$3.00 for a glass of coke.... oh my

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

Is this the same soft drink I used to buy for 25 cents a bottle out of the Coke machine? Or bought for about the same price at Jerry's or Frisch's, where I could get a J-Boy or Big Boy, fries and a coke for under a buck, total?

Back when I was making $1.25 an hour as a construction laborer? Wow

Also consider the extras. We have an Ice Machine ( not cheap ) for our softdrinks and tea. CO2 is raising prices every year at a 7-8% increase each time. You can buy BIB coke at Sam's ( if you own your machine ) if not the nice people at your softdrink dist. will take great care of you, thats in your lease. Straws, Lemons, Kids cups, it seems to go on and on. I've seen a few places steer away from BIB products because of all this. I would however imagine that Thorntons, Mcdonalds and so forth makes pretty good money on their volume of softdrinks. Did I mention employees drink for free?

[Robin Garr]

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

Words to live by, Charles. But I just don't think we're dealing with evil here. We're dealing with local business people, many of them people we know and talk with in the forum and at offlines. You can buy a Coke from a machine cheaper than you can buy one at a restaurant. Same goes for a bottle of wine, a steak or a baked potato.

We're looking at the lower end of the food chain here with non-alcoholic beverages, and I just can't begrudge the entrepreneur a couple of bucks if a more pricey soft drink is the way he makes his financian nut.

Also, Annemarie said it wasn't important to name the place, but I think it would be helpful to know if it's a $3 Coke in a burger joint where the Coke is approaching the price of a meal ... or if it's in an upscale place where the Coke is in proportion to the meal. To me, it makes a difference.

Bottom line, though, I hear you guys, but you're taking a position that I wouldn't be comfortable taking. That is not said in judgement, it's just my opinion about the way I'd handle it.

Bottom line, though, I hear you guys, but you're taking a position that I wouldn't be comfortable taking. That is not said in judgement, it's just my opinion about the way I'd handle it.

Along the same line I would rather have them make a reasonable profit by every item instead of the present system. I certainly don't like being told that the reason for the price being so high on Coke, Tea, Coffee, Wine or whatever is astronomically high so they can operate with a profit. Why should drinkers of these beverages support the restaurant by paying 200%+ markup on their beverages while the markup on a given menu item may be only 5%? They should target making a reasonable profit on every item on the menu!

A wish-- that running a restaurant, and making our customers happy all the time was a bit more simple.....The great thing about soft drinks are that you really don't have to order them to go out to eat. As a person that hasn't drank a soft drink for 20 years, you definitely can live without , if you choose. As far as someone charging $3 for a coke, they may not be making "big bucks" at that. If you give refills without charging-- which most of us do-- after the 7 th or 8th refill any profit is pretty much gone about the 3rd refill. I'm amazed at how much carbonated beverage some people consume,,,you really have to be on the floor sometime to see to believe. Mark pointed out the CO2 increase, as well as all of the other costs involved w/ a soft drink--the chemicals needed for the dish machine, the huge amount of hot water to wash the glassware, paying the dishwasher, etc....
Profit margins & restaurants don't always go hand and hand----especially compared to other industries.
We have $2 pint nights on Mondays from 5-7 at Brownings ,,,, a much better deal than a $3 coke!

Robin,

My tongue was so firmly in my cheek with my faux Edmund Burke quote that I thought I was going to chew it off.

Charles

[Robin Garr]

Robin,

My tongue was so firmly in my cheek with my faux Edmund Burke quote that I thought I was going to chew it off.

Charles

Dang! We don't have an Edmund Burke smiley.

All this complaining about the price of coke reminds me that gas is over $3 a gallon
When will it stop !!!!

Seriously though, the cost of providing soft drinks is much higher than it appears on the surface (Ice machines, water filters, glassware/cups, labor, straws, water, gas for heating the water, sanitizer, etc). We constantly remind our employees (and ourselves) that NOTHING is free in the restaurant business. Even that "free" glass of ice water cost the restaurant cash. My rough estimate is that it cost most restaurants around fifteen to twenty five cents to provide a glass of water to the customer.

Sorry folks, but the ugly truth of the matter is that prices will keep going up

We have pretty much switched to water when we eat out...just because of the cost. We don't drink alcohol,except on rare occasions but at home I do keep plenty of Diet Pepsi on hand.
I am a bargain shopper , today I was able to purchase 6 12 packs of Diet Pepsi at a CVS for a net purchase price of 10 bucks...72 servings for just over the cost of 3 at 3 bucks each...for that difference I can drink soda at home and water out.

That is excessive! To be fair, maybe they had people getting an excessive number of free refills? I think I would rather pay one price for a glass and one free refill and then pay a little for more refills. Don't touch my free refills on tea though...I can go through like four of those!

We have pretty much switched to water when we eat out...just because of the cost. We don't drink alcohol,except on rare occasions but at home I do keep plenty of Diet Pepsi on hand.
I am a bargain shopper , today I was able to purchase 6 12 packs of Diet Pepsi at a CVS for a net purchase price of 10 bucks...72 servings for just over the cost of 3 at 3 bucks each...for that difference I can drink soda at home and water out.

Would buying packs of cans from CVS be cheaper for restaurants than the syrup?

Also, Annemarie said it wasn't important to name the place, but I think it would be helpful to know if it's a $3 Coke in a burger joint where the Coke is approaching the price of a meal ... or if it's in an upscale place where the Coke is in proportion to the meal. To me, it makes a difference

I agree, especially since I, and probably a lot of people, don't look up the price of the tea or soft drink that they are ordering. I paid I think $2.50 for root beer at BBC, but it's homemade, so good, and with refills!

I was recently at O'Hare Airport and had three hours to wait. My gate was directly opposite a bar/restaurant, so I thought I would have a beer. Couldn't afford any food, so I went up to the bar and asked for a Stella Artois on draft. After pouring it and showing my ID the server said that is $10.50. I said. "Are you insane?, I am not paying $10.50 for a glass of beer" and I walked out. Yes, I expected to pay more than normal, say $6 or $7 but that was just ridculous.

By the way, a bag of coke syrup costs around $90 it isn't cheap. We charge between $1.10 and $2.00 for a soft drink depending on the size. $3.00 is expensive, but I agree ,we need to know what sort of establishment it was. In my opinion, people should stop drinking soft drinks, they are sooooo bad for you.

It is a free country. If you don't like the prices a restaurant charges, guess what?

Don't go there!

As for "I don't drink water," so you're too picky for their free offering.

Really, as others have noted, restaurants run very thin margins. So thin that many go out of business because they're actually losing money. For the consumer, no big deal. You can stroll over to the next joint that will sell you cheap cokes. But it is kind of a pain to open and run a restaurant. So how about giving the owners and managers a break and let them determine the pricing as they see fit.

End rant.