. As for there ever being the possibility of Pepsi botting "Original Coke" that is ludicrous. For one, it would indicate a total lack of faith by Pepsi in their own flagship product. #2, it ignores the fact that the formula Coke is one of the most protected formulas in the world. Personally, Pepsi has always tasted a little flat and overly sweet to me. Coke has more of a carbonation bite to it, which I like, and is generally a better rounded beverage. Pepsi has always annoyed me with their obnoxious ad campaigns. But they also screwed my brother over by not giving him a $500 prize when he spelled out P-E-P-S-I S-P-I-R-I-T with bottle caps in 1981, so I may be a little biased in my opinion.
You were NOT "at Woodstock"!!! Woodstock99 perhaps (a.k.a.GreedStock) but that's NOT WOODSTOCK. Damn how I hate how they perverted a name in the name of greed. :(
I dont have a problem with this so long as we are protected by a law like the one that covers ATM machines. If the price were to go up on a hot day the machine would have to display a message like "in purchasing this coke you will be assessed a $0.30 high temperature transaction fee, this does not include fees that may be imposed by humidity, sun, or anything else that may cause you to feel uncomfortably warm: Do you wish to proceed? yes/no"
Is it just me, or are there people who think of Microsoft obsessively, 24x7, even when it's not relevant...
So I have to check the weather now before I go buy a coke, so that I have the right money with me ? NEat.
There will generally be one of two responses in the next month or so.
1) Due to the same increase in cost that our competitor is experiencing we are also considering raising prices by 5 cents.
Result : Price raises 5 cents for both.
2) Despite the increases in cost we are please to announce that our product will still remain at its current price.
Result : Competitor decides they can do the same, and neither one raise prices.
Now, finally, to the point :
Coke is not going to have temperature driven vending machines like this unless Pepsi is too. Now with any luck both companies will realize how utterly counterproductive this will be and drop the idea.
(Anyone know if this will cause the same kind of antagonism in Japan that it would here? I know that Japanese electronic companies were able to afford selling below cost in the U.S. by stiffing their country men, but this seems a bit different)
--
JJ - Devout Follower of Slack Bastardism, therefore taking the time to create an account is against my religion.
The Coke machine outside of the "Blizzard Beach" water-slide park in Disney World charges $2.25 for a 20-oz plastic bottle. Admittedly, you're getting a lot more than a 12-oz can, but... I still bought one though.
You know, it's strange...
I had to do a stupid science project thing in 7th grade, "Consumer Testing" or the like, and happened to choose to do taste testing of various colas.
We tested Coke, Pepsi, and Select (Safeway brand), surveyed the people as to which of the three they thought tasted the best, and then had them rate the soda without telling them which was which (you know, plastic cups labeled A, B, C).
The results were something like (approximations):Preferred by name:
Preferred in blind taste test:
I made up the exact numbers here, but our overall results really did look like that. Of course, our sample was fairly small, and consisted solely of 7th graders, but it makes you wonder...
It's very simple, folks: 1) coke machines will charge more when it's hotter. 2) they will charge less when they're not selling well. which means that machines that raise the price when it gets hot will tend to, over time, lower the price back down unless they're getting hit up for lots of cokes at the higher price. The part I like best about this new plan is that, even if it isn't hot, if the cokes themselves aren't moving, they could possibly become cheaper than the default price.
How 'bout using a butane torch on the sensor, at some point it's gotta overflow the buffer or destroy the sensor.....
The Pantless Gnome
Bottled water? He said a bottle of water. The difference is that only MSFT investors or people who got in RHAT's IPO can afford bottled water.... =)
So how much is that price when I hit up the sensor
with a can of freon? I promise to fuck with any machine they throw out at us. It'll cost em more in damaged hardware then its worth. I have broken into those machines before. Crack'n em again wont be a thang!
Of course, I'd hate to deny you the chance to contort your brain to try to compare every bad thing on the planet to Micro$oft. Just next time, try to come up with an analogy that actually fits and isn't so fucking stupid, okay, Mr. Advocate-Not-A-Zealot?
thats's what i'm saying.
Coke SUCKS
in fact so does Mountain Dew and Pepsi and sodaa. it's all CRAP! Who cares what they do with the vending machines it's not like they're dispensing HEROIN... or then again, maybe it is...
I dunno I moved from being a junky to a caffeine junky to just a black coffee junky and now i'm straight edge and don't even eat sugar. But my teeth still hurt and I have cavities.. Our sysadmin drinks at least 3 cokes a day and has to go for dental surgery regularly. I'm sure phosphoric acid ain't good for you either so wisen up. Techies don't need to be coke-rats you gotta be HARDCORE to pull an all night debugging session WITHOUT drugs
there was a story on "The Daily Show" about a taco joint that'd give you a free meal every day if you got a tattoo of their logo (some guy surfing on a tamale). I think it was fulla shit tho, being a joke show and all.
Hello... give me a break. If the coke goes faster, the company makes a whole lot more money. Do you think any company in it's right mind would /hate/ to sell more product, therefore making more money? Please use simple logic before you go running off your mouth.
Here in this part of Oz, Coke goes for about $1.20 at the corner store, $1.40-$1.60 at a 7-11 or servo, and about $1.00 at a vending machine.
Except at the bus depot at the international airport - where the 2 vending machines have Coke for $2.60, or ice creams for $5.00.
Not even the Japanese tourists who are normally both stunned and amazed at our prices here fall for that one...
Hey, remember how everyone went crazy at the end of Woodstock and burned all that shit!!!
Guess why?
And of course, we all know the consumer reaction to how they were treated at Woodstock. Were any of the vendors not trashed by the ensuing riots?
If you had cold water on a warm day, you wouldn't really need to buy an expensive coke, now would you? Jesus, people, think a bit..
Get a life. Coke's product is consumable, M$'s is not. Yet, M$ wants to charge for each use, which costs it nothing more. Same, with Coke. They want to charge you for something that costs them nothing more.
It amazes me how pea-sized the brains of M$ advocates are. The zealous one's seem to lack any brain whatsoever, instead clammering to be one of the collective. One World, One Company, One OS. Funny how the Windows logo looks like a swastika...
Your time has just been wasted by an MSAC.
And the reason fast food experience wouldn't work would probably be because of the general intelligence among the staff.
If this ploy succeeds, perhaps people will wise up to the fact that man can exist quite happily without junk food. Furthermore, Coke's carbonation and caffeine cause it to rob bones of their calcium, resulting in osteoporosis. (Consider drinking fruit juice or water instead; it's much cheaper than an addictive Coke habit.)
I now have a reason to lug a dewer of liquid nitrogen around.
^^^I'm amuzed how cheap some people can be. don't do that to impress girls.
so is there anything you communists can show for?
short term economic model is different from long term. if people in the 30's understand the difference, there would not have been a depression.
Spending hundreds of dollars to sit out in the searing heat and listen to shit, shit bands... there's my idea of fun! The $10 bottles of water and $30 hamburgers are punishment for being so incredibly stupid as to go there in the first place.
