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Pepsi vs Coke

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GumbysPizza

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Right now we have Coke in my store Pepsi has asked us to switch to them a few times. We keep putting it off but now I think I am ready to switch. Pepsi has offered us 500 black & white printed flyers every quarter and 25 cases of single serve (24 Per Case) product at no charge per quarter. They have also promised us 8 printed banners for specials per year. What else do you think we should ask for to make the switch?

The are a little higher in price then Coke on 2 Liters by a few cents, on 20 oz sodas by 11 cents and on cans they are pretty much even. Coke has told me that they can not provide us with anything because of cutbacks. We have even lost our salesperson, we now have to call in our orders every Wednesday.

What are your opinions?
 
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I think it really depends on how much of each item you go through every quarter. I don’t think I would switch for that offer, but most of my soda sales are from the fountain.
 
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here’s my insight as of today… i called up Pepsi because it’s been over a month since they called for an order, I ask what’s going on with not calling? response “we call on Monday for Tuesday delivery.”, my response “ok, and for the past month the answering machine says we are CLOSED ON MONDAYS… so why not call on Fridays like you always use to?” O, we will know.

Anyway, I then call my local Pepsi distributor to see who my “new” sales rep is. I haven’t had a sales rep in about 1 1/2 years since my last rep quit. I get a hold of the new rep and tell him that we have to discuss pricing because everything is so freakin high that I just go to Walmart and buy all my cans and 2L there… and use a food distributor to get my BIB’s. I tell him the prices I’m paying from everyone else and he basically told me to either deal with it or go to Coke because Corporate doesn’t really care about small operations like ours. (my small operation goes through about 6-10 BIB’s, 8 cs of 2L. and 14 cs. cans a week (as of my last count last week).

so YEAH, I’m going to call Coke and see if they give a darn about the “little folk”.
 
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i’d also like to throw in that we’ve had Pepsi for 3 years… and this is how they act… and whats even better, this is the only sales rep for the entire area… so yeah. whatever. freakin pi$$ me off
 
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I think cost or service from your supplier should have very little bearing on whose products you sell…Your customers will tell you what they prefer with their wallets…I myself am a Coke fan and if given the choice go to a restaurant that serves Coke…Sure you might be able to save some money by switching but if it reduces your sales are you farther ahead?..
 
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I bought my own cooler earlier this year and now sell both Pepsi and Coke. In my store Pepsi to Coke sales are 2 to 1. There are customers that would never buy soda, when there was only Pepsi, that will now buy Coke adding up to $6 to the ticket total. The point being some customers will buy either, some customers will only buy one or the other. By offering both I get more sales in total.

Both companies tried to get me to sign an exclusive contract so their product was the only one I could sell. Now I go to what ever store has the best sale to get my stock at about half of what either of them wanted me to pay.
 
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Well played Daddio, I’m switching to Coke because they have a local plant and Pepsi just closed their local plant. But, they’re both still Big Corp. to me. Anyone want to bottle some “Cola” for me?
 
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I had Pepsi to start about 2.5 years ago and we sold the same amont that we are selling now. We had a big football game up here FSU vs UF a few weeks ago and with the Thanksgiving holiday we placed our order and told Coke no one will be here until 3:00. My mananger was there at 2:30 they never showed up. He called them on Friday before the game and they told him there was nothing they could do. We called again on Saturday and again nothing they could do. I think the route guy finished early and came to our store saw it was closed and left disreguarding the 3:00 delivery time. So I called the plant supervisor on Monday and he said that the soda was delivered on Friday. I told him it didnt happen. I get I’ll check into it. He calls me back and says we were closed on Friday and they tried to deliver the soda. I told him I had to go to Walmart to get soda. He said I’m Sorry. So I told he we would be switching to Pepsi then he says “Because we missed a delivery your throwing us out?” So again I explained to him that we told the order taker to note that we could not accept the delivery before 3:00. I’m sure if FSU was out of soda someone would have been there in a snap. I told him I was an unhappy customer and what was he going to do about it. Three days later when he called me back he said he would replace all the soda I had to purchase at Walmart for free. In three years the only people that I have seen from Coke is my driver and the half dozen or so sales people that they have had come and go.

