Soft drink prices!

Post by BD
Has anyone noticed that the price of soft drinks in local restaurants has
been rising? I have ordered iced tea and diet pepsi and have been charged
from $2.00 - 2.50. The worst though is when I was with a friend who ordered
a diet pepsi. She was given a can and charged $3.00. I guess that it is
back to water for me. When we take our kids to dinner (4 of them) we could
add $12.00 to the bill just for beverages!

Yeah, I went out for some ice cream the other week with some friends,
and since service was taking forever we ordered some sodas. When we
got the bill it turned out those sodas cost us almost as much as the
ice cream itself! Not only that, but a friend showed up as we were
finishing our meal, the waitress brought refill and gave him a soda
and charged us an additional $2!

Back to water for me, too.

Tom W

2007-05-22 17:32:40 UTC

Keep in mind that restaurants will charge more for soft drinks (well, bar
drinks, too) to avoid raising food prices when their costs go up. People will
notice higher prices on the menu while ordering food and not pay attention to
drink prices until the bill arrives.

Tom W

Dave Devine

2007-05-23 04:29:00 UTC

Post by RacinReaver
Yeah, I went out for some ice cream the other week with some friends,
and since service was taking forever we ordered some sodas. When we
got the bill it turned out those sodas cost us almost as much as the
ice cream itself! Not only that, but a friend showed up as we were
finishing our meal, the waitress brought refill and gave him a soda
and charged us an additional $2!
Back to water for me, too.

How can anyone write "soda" in a Pittsburgh food newsgroup ; )?
Pop!

Dave

--
There's a fine line between stupid and clever.

Cheryl Greer

2007-05-23 11:27:30 UTC

Post by Dave Devine
How can anyone write "soda" in a Pittsburgh food newsgroup ; )?
Pop!

I'm a big advocate of returning to 1950's useage and saying
"sodapop", thus ending the schism forever! Peace in our time! :)

cheryl

--
"I've met the man in the street, and he's a cunt."
--Sid Vicious

RacinReaver

2007-05-24 17:28:47 UTC

Post by Dave Devine

How can anyone write "soda" in a Pittsburgh food newsgroup ; )?
Pop!
Dave
--
There's a fine line between stupid and clever.

Maybe I'm a troll in disguise. =p

Does anyone know why most restaurants seem to carry Coke products
instead of Pepsi ones? I'm a die hard Diet Pepsi drinker, but
whenever I go out and actually get a soda, I'm forced settle with diet
coke (or, as Kate mentioned, the possibility of foul water). As
someone that's not a huge fan of beer, it kills me they'll have 40
drinks in the back room, but I can't even get a glass of one of the
most common sodas out there. I wonder if they'd let me bring my own
soda...

-Scott

Tom W

2007-05-24 17:56:13 UTC

Post by RacinReaver
Does anyone know why most restaurants seem to carry Coke products
instead of Pepsi ones? I'm a die hard Diet Pepsi drinker, but
whenever I go out and actually get a soda, I'm forced settle with diet
coke (or, as Kate mentioned, the possibility of foul water). As
someone that's not a huge fan of beer, it kills me they'll have 40
drinks in the back room, but I can't even get a glass of one of the
most common sodas out there. I wonder if they'd let me bring my own
soda...

Two possible reasons: first, a restaurant will carry either Coke or Pepsi, but
not both. So Coke and Pepsi have marketing reps (or possibly distributors) who
work on signing up new restaurants as they open and try to sign over restaurants
from the competitor. If this is the case, Coke is doing a better job of marketing.

The second possibility is that enough people who express a strong opinion about
which cola they drink prefer Coke and they make that opinion known to
management. My experience in groups (I'm not a cola drinker) is that most people
don't care about the brand.

Tom W

Madelaine

2007-05-24 18:09:19 UTC

Two possible reasons: first, a restaurant will carry either Coke or
Pepsi, but not both. So Coke and Pepsi have marketing reps (or possibly
distributors) who work on signing up new restaurants as they open and
try to sign over restaurants from the competitor. If this is the case,
Coke is doing a better job of marketing.
The second possibility is that enough people who express a strong
opinion about which cola they drink prefer Coke and they make that
opinion known to management. My experience in groups (I'm not a cola
drinker) is that most people don't care about the brand.
Tom W

This whole thing is strange to me since I keep hearing that Pittsburgh
tends to be more of a Pepsi city. I prefer pepsi, but don't really care.
Madelaine

R. Fizek

2007-05-24 21:10:57 UTC

"most people don't care about brands"? who are you hanging out with - it's
almost worse than the Steelers vs the Bears!

Some places that have self serve are now actually starting to offer both
Coke and Pepsi in the same machine. Works for me.

Tamara

Post by Madelaine

Two possible reasons: first, a restaurant will carry either Coke or
Pepsi, but not both. So Coke and Pepsi have marketing reps (or possibly
distributors) who work on signing up new restaurants as they open and
try to sign over restaurants from the competitor. If this is the case,
Coke is doing a better job of marketing.
The second possibility is that enough people who express a strong
opinion about which cola they drink prefer Coke and they make that
opinion known to management. My experience in groups (I'm not a cola
drinker) is that most people don't care about the brand.
Tom W

This whole thing is strange to me since I keep hearing that Pittsburgh
tends to be more of a Pepsi city. I prefer pepsi, but don't really care.
Madelaine

RacinReaver

2007-05-25 21:35:55 UTC

Post by Madelaine

Two possible reasons: first, a restaurant will carry either Coke or
Pepsi, but not both. So Coke and Pepsi have marketing reps (or possibly
distributors) who work on signing up new restaurants as they open and
try to sign over restaurants from the competitor. If this is the case,
Coke is doing a better job of marketing.
The second possibility is that enough people who express a strong
opinion about which cola they drink prefer Coke and they make that
opinion known to management. My experience in groups (I'm not a cola
drinker) is that most people don't care about the brand.
Tom W

This whole thing is strange to me since I keep hearing that Pittsburgh
tends to be more of a Pepsi city. I prefer pepsi, but don't really care.
Madelaine

I guess it may actually be split and it's just that I tend to notice
it a lot more when I'm told that they only carry Coke products (or
perhaps it's the Pepsi restaurants where I wind up ordering water).
What's funny to me is that here on CMU all of the food services are
run by Aramark and they're all Coke except for one place (who,
unfortuantely, had rather poor food)!