Am I the only one who got this as the response to that URL. Just in case this wasn't the joke. www.thecoca- colacompany.com/newsub.asp?NewsDate=10/28/99 Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005' [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] The server appears to be not available. /News/DBConnect.asp, line 3 Woohooo go ASP
Same here at Purdue. we Pepsi fans have to walk outside of the campus to get our drinks. It's been a year and students stopped complainning. we will consume less of Coke. We will not choose coke whenever we get to choose. We will spend less money on soft drinks. So, i'm not sure if this is rewally swinging anything to Coke's side. stupid marketers under estimated the power of rebel in teenagers.
what if we have another bad winter and our temperature goes down to -40 here? will the cokes be free? will the machine start spitting out money? it'd be nice to see :]
OOps, heh. I think I just started a flame war Coke Vs. Pepsi... POLL TIME!
---
Don Rude - AKA - RudeDude
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
TYOPS suck! damn my fingers... damn them.
---
Don Rude - AKA - RudeDude
RudeDude
Perl/Linux/PHP hacker
That is already done, if you live in a big city you pay more for you coke, chicago coke=75cents small town coke =50
Hey Skyshadow! It seems that some of these micro-softie ACs (MSAC (tm)) are getting crochety! Still, you can't really blame them, what with the electric punishment shocks they are getting for w2k being *late*.
/. 8^)
Hey... you MSAC's should be working, not posting on
Oh yeah.. Coke? - lets see, water, sugar, phosphoric acid, brown coloring, 75c a can. Why would I want to drink this?
Your wallet stays open. Our source remains closed. We are MSFT
Why those polar bears keep drinking Coca-Cola!
They must get it free cuz of the temp sensor in their vending machine!!
Actually, here's the truth: Coke did some HUGE blind taste-testing with the new coke before release. It was well proven that the majority of people preferred the taste of New Coke over the Classic when they weren't told which was which. They did this because Pepsi was gaining market share, and taking away Coke market share, mainly due to the cheaper price of Pepsi at the time (What with Pepsi being known at one point as the "supermarket brand" coke), and the popular taste of Pepsi (Usually a dead-even heat of Classic Coke vs. Pepsi). So they unleashed the New Coke. Pepsi retaliated like a sore loser, with quick jabs and cheap shots, such as "*We* won't change Pepsi's great taste", and the semi-famous commercial where "farmer joe" suggests how unhappy he was with his changed Coke, " What did they do with it?". All this, and still Pepsi's other ad campagns trying to establish it as a competitor to Coke, not a substitue to it, were getting Coke antsy.
:-)
It was more of a "Don't change it" effect than a "Tastes bad" effect. Problem is, most people immediately _thought_ it tasted bad because it was "New Coke", and because of the slick Pepsi campaign. Strange psychology, but true. If the New Coke had been re-packaged in the Classic style, and the ingredients lied, and there were no information leaks, most people would have told Coke they liked the formulation of coke, and would have told them to keep it the same way, "like it had always been", and never change it...
Of course, if you still don't beleive me, then you need to check out a short CBC series, entitled "The Cola Wars", it'll explain all this, with awesome "oldies" commercials...
This really sucks for me.
I live in Huntington Beach, and coca-cola is the "Official" drink of huntington beach. What this means is ONLY coke products can be sold on City property, and yes, Coca-cola is giving the city a hugh chunk of cash for this. Last report where the money is suppose to go, got changed, but nobody seems to no where it's going now.... hmmm. I wish I was making this up.
So now we know how Coke going to regain the money they gave my city. It is a beach city, and it does get hot.
I like coke, it's magical properties have allowed me to code some pretty cool stuff, but jeez...
OTOH.. they may start putting external links to these babies, maybe IR! and man I've been looking for an excuse to start hacking with IR MUahahaha
Coke recently signed an exclusive contract with my old high school (a 1500 total student, public school).
Cost of exclusivity: $2,500,000.
If I understood this correctly, the vending machines would use some kind of thermometer to measure the temperature. In that case, all you have to do is find the thermometer and apply some ice or something. I wonder how low the price can get. . .
Please alter my pants as fashion dictates.
Something like this already exists: :-)
The price for Guinness in some pubs in Dublin increases over time. First (until 11 PM), it is 2.40 (Irish pounds), then (until 12) 2.65, after then 2.90, which is quite expensive. The prices vary a bit from place to place, and not all pubs have this scheme (thanks God).
Of course this makes sense, because after a couple of pints you don't mind anymore paying a bit more, and you are not 100% sure anymore whether you remembered the price correctly
Whatever extra money they make off this will be offset by increased vandalism costs. This will rate right up there with the Coke Classic fiasco.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
good point. Then CO2 from a fire extinguisher. Or dry ice.
I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said "Information wants to be free".
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
THIS is probably one of the most OBSCENE bizness stories I've EVER seen!
OOH! You're DYING, you say? HERE, try my new superinnoculated antimicrobial NOSE SPRAY! As seen on TV! So what if you're right here in the ER w/your mind addled by fever. YOU NEED IT, RIGHT?
SO FUCKING SIGN!
And you get a 5$ dose of some cephalosporin for $1800. Measure by need? Tax the poor, cause they need more?
Thank god I have reloading gear. Damn, we're gonna need it....
I had more, but my gorge is all bouyant all of a sudden...
Anyone remember a british film, Eat The Rich?
They won't feed anyone, but they might make a damn satisfying snack.
If Buffett goes for this shit (which I think should appall him), it's time to bring back the guillotine.
And YES, I know what could come next...
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
This wouldn't matter on my college campus (University of Virginia) as most vending machines also take our charge accounts on our ID cards. That way, 63 cents could be taken off without need for pennies, and most students would just swipe their cards and get their coke anyway.
I don't think you can really call the New York Madonna Incident (NYMI) an "enforcement" by Christians. I would call it one of the few triumphs of good taste in the past decade.
Until fairly recently, art was the creation of beauty, not social commentary except in a very few instances. In fact, it seems to me that art has become social commentary only since it has become government subsidized: possibly because few people are willing to pay for social commentary and literature generally does a better job of it.
I realize you could make a case for literature being art, but it seems to me that it is really in a different category from the visual, tactile, and performing arts. In fact, it still seems that visual and tactile arts rely far more on government subsidy (at the professional level) than the performing arts and literature, so I guess I'm not too far off base in drawing a line here.
IANAAHP (I Am Not An Art History Professor), but that's the way it looks to me. Or, in the words of Robert Heinlein, "A government subsidized artist is an incompetent whore".
-- Slashdot sucks.
while I'm no fan of drinking coke (jolt's tastes nicer), I think this type of marketing would lead to vendor-hackering. I can imagine enterprising fools trying to find the location of the sensor and alter it's temp settings to drop the price :)
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Are you guys this concerned over fifty cents? This is vending machine sodas anyway. Take a count at how often you go to the vending machine. Now, picture where the vending machine is located. Got it? It's INDOORS! Most of the time anyway. If things get bad, just head to the local 7-Eleven. They'll gouge you for worse there.
Yeah. I can see Coca-cola stretching cables and sensors for live updates so they can get an extra fifty cents per can.
Put things into perspectives.
Dude, it was because New Coke sucked. Did you ever drink any of that? Man, it was nasty.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Oh that's easy. The university I went to (Brandeis, in sunny Waltham, MA) made quite a bit off of bottled water. This was because the local water quality was really really awful. If you're afraid to drink it from the tap, bottled water (also probably from the tap) gets to be more appealing.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Yeah but $25 Canadian dollars won't buy you a Coke ;)
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
| they are going to provide "interactive
| experiences" at the coke machine.