Pepsi comes out with the plant manager, sales supervisor, route supervisor and the guy that delivers and sets up the cooler. This year so far we have sold 884 cans, 3,666 2 liters and 4897 20 oz Coke products. With out any help from Coke.
 
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Pepsi in my area rocks. The president of the local bottler is a regular customer. Coke told me flat out that they weren’t interested in my business by not sending a sales guy until I opened a 200 seat flag ship store. Even after stopping the route driver when he was filling the machines next to my first shop didn’t generate a stop from the local sales rep.

Daddio mentions brand loyalty, but with drinks, I sometimes wonder how deep those brand loyalties go. As the economy worsens over the next 5 years, they are bound to be the first things to fall.
 
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When I actually spoke to the Coke Plant supervisor I asked why he didnt call me back for three days. His response was “I normally dont speak to customers!” Wow wish I could live comfortably, have all the nice things, take vacations and never have to speak to customers???
 
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I like Daddio’s approach. Coke and Pepsi have spent a fortune establishing their product names and there is a large percentage of people that will buy one but not the other. The area I am in Coke is king in sales, but according to the grocery stores pepsi provides much better service to their customers. The problem is the service or lack of service provided by coke or pepsi is not apparent to the consumer and therefore does not impact on their reputation, in fact, the opposite is true. If the coke cooler is broke, the store is looked upon negatively not coke.

With all due respect, if economic conditions get worse, I expect that will increase brand loyalty. If you have less discretionary cash, you will be less willing to spend it on something that does not excite you. For example, I was unemployed when cigarettes went over $2.00 a pack. In those days I smoked 2 packs a day. If I was going to pay that much for smokes, I was not going to accept a different brand, a box instead of the soft pack or 100’s instead of kings. I did not have much to spend, so if I was parting with cash I was getting what I wanted, not something close. I may be wrong, its just my perspective.

Rick
 
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I am a pepsi fan, I don’t drink coke products, but overall I think coke takes better care of their customers. Unless you’re a big corporation like Pizza Hut, pepsi doesn’t really give a rats hiney about you. In my experience.
 
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It is my belief that in most areas, your customers will be happy with either product. Coke may outsell pepsi but mountain dew sells better than cokes #2 brand. However if you are in one of the areas of the country where one product significatly outsells the other it might pay for you to jump on that bandwagon. If not, go with the one with the better price unless the service is so bad it dictates otherwise. I think customer service has gotten so bad with both of these companies that it is a friggin joke. We use pepsi but good luck talking to someone there. Also, they won’t mail statements anymore, you have to do online payment or try to figure out what you owe from your invoices and mail it in yourself. Can’t you email me a statement? No we dont do that. Cant you fax me a statement? Yes but it will take 3 or 4 days. Can you take back these 3 flat 2 liter bottles? No we only take back a whole case. What a joke their customer no-service is. Don’t these companies know how valuable our businesses could be for them especially if we give them an exclusive? Every week my store forces 1500 families to drink pepsi with their dinner or go without. How many coke drinkers would never consider buying pepsi but after getting pizza 3-4 times a month have really taken a liking to pepsi or dew and have started picking it at the c-store or at the grocery store. What retailers are actively switching customers over to coke or pepsi by giving an exclusive? And for this we get lousy service and ever increasing prices.
 
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Thanks for all the repsonses but I was wondering what you guys get from you soda vendors besides product that I can ask for before I switch. They have commited to free cases every quarter, banners (8) and 500 B&W Flyers.
 
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they will provide you with fountain machines and coolers, also… ask for a brix kit. it is a little tool kit for you to make sure your fountain machines are dispensing the proper ratio of syrup to carbonataed water. Trust me, if you’re dealing with Pepsi, you need one. Once I had pepsi come out for their scheduled maintenance. I was in the habit of “brixing” my machines once a week. A few days after pepsi had come and gone, I brixed my machine and discovered that five of eight dispensers were dispensing way too much syrup which is costly.
 
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