Hey all,
With Pepsi and Coke prices skyrocketing, I want to change my fountain and bottles products over to someone else, like RC. There pricing is great but I wonder about the customers.
For any of you that have switched over to a off-brand company (not saying RC is off brand but you know what I mean), has there been any decrease in your soda sales, or maybe even your food sales?
Not the same thing entirely, but I have been going to the Blackhawk games for a really long time at the united center. They’ve always been a pepsi place, and always had my favorite drink in the whole universe, mt. dew. Well one day I went there as usual, and I noticed ALL the vendors turned over to Coke. And holy cow, was I p’ed off!!! I refuse to order any other drink or food cause of it. I think that was a really dumb idea on their part, they make a killing of charging those prices regardless who they get it from. Nobody else I know that goes is happy with it either. Very disappointing. So I do think that if you had something for so long, and the regulars come in and see you changed, they may be upset. Whats the saying, “watching penny’s while dollars fly out the door”.
The local pizza place here used to give away 2 litres of Coke product with pickup orders over $20.00…He switched to “Sams Choice” and his sales dropped…He was almost rude to folks that refused the free soda once he switched…When he gave me Fresca I was a happy camper…Now I just do not seem order as often…That, and the fact he has never bought anything from me…
I have to agree with the above posters. Don’t switch to save a few bucks. Goto Sams Club/BJs/Costco and pick it up yourself. Buy whatever you can’t get from your distributor. People only drink Coke/Pepsi. I used to carry Coca-Cola and dumped them for Pepsi. Alot of people were ticked off.
What are you paying for a case of 2Liters and 20oz or cans?
If I ever went into a restaurant and they were serving RC I would certainly know it was to save money…I would walk away wondering what else they switched to save a few bucks…and never return. Come on how much could you really save??? What about image???
I think people are willing to pay for soda. How much money can you really make off switching?
Kris
I buy all my soda at Sams club… And I carry it all 11 different varieties. Got my coke products on one side of the cooler, and my pepsi products on the other side and all the others brands at the bottom. People love the variety, which they’ve never seen before.
Have you increased your cup and bottle prices? My pepsi bibs went up 10 percent, so I increased my prices 10 percent. No one griped.
I agree with the previous posters that brand is very important. Even though I serve Pepsi and some people only like Coke, it’s an image thing. Anything different and people will portray it as “cheap”. Like Steveo has, I have Coke cans in my fridge to satisfy those hard-core Coke drinkers that won’t be satisfied with anything else.
For 10 years we have carried both Coke and Pepsi in cans for delivery. We dropped Coke about two months ago. Not a single complaint.
We started with a Coke fountain in our second location and switched to Pepsi after a couple of years. Sales went up due to the better selection of popular products.
Fanatic’s comments are right. Raise your prices if you need to. Everything out there has gotten more expensive in the last year or so.
Heres the pricing breakdown:
From Pepsi:
BIB 5 gal $69
2L. $1.09
Can $.31
Note, when I recieve products from Pepsi, the 2L and Cans only have a 1.5 Mo. shelf life left on them. Do I complain? Yes, does it do anything? No.
From Walmart:
2L. $.99 when on sale, otherwise $1.29
Can $.21 when on sale, otherwise $.33
RC:
BIB 5 gal $43
2L. $.48
Can $.16
Shop coke, see if they are buying custmers right now.
I have a great deal with pepsi, with rebates & marketing money but my rep said they aren’t doing it with new custmers now cause of the economy.He also said coke is spending alot of money to get pepsi custmers to switch if you do any volume. I think r/c is ok in a bar but i think in a pizzeria people expect coke or pepsi.If you go with r/c are you going to lower your prices cause people know its a cheaper product.I would check with coke or raise my prices and not look back.
Retail pepsi Prices
2lt 2.59
20oz bottle 1.87
16 oz cup 1.79
20 oz cup 1.89
32 oz cup 2.09
dining room 2.59 20 oz.
$1.09 for a 2L from pepsi? Where are you located and who is your rep? I currently pay $1.375 for my 2 Liters from Pepsi. 5g BIB is 50.20 and my 20oz bottles are $21 for 24 bottles.
.23 - .25 / can at Sams Club AND its tax exempt.
after 25+yrs with Coke we are switching to Pepsi…I myself prefer Coke over Pepsi but the prices are so much higher it does not make sense. I am getting a check for $5,000 for the change and I will save $10 per 5GL BIB after my rebate. 2 Liters are about $0.50 cheaper per case after rebate. 20oz $16.45 after rebate
I honestly do not think it will make much of a difference with regard to sales although my margins should be better
:shock: What?
I got the same thing when I switched from Pepsi to Coke 
With a DELCO I doubt you’d see that kind of incentive to switch. Doing mainly dine-in, we go through a whole lot of BIB’s.
I got the same thing when I switched from Pepsi to Coke
With a DELCO I doubt you’d see that kind of incentive to switch. Doing mainly dine-in, we go through a whole lot of BIB’s
for those who got significant montary incentives to switch beverage suppliers, what percentage of your annual beverage purchases did this incentives equal?
I was thinking about this discussion last night as I changed the Dr Wells BIB.
We have 2 different locations and since they are in different territories we have 2 different pepsi suppliers. Location 1 is allowed to sell Dr. Pepper and has for years. The past 2 years we have just brought dr pepper to location 2 and after much fight from that distributor they said we had to take it off the lines and replace it with Dr Wells, their version of Dr Pepper. Dr Pepper in our area is probably the 2nd most popular drink we used to go through a 5 gal bib each week. Now that we have Dr wells we are lucky to go through a 3 gallon bib every 2 weeks. Don’t switch to an off brand, people just won’t accept it.
As for your pricing, call both pepsi and coke NEGOTIATE and get the best deal
After our mishap with dr pepper we looked into coke. They came in with a ridiculous bid compared to the deal we get with our 1st pepsi supplier. We get all kinds of promotional stuff, a dollar rebate for each case or BIB we buy and an allowance for advertising. Coke on the other hand offered us higher prices until december and we had to have a 5 year contract, no promotional stuff, no rebates just a guarantee our prices would increase every year. The rep is “seeing what she can do” Shop around and negotiate.
Kris
I got $5000.00 the first year & $3000 for the next 4 years, when I went from coke to pepsi. If you do some volume I would check coke out.Pepsi northeast is laying guys off right now & I know they don’t have alot of money to buy customers. They are going around and taking machines out of mom & pop places that don’t order alot to make the routes smaller to save money.You might want to stick it out with pepsi & what till the middle of next year to see how the soda companies are making out,might be more money in it for you later.
What, is the $3,000 for the next 4 yrs a rebate check or just incentive to switch. I am getting the $5K as soon as the switch is made but wondering if I should try for more
Thanks!
They offered me $15000.00 over five years to switch, I was able to get them to give me $5000.00 the first year because I had to change my take-out & dine-in menus. I also do a rebate per gallon. IIf you can’t get more money out of them, get product free. 1st order , 1st months orders up to some dollar amount.I do alot of volume in bib so that helps with the deals.What