How many people remember when Coke brought out the talking/singing Coke machine? I believe this was sometime in the early to mid eighties. Anyway, the machine would talk to you and sing the (annoying) "coke is it" theme at you while you tried to buy a drink from it. For this privilege, you paid an extra twenty cents (over the already inflated price).
This first brush with an "interactive experience" at a Coke machine didn't last too terribly long.
I don't know about the rest of you, but all I want from a coke machine is a can of soda.
-- Rick
McDonalds will be charging $2 for a hamburger at 5pm, and $.50 after 8pm.
;)
IIRC one of the fast food megacorps (I think it was actually McDonalds) tried differential pricing, where you could get a particular sandwich or combo meal for less after 5pm.. or was it before 5pm.. Anyway, it didn't work, or else we'd still be seeing it... And quite honestly, if Coke machines charge too much, I simply won't buy. I don't actually buy vending-machine soda now anyways: I drink flavored seltzer water. I let the quad venti cappucinos do the caffeination grunt work..
Your Working Boy,
My university has succumbed to this. However, we've sort of gotten around it. A number of enterprising individuals have taken to purchsing chips, sodas and various other things at the local Costco, and selling them on campus for like 35 cents a can. Even before the temperature inflation hits, these are already half price.
The best part is that they're still pulling a profit -- all while using the honor system (drop some change in the bottle if you grab a can). Gotta love it.
"Whatever can go wrong, will." --Finagle's Law
Jeeze. Just when you'd thought they'd found a way to squeeze every last nickel out of you, they come up with a new one!
One of the reasons people use the machines is because the price of the soda is always the same! I don't want to run downstairs at work one night and find that the $0.65 I scrapped together to get me a Coke ain't gonna be enough because they didn't fill the machine and got greedy with the price of the last couple cans!
If I run across one of these machines, I'd rather do without than buy from one. Or I'll just start buying the $0.58 2 liter bottles of the generic cola from WalMart and bringing that.
I mean, I'm willing to pay a premium for convenience. But really! I draw the line at paying EVEN MORE of a premium because the temperature is over 80 degrees Farenheit that day!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Does anybody remember in, I think, Steven Levy's Hackers where at Stanford, they used to have a double or nothing vending machine. Wouldn't that be awesome? Push a button before making your selection, and there's a 50/50 chance you'll get your quarter ($0.50?) back. That would be great. Nobody loses or gains any money in the long run, but at least it would add a bit of spice to your life. Actually, the vendor would make more money as compulsive gamblers would play every day, even if they didn't really like soda.
When's the last time you saw plain-ol' "Coca Cola"? It's all labled "Coca Cola Classic" these days.
That error resulted in wholesale defections of avid Coke drinkers to the Pepsi camp. They felt betrayed.
It had little to do with the flavor of the soda, it had everything to do with the betrayal they felt.
Pepsi was investigating the possibility of bottling "Original Coke" when Coca-Cola "reintroduced" Classic.
Since that time Coke has lost market share to Pepsi. The only reason Coke holds the dominant position
anymore is their deal with McDonalds. Everywhere else Pepsi walks all over them. Coke got into Burger King
a few years ago because they went in on the cheap. Pepsi wasn't willing to loose money to keep the deal.
Let Coke go through with this hairbrained idea, they haven't made a really grand mistake in over 10 years.
--Kit
(who can attribute a lot of his good fortune directly to Pepsi.
Former Inmate, VA Linux Sanitarium
Actually, the water quality in waltham has improved. Its actually drinkable from the tap. It doesnt help that there are a lot of people at brandeis who would run screaming at the thought of drinking non-filtered, non-bottled water, but i had a friend who would take a few gallon jugs into the shower with him (in East, no less) and fill them directly from the showerhead. most people couldnt tell wheither it was bottled water or not.
--David
Pseudo-ex-brandesian
Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology
Oh great. Now instead of pouring salt-water in the tops of those things to short them out and get free pop I'll have to pour liquid nitrogen in them....
--
Maybe there will be a line of oh, say, four machines, hooked together in some type of beowulf cluster. Your Coke comes out 4x as fast, in four canisters 1/4th the size of the original cans, which you have to go around to the different machines to collect.
Down with the man and his closed source vending machines! I hereby start the gVend project, which aims to be a fully Open Source replacement for Coca Cola vending machines. It will...
Um, oh wait, never mind.
This sig is false.
At one place in Perth, Big Macs are $1 after 5pm, quite a bit more expensive before then (I'd guess $3 or more). Don't know what effect this has on your theory. Unfortunately it still tastes just as bad, but for $1 I don't care.
Like the $1 bottles of Schweppes Cola (normally $1.80 or more). Sometimes you just have to give up buying the better tasting product because the competition is priced so much better.
Steven
(all prices in Aussie Dollars)
harshbutfair: you know it makes sense
www.harshbutfair.org
In case ya didn't know, the theater doesn't get any of the box office money. They make their dough off of the concessions.
-= PsychLo =- x86?? xor sp,sp inc sp push sp
One way to hack this system would be to bring a tank of compressed air. Aim the valve at the temperature sensor and give it a blast. Whoosh! Instant sub-freezing air. Watch the price drop from $1.00 to $0.50. Now buy your drink.
..."
... Ohhhhh ... that dirty little ...
... ripoffs go both ways.
Reminds me of when a close friend was living in a rent-controlled apartment in Washington DC -- with heat included.
Their apartment was freezing cold. They could never get enough heat. The landlord said that the thermostat was correctly set to the minimum required temperature, and there was nothing he would do.
Eventually, she wound up calling a city tenant-landlord bureau. After a few minutes of conversation, the person on the other end asked here this:
"Look at the thermostat"
"ok
"Is there a lightbulb near the thermostat?"
"Yes. There's a light about a foot above it
"Try unscrewing the bulb."
For the rest of the winter, they simply hung bags of ice over the thermostat, and enjoyed the tropical climate.
Hey
- John
... the sugar content of water isn't very high.
-Brent--
I look forward to making the machine think it's freezing outside, so I can get coke at cheap prices. all I need is a jet of expanding gas aimed towards the thermometer(s). Hairspray comes to mind.
"Let him go, Ralph. He knows what he's doing." --Otto Mann (simpsons)
Picture the following scenario:
It's a hot day at the beach, 105 out, and I'm thirsty. Hmm, shall I buy a Coke for a buck fifty, or a Pepsi for a buck? Sure, I prefer Coke, but half again the price? I think I'll go for that Pepsi, I don't like Coke that much.
I prefer Coke, but the main reason buy it over Pepsi is because otherwise they're the same. You get the same amount of liquid for the same amount of money. If I have to pay much more for one over the other, I have little reason to buy it.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
... to plop a soda machine down right next to the coke machine. That'll remove this completely asinine feature.
Free Coke in Canada!!!
(This ain't no troll, I am Canadian!)
Laugh while you can, monkey boy!
If the temperature of the Coke machine could be lowered to absolute zero, would the Coke be absolutely free?
Would anybody actually pay more than say, two bucks for a can of pop, no matter how hot it is outside? Geez. I doubt they would turn a profit if they went over a dollar.
If I'm hot or tired, I crave water or fruit juice anyway. Not pop.
