So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Fading Fast]

As most on this forum know, the impetus for down-to-the-minute / second accuracy and time zones was the aborning continental train system. Without accurate and standardized time, that system can't run well.

Before that, time was more of a local thing with noon being when the sun was overhead in your region and, from what I've read, very few obsessed about minute accuracy. Also, as Lizzie pointed out, the "technology" of the day was susceptible to the vagaries of temperature and humidity.

All that said, I own several watches form the '20s - '50s and all but one of them has their own personality - runs fast, slow, gets a bit sticky on humid days, etc. - but one is almost as accurate as my smartphone and I haven't serviced him in many years. As they say in parts of this city: "Go figyah."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Damn. Some days ago, there was a documentary about environment and fauna on a european TV-channel, maybe arte or similar, and a professor or kind of that, accompanied to his institute, was interviewed. As He was shown walking to his institute and it was wintertime, He was clothed like one of us here, looking fantastic, like an old-fashion sharp asian gangster of 30's/40's.

I did what I can, but can't find out about the TV-documentary and the name of this professor. I will try further.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Pokéstops:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon_Go#/media/Fileokestop_bern_5.jpg

+

+

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The fact that a 12 pack of soda costs $3 or $4 depending on brand & if there is a sale but a 2-liter is only 79¢.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Soft drinks are one of the most profitable products in the world for a reason -- the cost of the ingredients and manufacturing is negligible. A five gallon container of syrup which wholesales for about $45 can be used to make 320 twelve-ounce servings of the finished product. If you pay as little as 33 cents a can in a pack of twelve, you're still paying more than twice the raw cost of the drink. Even when adding in the cost of packaging, distribution, and advertising there's still a healthy profit left.

Fountain drinks are even more profitable than packaged -- so much so that they are by far the most profitable item sold at restaurants and entertainment venues.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Soft drinks are one of the most profitable products in the world for a reason -- the cost of the ingredients and manufacturing is negligible. A five gallon container of syrup which wholesales for about $45 can be used to make 320 twelve-ounce servings of the finished product. If you pay as little as 33 cents a can in a pack of twelve, you're still paying more than twice the raw cost of the drink. Even when adding in the cost of packaging, distribution, and advertising there's still a healthy profit left.

Fountain drinks are even more profitable than packaged -- so much so that they are by far the most profitable item sold at restaurants and entertainment venues.

Having never smoked, having given up alcohol over two decades ago, and having been faithful to the same woman for over three, drinking soda pop is one of my few remaining vices.* I get the lecture about it dissolving the calcium in my bones about once a fortnight, and I substitute unsweetened ice tea and lemonade regularly. But as I see it, the varieties out there are a lot like the various labels of beer: there are the mass produced brands, and there are the microbrew/ gourmet brands. My favorite soft drink is ginger beer: spicier and richer than common ginger ale, and sad to say, pricier as well. I have to wonder if the profit margin is as great as it is for Coke and Pepsi products.

*Leather and shearling flight jackets, quality men's hats, steak, and prime rib are not vices. If anyone is keeping score.

 

[Touchofevil]

*Leather and shearling flight jackets, quality men's hats, steak, and prime rib are not vices. If anyone is keeping score.

I believe that filet mignon and bacon fits in there as well.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Hm, I looked at the profile-rubber of my beloved 2008's walking-boots and saw, that they finally begin to abrade. But I guess, they will make it still the next half year.

It's the thing, when you got such shoes since eight years and they are a kind of part of your family. Ok, if I had worn them permanently from the beginning in 2008, they would have last probably maximum until 2011.
I worn them permanently since December 2014, but overall they are still very great and robust!

Luckily, these massmarket- and very lightweighted walking-boots with integrated PU-damping soles are still produced unchanged and the prices are still below 100 Euro. So, it would be no problem, to get the next pair of them.

The curious thing about such walking-boots is, that they are mostly costing less than regular street-halfshoes!

 

[Fading Fast]

The fact that a 12 pack of soda costs $3 or $4 depending on brand & if there is a sale but a 2-liter is only 79¢.

Years ago, I converted my soda habit to conform with the 2 Liter price advantage. Even in stupidly expensive NYC, I can regularly find a 2 Liter bottle for $1 (never 79 cents). It took a bit of adjustment and is a bit of a pain, as I love just grabbing a portion-size can or bottle, drinking it and moving on - now it's get a glass, drink, wash and dry a glass (sounds silly, but it's a bit annoying). However, over the course of a year - it's several hundred dollars in savings.

I imputed from the soda pricing model what Lizzie just told us - it's clear that packaging is a larger part of the cost than the actual product itself as, even on sale, they are trying to drive you to the least-package-per-product option.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I remember german TV, american kids-animation series. Decades ago, there seemed to be an immense marketing on soda-water? Got it something to do with anti-alcoholism or so??

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's another fact to chew on. Coca-Cola Concentrate, which is the only part of a Coke actually manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company, has a manufacturing cost of about 1 cent per 200 servings. It's one of the few products in the world that's essentially pure profit, which is why Coke is the most successful consumer product the world has ever known. The Coca-Cola business model puts all the cost of marketing, packaging, and distribution on a network of regional bottlers, not the home company. Atlanta just sits back, sells concentrate -- most of it manufactured under a tax-shelter arrangement in Ireland -- and waits for the billions to roll in.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@LizzieMaine

And painkiller-pills. I remember 1 german penny manufacturing-costs per pill/tablet.

