During my few months off from blogging a while back I had an idea for a series of blogs similar to the “Random poor quality photos from my cell phone.” This idea is to document the various soda pop machines that I run into. I thought of this one day while driving the kids to school. We take the same route each morning and one of the buildings that we pass has a pop machine out front. I began wondering what selection of drinks were offered and at what price. Before I ever got a chance to find out, the machine was removed for some reason and only those who worked there (and perhaps the person in charge of filling it up) know the answers. It is with that in mind that I embark on my documentation of The Pop Machines Of Howard County.
This is the Pepsi machine located where I work (1401 East Hoffer). A while back, we changed the service that provides the vending machines at my place of work and the price went from $1 for a 20 oz bottle to $1.25. I don’t think that I have purchased a drink at the higher price yet. Besides, I do have my new year’s resolution to think about.
This is the other machine at work offering the Coke products. It is also $1.25 per drink. There has to be a science behind the set pricing. You would think they would measure the price that is high enough to make the maximum profit per bottle versus the price that is low enough to entice you to buy a 2nd drink later. A long while back there were machines that sold drinks at $0.50 each and I would buy 2 a day since I had 2 quarters left over after the first one. There is something about not breaking a bill that makes another purchase OK in my mind. When they raised the price to $0.60 I only would buy 1 per day. Now if the profit per can is relatively small then adding 10 cents to the price might be a bigger profit with only 1 sold can. However, if the profit margin is high, adding a dime (and me purchasing 1 less per day) is actually less profit. I will expand upon this line of reason in later blog entries I am sure.
Jon
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