--
grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
I understand the argument that this coke machine sensor can easily be defeated and that this is a dumb idea in general. I hate to tell you this, but it's already being done on a slower scale based on a number of factors, the main ones being inflation and people's willingness to pay. Before I moved out to Washington, the coke prices in Connecticut were like $0.75 per can. No big deal you say? This was in 1986. God only knows what they are now. Even now in Washington, a Coke and a smile is about $.50 (unless you're at a public event or a Ferry). The reason they could get away with this is on the East Coast is because that's what people would pay. Hacks aside, this concept will not work simply because people won't accept prices changing that fast. They prefer incremental price increases that keep pace with INFLATION, not the TEMPERATURE!!!!
--
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
Does ANYONE out there really think that there will not be a minimun set for the price of a can? Penny Cokes will never be had. The price will go from the $.75 that they are normally UP to $5 when it's sweltering. All the dry ice in the world is not going to make them lose one red cent on a discounted can.
I don't care about your karma, I don't care about what's hip. --Weird Al
Soda machines are mostly for people who are unwilling to travle to the store. Thats a wide range of people accually from the terminally lazy to the terminally overworked.
As such even if a store is only accrost the street the person lacks ether the time or the willpower (some times both) to cross the street for a better price.
However this isn't the same as Microsoft if it's unreasonable you just turn your nose up and walk away. At 75 degrees a 50 cent soda looks good at 120 a $2 soda looks good but as it gets colder 50 cents seems to be asking way to much.
By adjusting the price the machine addapts to demand. There is an advantage here for caffine freak night owls like myself.
Now I'm just waiting for those things to be connected to the Internet so I can monitor the price drop... Wooohoo soda at 5 cents... time to buy...
I don't actually exist.
In spite of the intresting "nitro" comments it should only take an icecube to cool the sensor down if it's exposed.
One would think it would not be burryed deep within the soda machine where it could cool the sensor down itself along with the sodas.
However one of the news reports I heard on this suggests that this is all handled by remote controll and the machines are not indupendent.
This could mean the soda machines get the tempiture for the area the same way I do.. over the Internet.
I use wmWeather to get my local weather and it shouldn't be a big effort for a soda machine to do the same.
Accually reading Cokacolas responce I wonder if this has anything to do with price. It's posable Coke is just extending the old coke finger into giving vending maching owners Internet controll.
One of the things an owner COULD do is jack up the price when it gets hot but he can do that anyway just not by remote.
However a hack for the remote controlled coke machine would be to break it's Internet connection late at night when it's cold.
Or better yet.. just stock up late at night. There are enough night geeks that your local night geek can get the sodas for the day geeks.
If the soda machine is at your office and has an internal sensor then just make shure it's inside where it's nice and cold.
I don't actually exist.
My point is that I'm sure lots of people find this practice unfair... Which it isn't, if you believe in the value of a free market economy. That's all...
/* The beatings will continue until morale improves. */
I don't know why this notion is so unappealing to some people (and I agree that it is, and that Coke will probably not get away with it here). I mean, this is what we Americans believe we stand for... Pure, unadulterated capitalism.
Just goes to show you that what we call a free market economy is anything but.
/* The beatings will continue until morale improves. */
Check out the current "The K Chronicles" for something very similar - in return for subsidizing the birth of a child, 21th century companies get to brand and raise them the Coke/Pepsi way - addicts to a drink and its included drug.
If you don't have enough change, whip out your compressed air can and chill the sensor...
I think somebody at the CocaCola company has been listening to Jack Valenti.
This Hollywood dumbass suggested changing the price of movies, depending on how much it costs to make the movie.
Pure, unadulterated BullShit.
It's called "Level Playing Field," something a lot of readers tend to forget.
"Pure Capitalism" my ass.
There's no such thing.
Consumers have rights too, not just profit-making entities.
P
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Right. Now I know a good use for liquid nitrogen. Free coke for all!
One could just avoid machines with digital price displays. Good old sticker prices. You can rely on them not changing unexpectedly. Unless, of course, there's a hidden robotic arm inside the machine that pops out and switches the price stickers when nobody's looking....
--
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
The Caffine in that crap makes me gotta go potty more often than water. Potty time cuts down on code time. Not good. I can't think of the last time I saw an out-doors coke machine...a rest area on the interstate maybe. Heh.
Blar.
Feh. Coke is a useful carrier of caffeine. When I want something to cool me down, I go for plain water or Gatorade. As long as water and Gatorade companies don't follow suit, I'm fine! ;)
...I want the damned things to take my 5$ bills. I dream about them accepting 10$ bills. I dare not dream about them taking the 20$ bill, like the one and only strip of green paper that resided in my wallet today when I went looking for something to drink at work... *mutter*
;}
;), give me a stock quote, or give me anything other than change for something more than a 1$ bill, I'll hate them.
Oh, and it has to give back the right change, too.
If they sing, dance, give me the weather (hey, stupid, I can look outside the bloody window if I want to see the weather report
...I'm going back to kick the soda machine here a few more times.
I work for a college that is "owned" by the other evil empire, Pepsi. Thanks to a donated electronic message board (I refer to it as the "Big Ugly Sign").
Now just because they have all the vending rights does not mean one can't buy a Coke. You just have to know where to look.
One weekend I installed a refrigerator in my office and now keep it well stocked with whatever is in demand. I even beat Pepsi's price :-)
"The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
"The last thing I want to do is deal with a bunch of people who want something."
Major Major
How could you do this to me? What about all of those long nights that I have spent coding forgetting about friends and family, but never you dear coke. Has my devotion to your sweet taste been nothing to you? Say it ain't so. My life and my work depend on you and I have paid more than my share of the coke payroll. Damn you bastards!
If this was actually implemented by Coke, would each machine be programmed depending on the location of where the machine would be? I think it would *suck* to be at one of these machines in the Mojave desert, where in the summertime it's a brisk 120+ most days and cools down to a modest 75 at night.
Also, how will the machine know if it's inside or outside? I'd rather walk to a machine that's inside at that point, as it would naturally be cheaper if it can't tell how hot it is outside...
Well the simpliest way to avoid hacks like this is have the internal system keep track of temperature deltas and if the delta is too large then they can take actions like shutting the machine down, sounding and alarm, etc...
Most likely cheaper ingredients. Then there's the cost of advertising. Coke and Pepsi spend big bucks to all of the grocery stores so that the store will put Coke/Pepsi higher up on the shelf, or at the ends of the aisles (that is premium grocery real-estate). Most stores don't put the shitty cola in the coolers, either, Coke and Pepsi pay for that.
then you can find the sensor and apply something nice and icy cold.
LetterRip
This is especially poignant because it costs approximately fucking NOTHING to manufacture soda. Putting it in cans is more expensive than making it. Like popsicles, you get, like, 6 billion percent profit.
- -------------------
You can break even on the movie soda prices is you make yourself a fake student ID for the admission discount. Instead of $1,000.50 to get in it'll be $5. Fake student ID's are easier to make than fake driver's licenses... and who is going to suspect that you made a fake ID to make yourself a few years YOUNGER?! Pick some random obscure out-of-state private school with a student population of about 700 and your golden. Who cares what the real ID actually looks like. Just laminate the fucker and now your tickets are $5. Hurray!!!
--------------------------------------
I know about Coke and Surge, but Barq's is actually put out by, "Barq's Inc." I just a had a can for lunch (hehe ok I didn't eat the can I...you know what I mean : )
miyax
We've got a Coke bottle machine @ school, and not only is it cheaper to go across the street and buy a bottle of the same soda, but the machine doesn't take dollars. It's got a dollar slot, but it just refuses to take them.