 

[Harp]

... steak, and prime rib are not vices. If anyone is keeping score.

The Chop House on Ontario, baked potato with a bottle of Bordeaux.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's another fact to chew on. Coca-Cola Concentrate, which is the only part of a Coke actually manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company, has a manufacturing cost of about 1 cent per 200 servings. It's one of the few products in the world that's essentially pure profit, which is why Coke is the most successful consumer product the world has ever known. The Coca-Cola business model puts all the cost of marketing, packaging, and distribution on a network of regional bottlers, not the home company. Atlanta just sits back, sells concentrate -- most of it manufactured under a tax-shelter arrangement in Ireland -- and waits for the billions to roll in.

Notwithstanding the Ireland tax arrangement (I'd need to understand that more to have an opinion), I have no issue with a successful business that, if my memory is correct, chose to sell off the more cost-intensive distribution and bottling business (assuming the sale was transparent and legal) and just focus on the insanely high-margin business of making the concentrate.

I like coke / somebody sells coke / they make money because I (and many people) like it - I don't see a problem. I'd love to own a part of something that is that profitable. In fact, for about $45 (the price of one share of Coke), I and almost anyone else could own Coke.

 

[Trenchfriend]

In glass-bottles the great original stuff, in plastic-bottles the crappy concentrated brown toiletwater-syrup, right??

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Here's something else: modern receipts that print on heat sensitive paper &will eventually fade. I'd you need to keep a receipt for any reason you have to either photo copy it or scan it into a computer. Then the issue of the store only accepting original receipts comes into play.

 

[Fading Fast]

Here's something else: modern receipts that print on heat sensitive paper &will eventually fade. I'd you need to keep a receipt for any reason you have to either photo copy it or scan it into a computer. Then the issue of the store only accepting original receipts comes into play.

I used to be a pay with cash only guy, but now I use my credit card everywhere I can (and pay it off each month) as I want the proof. And unless the physical receipt holds some specific information, I don't care what the store policy is about "original receipts," if the item is clearly theirs, clearly not used (in returnable condition) and I have electronic proof of my purchase - I'm getting a refund.

After hearing the "physical receipt only" nonsense (and from a local hardware store I regularly frequent), I - no exaggeration - told the manager (yup, they had to bring him out from his exalted status 'in the back') that "I, too, have a policy and my policy is to use electronic receipts only - so come up with something else - or please give me my refund: You took payment on a credit card, here's proof of that (I had printed it out from the credit card site and had it up on my phone app), so again, unless you have another reason, start crediting." I have only so much patience with banal disingenuousness intended to wear you down.

Edit add: I was nice and polite throughout, but definitely ramped up the firmness when the manager came out in "push-back" mode from the start.

 

[ChrisB]

Here's another fact to chew on. Coca-Cola Concentrate, which is the only part of a Coke actually manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company, has a manufacturing cost of about 1 cent per 200 servings.

The most costly part of producing a soft drink is the sterilization of the container, followed by the cost of the container itself. The actual beverage is a nearly negligible part of the final price. Even more so when you are talking about bottled water.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I used to be a pay with cash only guy, but now I use my credit card everywhere I can (and pay it off each month) as I want the proof. And unless the physical receipt holds some specific information, I don't care what the store policy is about "original receipts," if the item is clearly theirs, clearly not used (in returnable condition) and I have electronic proof of my purchase - I'm getting a refund.

After hearing the "physical receipt only" nonsense (and from a local hardware store I regularly frequent), I - no exaggeration - told the manager (yup, they had to bring him out from his exalted status 'in the back') that "I, too, have a policy and my policy is to use electronic receipts only - so come up with something else - or please give me my refund: You took payment on a credit card, here's proof of that (I had printed it out from the credit card site and had it up on my phone app), so again, unless you have another reason, start crediting." I have only so much patience with banal disingenuousness intended to wear you down.

Edit add: I was nice and polite throughout, but definitely ramped up the firmness when the manager came out in "push-back" mode from the start.

Did you get your refund?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Notwithstanding the Ireland tax arrangement (I'd need to understand that more to have an opinion), I have no issue with a successful business that, if my memory is correct, chose to sell off the more cost-intensive distribution and bottling business (assuming the sale was transparent and legal) and just focus on the insanely high-margin business of making the concentrate.

I like coke / somebody sells coke / they make money because I (and many people) like it - I don't see a problem. I'd love to own a part of something that is that profitable. In fact, for about $45 (the price of one share of Coke), I and almost anyone else could own Coke.

The funny thing with the bottling setup and Coke was that Asa Candler, the Atlanta patent-medicine impresario who acquired the original formula and marketing rights from the estate of its inventor, Dr. Pemberton, in a series of shady maneuvers, had no interest whatever in bottling the product. He felt that fountain Coke was the only acceptable kind, and that bottling it produced an inferior product. He ended up literally giving away the bottling rights to most of the country to a pair of operators named Thomas and Whitehead shortly after the turn of the century, and they, in turn, ended up subfrancising those rights city-to-city and made a fortune without ever bottling a single drop of soda themselves, or even making any kind of an initial investment.

Author Mark Pendergrast delves into a lot of the corporate machinations at Coke in his book "For God, Country, and Coca-Cola," one of the best biographies of a company ever written.