RS9 Why The Price Of Coke Didn't Change For 70 Years

This podcast is all about Coca Cola and how for 70 years they got away with selling their product for no more than 5 cents. Planet money talks about how this totally fights against the law of supply and demand on so many levels. It all started in 1886 when Coca Cola started selling their soda, they said from the beginning it was going to be sold everywhere at 5 cents apiece and they were going to do there best to keep it that way. This all came about when two lawyers came up to the company president asking him to use their bottles and the way he got rid of them was by telling them that he was going to sell Coca Cola at 5 cents forever. This stayed true for 70 years, which goes against all law of demand because all they were was breaking even at best. Something they did to help them out was called the ninth bottle objective and what it was is when someone went to go buy a coke, one out of nine times it would be empty which then forced people to put another nickel in to get a coke. This ultimately helped them out because it would come out to 7.5 cents for the ninth bottle.

I think it was a great thing what Coca Cola did back in the day for selling their product for just 5 cents for 70 years. I personally love soda and I would have lived during this time period when it was sold so cheap, it really helped them become a big name even in today’s world because of prior success and for how cheap they were selling it for. This is a prime example of an excellent marketing scheme to get their brand name out there for years. I also have no problem at all with the ninth bottle objective, yeah I would have to put in another nickel but for all the times I bought a soda for only 5 cents I wouldn't mind every once in a while having to pay 10 cents to get a soda.