Besides, I prefer Pepsi. It doesn't make me as hyper and doesn't have that annoying extra taste thing that Coke has. If I need energy, three glasses of Coke, a Barq's root beer, or a few sips of Surge do the trick : )
Long live Pepsi! I hope Coke suffers from this, and Pepsi and Barq's and even Snapple come out ahead. Coke's not selling well in the U.S. anyway.
miyax
You'd be better off throwing your liquid nitrogen on the plexiglass of a regular candy machine. Screen shatters = free candy. Or you could just rob the next person in line. Or you could just work for a living and spend your money on things other than carbonated caffeinated sugar water.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
As you'll see here or somewhere else. It's too bad coke's own page is so braindead (although not half as braindead as the page for barq's.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Barqs, Surge, and Coke are all put out by the same company.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
you people are forgetting that they're not going to put these machines beside a pepsi machine
These machines are going to be very strategically placed.
Think of this... the campus here has a population of 45,000 (students, professors, staff)
Coke bought the rights to the campus for the next.. oh I dunno 20 years or something.. which means.. NO WHERE on the whole huge campus can pepsi be sold
They have done this in many places... and what a brilliant idea from a profit perspective (from a consumer prospective it sucks) but just remember.. they know what they're doing.. they're not gonna stick these things beside Pepsi machines... competition isnt a factor
You have paid for a total of 0 pages and so far 0 have been used up (0 today).
So now we can look forward to ignoring Coke machine alarms in addition to car alarms?
How about putting cold spray vending machines next to the new Coke machines?
Just drink Pepsi, it's better anyway.
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king, and the man with the computer is pretty much ignored.
okay... the we just hack the temperature controls with some compressed air and get a coke for $.11
I know what the "interactive experience" will be: AOL access!
Why this is difficult (unless they do not deserve any engineering grade): .....
-There are several means to establish temperature measurements (power usage of fridge, temp. sensor(+low-pass filter), halfway-temperature measurement [in the middle of the insulation], any of the above in multiple form, etc
-There are several means to detect hacks (sudden temp drops, below average temp (-5oC in June), etc...)
have phun
nosig today
Why can't these bozos 'get it'?
Wouldn't it be better to use technology to let the machine tell the supplier when the machine is getting low on product so they know to come and fill it?
If they did this, they wouldn't need to adjust the price for the weather.
What a dumb idea....
Hey guys. I figured this article would show up here today.. I happen to work for the company that is developing these new vending machines. I can't really say much about the technology (NDA), but the machines are in fact NOT designed to raise prices when the temperature rises. I don't know how/why that got out into the press, but it really was blown out of proportion..
- Sean
But while we're speaking hypothetically, combine the coke machine with a finger daemon (like so - or try finger coke@l.gp.cs.cmu.edu) and what do you get? The Coca Cola weather service!
Even more fun - maybe you could telnet in from your Playstation to the coke machine and start a multiplayer contest... the possibilities are endless! :)
Oh, and yes, I forgot to put TM and (R), but Coke, Coca Cola and Playstation are trademarks of ... wait a minute, this is fair use of trademarks, for dummies, even. Nyah, nyah, nyah!
"I will take the Ring," he said, "though I do not know the way."
Absolute nonsense. There are any number of hotels, golf courses, and what have you that charge more during peak seasons and less during off-peak seasons. This is entirely reasonable and ethical.
I remember when my friends and I discovered a pop machine that would give you a free orange pop every 2 cans or so.... we reaped that thing dry... my only excuse is that I was a sophomore in high school =]
Lets say the temp sensor goes wrong... its 120 outside... but the thing inside says its 30 below.... its like the money is falling outta my ass!
The same thing might be true if on a campus... one coke machine is off by... a degree.. ok.. well then the great hunt for the coldest coke machine begins.. and the lines form.
Or howabout...
"hey dude... gimme umm..."
/me checks parabolic price guide for coke prices as a function of temp
"52 cents for the coke machine"
"alright here is 106.. get me one... and the temp is bound to rise on your way there so thats 4 extra cents"
"thanks"
Its lunacy... during the summer I'd buy bulk cases of cans... in the winter... from the machine... I think they are defeating their own purpose.
-Ecc
At the school I attend, it's clear that Pepsi is the preferred provider of soft drinks to the students, but there are also Coke products provided in several locations on campus. I imagine that this is provided by the company which provides vending services, since their other locations I've seen also provide both products.
What I'd like to know is why they think they can get away with charging a buck a bottle for water, then stick a vending machine with nothing but bottled water right next to the drinking fountain?
Windows is not a virus. Viruses actually do something.
Does this mean certain reigons will have to pay more for Coke, due to their climate? I mean in Arizona it gets up to 110+ degrees durring the summer, whereas cooler San Fransisco gets only into the 80s. So simply because you live in a hotter area you must pay more for a drink? And what if you are in Minnesota durring the dead of winter? Do the machines give you money for taking one? I wouldn't want a cold drink when its -50 degrees outside. It's an interesting idea, but there are too many variables. Plus no one is going to go along with a company that tries and exploit their customers like this.
(just kidding ;-)
While it is a great use of "smart machines" I don't think it will go over to well with consumers. Me personally, I would avoid ALL coke vending machines if I knew that it changed its price on the temp? And what if the temp is 50 degrees, does the price drop???
I wonder
--
Just put something cold over the sensor and get Coke for cheap! Even if consumer reaction doesn't kill this, sensor-spoofing ought to be pretty trivial.
gomi
Coca Cola "bought" a monopoly at the University of Alberta. Every single store, even one's with contracts with Pepsi Cola (Pizza Hut, KFC) MUST sell Coke.
It really sucks. For one, I like Pepsi better. Two, I used to have an allergy to the caramel colour they put in Coke.
I predict the students here will really be pissed about this news. Many of them were not happy about the Coca Cola monopoly. Now they'll be even more upset that they can't get a decent price on soda (no competitors on campus).
Then again, what the heck am I worried about?! I live in Canada - it's never hot up here!
Does that mean Coke will be cheaper up here?
It's all about supply and demand, people.
The rumor only talks about the demand side. When demand goes up or down (due to temperature) price should vary.
But supply should also be a factor. If the machine is running out of sodas, the price should go up. Or vice versa if it's overstocked.
Another cool thing would be that if the machine doesn't sell much, it could lower prices by itself and find a good pricepoint for it's location automatically. Etc etc etc...
They're going to have a ball in White River, Ontario (which has the record lowest temperature in Canada at -72o Centigrade). The machine will have to dish out about $25 for you to take a coke out in those parts, or up on Baffin Island... Hmm. Unless its asymptotal....
OFTC: By the community, for the community
Pepsi is my preference too, and their marketing's been much better in the last 20 years (think Coke's "new coke" concept). Mind you, Barq's is good
</Offtopicsh>
- Michael T. Babcock <homepage>
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
if it is -10 outside, you'd definatly need to pay me to drink that ice cube. then again, they end up saving on refrigeration at the temp:)
for the Mountain Dew/Jolt vending machine with the biometric sensors .... customer approaching ..... notes: glazed eyes, overweight, pizza stains, slurred speech, carpal tunnel ........ deduces: hacker and/or gamer ..... result: ca-ching increase price $1 ..... wait .....notes: boxter keychain ..... deduces: recent IPO .... result: ca-ching, get it while it's hot before the stock goes down, increase price $5
Vending machines are evil anyway. Avoid them. I have declared a personal jihad against the vending machines in one of the lounges here on campus. I swear the local satanist group offers human sacrifices to these things on a daily basis. They are constantly devouring my money, and giving nothing in return. They are EVIL! But I will be victorious in my war against them. It's just a matter of time.