Tamara, I think that's possibly the best thing to happen to sodas in
restaurants since free refills.

Kate, your telling a poor waitress to go next door and buy you a coke
reminds me of the time I was out at a Friendly's with my mom getting
some ice cream. She asked for a banana split (possibly her favorite
food) and the waitress told her they were out of bananas. She gave
the waitress a dollar and said to run to the supermarket next door and
buy one for her! Ever since then we always pack an extra banana with
us when we go out for ice cream.

Also, your comment about the mixing at the soda fountain is so true.
Possibly my favorite thing about this Outback Steakhouse near me back
east is how they mix their sodas absolutely perfectly. They're even
better than a fresh can of soda though I have no idea why.

-Scott

John Novicki

2007-05-29 17:28:30 UTC

Post by Madelaine

Two possible reasons: first, a restaurant will carry either Coke or
Pepsi, but not both. So Coke and Pepsi have marketing reps (or possibly
distributors) who work on signing up new restaurants as they open and
try to sign over restaurants from the competitor. If this is the case,
Coke is doing a better job of marketing.
The second possibility is that enough people who express a strong
opinion about which cola they drink prefer Coke and they make that
opinion known to management. My experience in groups (I'm not a cola
drinker) is that most people don't care about the brand.
Tom W

This whole thing is strange to me since I keep hearing that Pittsburgh
tends to be more of a Pepsi city. I prefer pepsi, but don't really care.
Madelaine

I guess it may actually be split and it's just that I tend to notice
it a lot more when I'm told that they only carry Coke products (or
perhaps it's the Pepsi restaurants where I wind up ordering water).
What's funny to me is that here on CMU all of the food services are
run by Aramark and they're all Coke except for one place (who,
unfortuantely, had rather poor food)!
Tamara, I think that's possibly the best thing to happen to sodas in
restaurants since free refills.
Kate, your telling a poor waitress to go next door and buy you a coke
reminds me of the time I was out at a Friendly's with my mom getting
some ice cream. She asked for a banana split (possibly her favorite
food) and the waitress told her they were out of bananas. She gave
the waitress a dollar and said to run to the supermarket next door and
buy one for her! Ever since then we always pack an extra banana with
us when we go out for ice cream.
Also, your comment about the mixing at the soda fountain is so true.
Possibly my favorite thing about this Outback Steakhouse near me back
east is how they mix their sodas absolutely perfectly. They're even
better than a fresh can of soda though I have no idea why.
-Scott

Where CMU is all Coke, Pitt is all Pepsi. Pepsi seems to be the norm
nowadays, IMO.

Kate Connally

2007-05-25 14:39:30 UTC

Post by Dave Devine

How can anyone write "soda" in a Pittsburgh food newsgroup ; )?
Pop!
Dave
--
There's a fine line between stupid and clever.

Maybe I'm a troll in disguise. =p
Does anyone know why most restaurants seem to carry Coke products
instead of Pepsi ones?

You must be a troll! Most restaurant carry Pepsi products,
not Coke. I know because I'm a die-hard Coke drinker and
I get really pissed when I can't get Coke. Sheesh!

And I know what the restaurants *say* is the reason.
I've talked to a number of managers over the years to
complain about there not being any Coke, and why was that?
I've been told that Pepsi is cheaper so they make more
money on it. And also, there's some kind of rule that
they can't have both if it's a fountain in use (as opposed
to selling it in bottles or cans). Also the cost and trouble
of maintaining 2 separate fountain systems. And Pepsi won't
let you use their fountain to dispense Coke and vice versa.

Post by RacinReaver
I'm a die hard Diet Pepsi drinker, but
whenever I go out and actually get a soda, I'm forced settle with diet
coke (or, as Kate mentioned, the possibility of foul water).

We must go to a completely different set of restaurants!!!
I recently (a year or two ago) had to quit going to Eat 'n
Park because they switched to Pepsi!!!! They had been a
Coke place as far back as I can remember - to the 1960's!!
I don't go there a lot but from time to time I get in the
mood for it. Now I have nowhere to go - hate Denny's, King's,
etc.

Post by RacinReaver
As someone that's not a huge fan of beer, it kills me they'll have 40
drinks in the back room, but I can't even get a glass of one of the
most common sodas out there. I wonder if they'd let me bring my own
soda...

That's what I'm determined to do some day. Also,
I often say, when asked what I'd like to drink,
say "Coke," and when they say they don't have any,
would I like Pepsi, instead, I say, "Hell, no! Could
you just run next door (or wherever close by you can
get a Coke) and get me one?" I know, I'm, truly evil.

So, I wonder if I bring my own Coke, will they charge
a corkage fee? Or maybe it should be called a "tabbage
fee". ;-)

Actually, I'd rather all restaurants switched to
canned sodas (pops, sodapops) because often the
stuff from the fountains has too much or too little
syrup and doesn't taste right. I'd much rather
have my Coke from a can and they could charge a lot
less for it!

Kate

--
Kate Connally
“If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.”
Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that smiles back,
Until you bite their heads off.”
What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all about?
mailto:***@pitt.edu

Kate Connally

2007-05-23 15:48:15 UTC