Roses are red, violets are blue. I'm a schitzophrenic, and so am I.
Most areas have laws that prevent you from raising prices to take advantage of natural disasters.. like selling plywood for $100 a sheet before a hurricane, or sandbags for $10/each when theres heavy flooding. So.. can coke legally raise the price of beverages in a heat wave?
It'll just start another price-war unless they learn a lesson from that on-line greed machine - ebay. Network all those machines together, put in a little terminal with 4 or 5 bid buttons and let the fun begin. "It's the last Sunkist folks, starting at $3.00" The funny part is people will probably love this.
Or you can just do without this whole mess and spray cold compressed air on to the thermometer and always buy 10 cent pop. Big grocery stores can put the vending machines in a cooler. "Pops in the cooler, maam."
Its actually not a bad idea, they could program these machines to lower the price slightly during hot days to encourage buying 2 pops when you'd normaly buy one. That way the vendor can make a little bit more money and the consumer could be all google-eyed when he sees 45cent pop.
Its probably a moot point, if I found one of these things I'd be the first to gather a little mob to trash them.
Short on change? Just grab the nearest handy fire extinguisher and hose that Coke machine down. Soon you'll be getting 20-ouncers for a penny.
My school really needs a system like this, except the price goes up when there are fewer sodas remaining. Then there'd always be soda left (we always run out and don't get refills for a week) that wouldn't be very hard to cheat out of the machine.
RIT is trying to fuck over its students, except Pepsi will have the monopoly. They want to be the only beverage suplier on campus (bye bye apple juice :( ) Of course there was a rally which no one attended, b/c everyone knows how RIT loves money. Did i meantion RIT will be getting a shit ton of money for it? The best part is any oncampus student function that needs something to drink will be required to get pepsi only products. I'm tired of business fuck them all. They'll regrow anyway.
Please you really think it costs 1.25 to put in a 20oz bottle? Odd how the same thing only a few years ago cost .75.
See all the 30-40yr olds in thier minivans or suvs living in suburban usa. They would. Is it me, or do alot of dumb people seem to be on the road? At any rate, these are the people that will pay more. I bet they were (or wanted to be) at woodstock 99 too. Boy if that wasn't a money grubbing event.
I love nifty little real world hacks! Like the trick with change machines that made us all carry around notched bills and how you can clip the black and yellow wires on a pay phone and get some quarters. This means I'll be carrying around a canister of liquid nitrogen in addition to my notched and taped bills and my wire cutters! uber cool!
(Not that I would ever do any of these things... a note to your friendly law enforcers *grin*)
I am the penguin that codes in the night.
I am not sure how well this would work. Usually when I see a Coke machine I also see a Pepsi or similar machine nearby. All the competition would have to do is not implement such technology. They would save money not spending it on such machines and sell more due to the lower prices.
Also I wonder how many people would pay more on a hot day really? I would feel insulted by the higher price personally and would rather go without.
This raises an interesting question. If the price is raised on hot days, would the opposite be true? The colder is gets, the cheaper the soda.
Should that be the case, all you need to do is find a bucket of dry ice and then you won't need to worry about rediculously inflated soft drink prices. Perhaps you could even cool the machine to the point where *it pays you* to take one.
OK, so probably not very realistic, but no less rediculous than the concept itself. I've the feeling that the flak that Coke will take from this decision will more than outweigh any potential benefits.
I live in Atlanta and am a student at Georgia Tech. Coke not only has a monopoly over my school, but they have the city itself in a decent stranglehold... it's hard to find anything but Coke. It's also extremely hot here...
Excuse me while I go kick a Coke exec's ass, the building is right across North Avenue... 10 minutes walk >:->
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
No, what you really need here is a Tempest system. 'Cause you know if Coke does this and it works, Pepsi will be soon to follow. So, your Coke machine's got an antenna in it to try and pick up what price the Pepsi machine's set at... run through its algorithm... set its price accordingly... etc.
Sig broken, watch for
I'm just surprised that the machines consider only the temperature in their calculations. Remember that air humidity, the distance to the neares pool and the nearest pub are also (if not more) important.
Hmm... anybody wants to put two vending machines side by side and watch them compete?
Well the Coke machine outside the CS lab at my university used to run out all the time. How about a machine which charges more for a drink when there are only a few cans left?
--
This comment was brought to you by And Clover.
This is awesome!
If the prices go up when the temperature goes up, I assume they'll go down in relation to the temperature as well.
Since I live in Canada, all I have to do is buy a whole lot of them this winter, and then just drive south...
Now, where's that jar of quarters...
That would be affordable, friendly, memorable, attract loyalty and secure plentiful repeat biz. Coke "DOESN'T GET IT"(TM).
I can't wait til they patent thought, trademark foreign accents, and last but not least try that 25 cent per use thing with public toilets again.
... tools... (siglim 120 chars)" Like cars... to the office no more no less.
Then I'll call it quits. Really. But take a looksee and you'llsee coca cola denies this. Hello IDG? please tell that's a misunderstanding.
"Computers should be
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
Charge what the market will bear. This fits perfectly into capitalist ideals. And it is fitting the price to the demand, something you can only do with modern computing systems.
We already see stuff like this all the time. It is neither illegal or immoral. It is, however, illegal to 'profiteer' (for example to raise the prices of emergency supplies to extortionite levels right before or after a natural disaster). But this wouldn't be profiteering. People would still have a choice of drinking water or finding a store that hasn't raised the prices.
Jack
- -
Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
How are they going to deal with Pepsi, if pepsi doesn't decide to use the same prices? Pepsi and Coke vending machines are often right next to each other. It will be bad new, indeed, if Pepsi also decides to price this way.
-- Moondog
from what I understand the rest of the world (outside the usa) gets the new coke formulation.
Pound for pound, the amoeba is the most vicious animal on earth.
As far as I know some/all Coke machines ARE on the net. I have a friend who works in Atlanta, home of both hot summer weather and Coca Cola and his company works entirely for Coke wiring up and maintaining connections. By querying the vending machines they can work out when they need to be restocked.
when we were at woodstock, a bottle of water was $4. on a really hot day when there wasn't much cold water, $6. vendors were charging $10 for a 10 pound bag of ice, unless it was real hot - then it was $20.
if you ask me, things like this are silly. if coke does this, people will just go buy from pepsi (you guys with me on this one?)
--
you must amputate to email me
i read all replies to my comments
Does a product named 'New Coke' ring a bell?
--
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
But if the AC failed you'd realy want a cold drink wouldn't you?
I work next door to the Pepsi headquarters. I'm sure they have the same technology. They just aren't stupid enough to let the public know.
I have a big bag full of two cents and I'm coming your way.
Ok, the rebuttal says their not doing that..
Interactive experiences?
Hopefully, next time I walk up to a coke machine, ill be able to play quake as well! Now that would be what I call an interactive vending machine!
icq:=22921393;
Blast the thing with liquid nitro, make it extremely cold, then, what do you know...Coke is paying you to take Cokes out of the machine!
icq:=22921393;
This would excluded all the vending machines which reside in air-conditioned environments. The price would never change, unless the air-conditioning failed.
In most areas, raising the price by too much when it's hotter wouldn't work. Why? Because all someone would have to do would be walk a couple more feet and find another vending machine that doesn't do that. (I prefer those $.25 sodas they sell outside of grocery stores)
Unfortunately, price discrimination does work, even in the presence of competition. It makes perfect sense if you look at the economics: if consumers are willing to pay more, the demand curve goes up, and the new equilibrium price is a higher price.
Some examples: Plane tickets are more expensive during peak holiday seasons. The prices of all goods are more expensive in wealthier areas (just check out the price gouging that goes on in Palo Alto...ugh). Even the prices of drinks from vending machines differ from area to area. etc. etc.
Next we're going to have parking meters that raise their prices when you're in a hurry...corporate extortion at its best. I guess if they can fool enough people into paying for it, more power to them, but it still seems vaguely wrong somehow.
A
These machines need to be on the net. If you could query the price, I'm sure "cokewatch.com" would pop up in no time searching for the cheapest vending units, and sending them to your palm-VII so on demand you can locate the best buy close to you.
All I'm saying is, smarter machines will probably not work out like Coke, the public, or even the well informed slashdotters may think. This sort of technology generally results in odd changes in the way people interact with the systems on a day to day basis.
The Merchants War by Frederik Pohl has a disturbing future with this sort of advertising taken to it's logical, and likely extremes. The concept of governments and religions replaced by profit caring corporations comes one step closer.
First of all, I am employed by Coca Cola, so hopefully, that will add a little bit of credibility (that and I'm not posting this as Anonymous Coward)...
/.).
We get 20 oz. drinks for $.35 in the plant. Cheap? Of course. Why? Cause the plant only has to consider cost of production rather than cost of production, cost of sales, cost of advertising, cost of hiring guys to move the stuff around in the warehouse, and cost of guys to put the pop out in the store shelves (or in pop machines).
Now, of course, the price varies throughout the nation, a store pays between $.65 and $.70 per 20oz. bottle of pop from the plant. That's why the prices climb.
And the other reason why prices climb? It's because of SUPPLY AND DEMAND. WELCOME TO THE ECONOMY PEOPLE! We've been living in a world like this for HOW MANY YEARS? I mean, come on! We just saw memory prices shoot up this last quarter. Why? Take a wild guess (either that, or read the archives of
No, it's not going to cost an arm and a leg for a bottle of Coke on a 100+ degree day. If the average cost for the machine is $.85 per 20oz, it's more like $.75 if it was less than 55 degrees, and about $1.00 if it was over 90 degrees.
Oh, and now for my personal opinion, yes, I think it's annoying, although this also means you could go out on a cool night to your nearest Coke machine and actually buy Coke CHEAPER than Pepsi!
I don't want a goddamn 'interactive experience' when I'm trying to buy a Coke! I don't go to the Coke machine to be entertained....I go because I'm thirsty! Gimme my damned Coke already!
Arguably, however, one can see that the price may, indeed, go up when the temperature increases. It takes more electricity to cool drinks when it's hot. Also, since the box only holds so much, some guy has to drive his truck out to refill it when it's empty. When it's hot, he has to come out more often - more gas, labor, etc.
;)). You'd spend more $$$ cooling the box down than the drink would cost.
However, there is a lot of potential for abuse. If they overcharged more than real costs, it is the same type of money-grubbing attitude that drives opportunists to jack up the price of building materials after a hurricane comes through.
As far as hacking the sensor, it's all a matter of sensor placement to defeat the hack. It would take an awful lot of ice (or liquid nitrogen) to cool the sensor if it is inside the dispenser case (but outside the refrigerated container
The little guy just ain't getting it, is he?
(Hmm... wait, I remember something like this actually happening. Or did I dream it? Some fast food franchise. But it didn't have to be your fore head. Um... help?)
Shawn Poulsen (Fruan)
"On Slashdot, many obvious things are insightful." - Annonymous Coward, 2000/7/9
I think it won't work, but for a different reason. First of all, a soda is a simple product - there's not much involved in the decision making, and not much in the transaction.
When you add the complexity of raising the price from 50 cents o 62 cents depending on the weather, it becomes an irritant. This is the same factor that comes into play when you pick your long distance carrier - I hate figuring out when a call is expensive, when the special rate applies, etc., so I take a constant rate rather than spend synaptic cycles on this crap.
Now...coke is even cheaper than long distance, and it's a trivial product. If people used to inserting 50 cents stand there pushing the button and then realize it's now 63 cents, it will just irritate the fuck out of them and they'll avoid the unpredictable experience.
Nice idea in theory, but it won't work.
-- I'm not a freak show, I'm a mammal. --
Im sure they think this is a good idea over at the penny-pinching coke factory. But how will they like it when i kick a machine over and trach it because it wanted 5 dollard for a coke? *Side note: it gets to be 128 degrees farenhiet where i live, that would suck*
"A true friend stabs you in the front."
You know, this is not so much a bad thing as it is a good thing (if you're inventive, that is). Instead of paying full price for your cola, you could theoretically find the temperature sensor (which has to be more or less close to the outside of the machine, so it's not near the cooling unit, and on the front) and spray it with something like a compressed air can (freezing it if you do it right). Hey, the temp just dropped to 29F! Cheap cola for all!!!
------
Mr. Low Resolution
I'll pay the extra cash for Pepsi which doesn't much taste like arse.
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
- A.P.
--
"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Just carry a water bottle.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
If this ever happened (which I seriously doubt it would) you could just carry a small can of spray coolant with you. A 10 second squirt on the sensor and bingo! 10c coke :)
Silver
Okay, this is a really, really stupid idea.
If the machine has it's own temperature sensor, what's to stop someone from putting the machine in the shade, or blowing cold air (or liquid nitrogen) on the sensor.
On the other hand, if the machine is internet connected, and goes to a weather database to download what is supposed to be temperature information. . .
But in some areas, temperature varies by location, like in LA, you can drive 10 minutes and reach a higher elevation, or go behind some hills, and you're 10 degrees cooler.
Next thing you know, McDonalds will be charging $2 for a hamburger at 5pm, and $.50 after 8pm. Gee, this isn't any different from the electric company charging more for electricity just because it's Winter, or phone companies charging less for off-peak hours. Or Airlines charging more for, well, what appears to me to be collusion.
I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said "Information wants to be free".
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Chris
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
VP, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
You'd think a company like Coke, which has to be in touch with consumer desires, could do better than that.
We are exploring innovative technology and communication systems that can actually improve
product availability, promotional activity, and even offer consumers an interactive experience
when they purchase a soft drink from a vending machine.
Now, nothing there says that this would not involve price changes. After all, "improv[ing] product availability" could be accomplished by raising the prices in times of hot weather.
My guess is that they did decide to do this, but are backing off because they now understand the firestorm of protest it would inspire.
D
----
Good grief... Flash forward to two years from now. You walk up to a condom vending machine. It uses an infrared sensor to, ahem, measure the blood flow in your lower extremeties (more blood, more heat given off), then charges you ten bucks for a pack of trojans...
Folks, I don't think we want to head in this direction (pun not intended).
--
Oddly enough, on my campus, the Coke machine prices are the one vending machine price that hasn't changed. (Well, the cup-drop machines went up, but the canned dispensers are still at fifty cents per 12oz aluminum can--which is cheaper than I've seen it just about anywhere else, including some parts of town.
Even so, buying it by the 12 & 24 pack is >=50%cheaper, especially at the K-Mart where I get a 10% discount already. A classmate and I have worked a deal where we split the cost of a case, and I'll keep them in my fridge and bring them to class with me every day.
What I find interesting is how the article notes that this could lead to vending machine price wars, wherein they try to undercut the competition by selling cheaper. Given that for a lot of people, colas are highly substitutable anyway...this could be interesting.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Probably just those stupid CGI polar bears. :) Or maybe a sound booth like at the record store, only you can hear your favourite coke jingle while watching play a version of Quake featuring the CGI polar bears as target practice. Now that would be cool! Of course they'd have to run Linux...
:)
Now if only I had a Beowulf cluster of coke machines...
(Sorry had to be said
My journal has hot
Fortunately, I think that any corporation as large as Coca-Cola (and with the kind of competition they have) realizes that this would be nothing less than corporate suicide.
It would encourage the damage and vandalization of their vending machines, and it would encourage their competitors to advertise, "We don't raise our prices like the Other Guy does when it gets warm outside."
Oh well, I liked Pepsi's products better anyway. *grin* (Mountain Dew!)
... pour cold water on the machine until the
price goes back down.
I wonder if we could drag the machine outside on a winter day and get the coke for free?
With a bit of marketing savvy, they could have spun this to make it sound like the machines are lowering the price when the temperature goes down. Then I'll bet the tone of discussion here would have been quite different. There's already well-known model for changing drink prices over time to match demand. It's called happy hour, and because it's advertised like a discount (instead of "during Happy Hour, we don't gouge you quite as bad as we normally do") nobody complains.
I personally welcome the idea of temperature sensitive Coke machines. I'll wait till the dead of night, carry a 3 gallon (~12 L) jug full of ice and a shopping cart with me to the machine. Then I'll dump the ice all over the machine, empty all the Coke into the cart for $0.01 a can, and disappear into the night. I hope nobody reading this is a cop or an engineer from Coke; I guess I really should stop scheming out loud.
--
Win98 sux without these 1337 toolz !!
Yes. Your post should have been moderated up as "informative".
But... interactive experiences? That's a tad weird.
I could see, say, a coin-op low-capacity jukebox embedded in one, or perhaps a touch-screen-based feedback/survey system, but either are still a tad strange in my book.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Now, sure, at first this seems like a darned clever application of modern technology and capitalism. But it's actually a horrible mistake. To wit:
-Most car companies make you haggle to get your new automobile. People hate this; while there's a few who like to make deals, most people feel like they're getting ripped off. Saturn comes along and starts their big "no pressure, no haggle" thing. Consumers love it, Saturn gets market share and repeat buyers, other car companies have to think about changing their pricing structure.
-Airlines sell just about every seat in the plane for a different price. Everybody's sure that they're paying too much, and the entire internet travel industry springs up -- people are willing to spend hours on-line to find a cheaper fare, just because they think the airline pricing structures are out to get them.
Seems to me that, if you buy from a temperature-sensitive Coke machine, you'll always remember that 15-cent soda you got on January 3rd, and evey other can you buy it'll seem like Coke is ripping you off.
So people will try to save money, go to another machine (maybe one in an air-conditioned building) with a cheaper price. Or they'll just buy Pepsi, which has a price they can count on all the time. If they'll buy from Saturn or Priceline to save money, they'll sure do it for a soda they buy every single day.
Interactive experience... probably defined as rocking the machine violently in 100 degree heat while the machine says "please deposit correct change".....
--
"Before we can serve you with the nice cold (32 Degrees) Coke that you have already spent $5 for, we would like for you to take a 50 question survey" (Touch interface has 2 buttons "OK" and "Cancel" (Cancel is greyed out).
In most areas, raising the price by too much when it's hotter wouldn't work. Why? Because all someone would have to do would be walk a couple more feet and find another vending machine that doesn't do that. (I prefer those $.25 sodas they sell outside of grocery stores)
Unfortunatley, one large market where Coke has the monopoly is high schools and colleges. All they have to do is donate a scoreboard for the women's softball team and poof, they're the only ones selling soda on campus. When this happens, they can do whatever the hell they want to.. they COULD raise it to $20 even on cold days and since most students don't have that much time to run off of campus between classes (if they even can in the case of high schools) they either fork over the cash or suffer with the metallic tasting drinking fountain water.
People: This is gonna be a weird one. Yes, I could spout endlessly about the ridiculousness of real-time price gouging. But complaining about what is the obvious part--reverse engineering the why is where things get interesting.
Welcome to the new misshapen love child of greed and interactivity.
Coca Cola deigns itself an entertainment provider--this is cool and all, but I get the off feeling that they want to turn their coke machines into something you need to spend an extra thirty seconds standing in front of, doing something, anything as long as they get to inject their brand into progressively higher levels of conscious thought and thus more lasting mindshare.
There are strategists right now drooling over the possibilities of giving a dime off a coke in return for knowing who the Coca Cola BlowJob Woman Of The Month is, or whatever else somebody pays Coca Cola to inject into the national consciousness.
Advertising is starting to get very strange--its hardcore but the very successful funding of television combined with the progessively more desperate advances of Internet properties losing the patience of their Venture Capitalist Sugar Daddies is starting to put their whim at even more of a spotlight in American culture.
There are more than a small amount of irony in the fact that where religion wanes, a new breed of idolatry takes even greater relevance.
As I see it, American culture has created the all too peculiar Caged Idol, whose likeness, usage, and applications are tightly controlled under penalty of legal harassment. One truly has to stand back and appreciate the openness of religion--anyone is free to paint Jesus, or, with no small amount of irony, sculpt a likeness of Mao. Religion is no stranger to enforcement against those who would criticize(witness the furor over the recent New York art exhibit), but in general, religions that allow any imagery is pretty free regarding who may create it.
Entire swaths of society have abandoned religion, but they're no strangers to idols. As one of my friends observed, "Most people at this school find someone interesting if they have a new Abercrombie shirt on."
In a culture where idols are trotted out for selling everything from identities to shoes(or do I repeat myself?), the usage of variable pricing schemes is but a sign of a new level of integration between divergent aspects of American Culture: Idol Worship meets The Almighty Sale.
Temperature sensors are but a ruse--the real concept that Coca Cola wants to play with is the idea that the price of a Coke can change. For simplicity, they'll start out by giving you ten cents off if you slide your card--the knowledge that it was *you* who bought that coke is worth more than a dime. As time goes on, they'll unveil their hyperactive dispensers with LCD touch screen quizzes--remember the national consciousness injections? Those who are "in with Coke" get cheaper product. Those who don't pay more money, which is enough of a pain to force them to answer correctly.
Will this work? Possibly. Will it be degrading beyond all compare? Very possibly.
Comments?
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
...right here:
http://www.thecoca- colacompany.com/newsub.asp?NewsDate=10/28/99
Of note is the comment that they are going to provide "interactive experiences" at the coke machine. Any comments ??