• gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        You sure about that?

        Cylinders of the same volume will have the same area, so it should be the same amount of aluminum?

        Maybe less, even, since the lid and bottom are thicker than the sides and on the taller can there’s less of that thick top/bottom

        • Jorn@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Ignore things like the bevel, wall thickness, etc. Just calculating for a basic right cylinder, you can see how the surface area changes for different heights with a constant volume. I’ve outlined the standard dimensions of a can(inches). https://youtu.be/gL3HxBQyeg0

          • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 months ago

            I had a feeling it’d math out something like that if I opened my fat mouth, lol

            I do wonder if thickness of the walls or lid/bottom does have an effect, though, as there must be some reason they make these weird ass cans

            • Jorn@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              In the grand scheme of things, it’s not using much more. And if the prices are correct in OP, the markup on the new can is way higher than any extra cost they are incurring from additional raw materials. They probably had some marketing study show that a taller looking can makes consumer’s less angry about a price increase or some other crazy nonsense.

            • Wogi@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              The lid uses more aluminum than the rest of the can, making that smaller will have a bigger impact than the height of the can.

            • 404@lemmy.zip
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              9 months ago

              there must be some reason

              Just a marketing trick IIRC, since energy drinks got popular and beer cans got unpopular among gen z.

            • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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              9 months ago

              pretty sure it just lets them fit more cans into the same box for shipping, same logic as how you can pack more sand into a box than you can pebbles

          • daltotron@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I always thought that narrower pressure vessels could contain higher pressure, because the curvature is more severe, meaning that for a vessel that needs to retain a similar level of pressure, you could just use less material in the walls of the vessel. Is this not the case with these new cans, and they have the same wall thickness, or is the tradeoff just one that still works out to be in favor of more total aluminum usage?

            • Jorn@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              Force inside a cylinder vessel is just pressure times surface area. If you have the same pressure(soda carbonation) with more surface area, then you are putting less force on the walls. I don’t have any specialty in the materials engineering for canning, but i suppose less force on the walls means you could use thinner materials. However, soda can walls are already pretty thin to start with and from what I can find online, the tops are usually 2.5-3 times thicker. So, I could see it potentially cutting some cost from the tops by making them thinner but i doubt they are manufacturing different tops. It’s probably just marketing.

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          That can’t be true.

          Consider a cylinder cut in half, giving a circular cross section. Cover each new circular gap with new aluminum.

          Now you’ve enclosed the same volume in cylinders, with a different surface area.

          • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            9 months ago

            You also created 2 cylinders where once there was one, which is not what was being discussed. You even mention that you added material:

            Cover each new circular gap with new aluminum

            I could have said “2 cylinders of the same volume” but I felt context made that clear

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              9 months ago

              Yes I did say that I added material. That’s the point: you cannot do this transformation without adding material.

              But you’re saying this is only with two cylinders?

        • neptune@dmv.social
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          9 months ago

          The easiest way to imagine how cylinders have different surface area for a given volume, is imagine how closely a shape matches a sphere, it should have a lower surface area.

          Imagine a soda can with the width of one water molecule. The cross section of that can would be on the order of four aluminum atoms for that hair thin can. Then imagine a can that’s nearly a cube or a sphere and how all the liquid can be hiding behind other liquid atoms: hence fewer can atoms per liquid volume.

          Blood vessels have high surface area. A pint of blood has low.

        • kreekybonez@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          same size top/bottom for both; only difference is that the standard has a wider body bevel, and the sleek can goes nearly straight down. same lid on both cans, as well. not sure what it does for the scaled material cost, but since the lid is by far the most expensive part, it’s probably negligible, compared to the ability to inflate the price on a taller can.

          I can’t fully explain the trend, but ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages are a big hit for the industry, and even moreso when presented in the truly/high noon shape. maybe it’s a generational thing? I don’t get it, but I’m also not the target demographic.

          bonus fact: the conversion costs of filling sleek cans is pretty steep for most independent brewers, so craft beer will take a couple years to adapt, if ever.

  • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    …do people think the tall can is bigger? If anything, I’ve always assumed that they were smaller 🤷‍♂️

      • moistclump@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        In my highschool psych class we actually went to an elementary school and did this experiment with the kiddos. It was a while ago but if I recall correctly, 9/10 times they thought tall = bigger. I bet some people never grow out of that mindset or at least at first glance our less smart brain goes “tall is big!”

          • moistclump@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Oh for sure, it’s definitely a whole wing of the organization. People are the ones who spend money, so if you want more money, study and exploit the people who spend it.

    • mcmoor@bookwormstory.social
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      9 months ago

      Area is just hard to discern. Manipulating the radius a little bit will alter area quite significantly (because its quadratic) but you won’t be able to perceive it. By comparison, height is much easier to see. So you can decrease the radius a bit and add height some and you can fool people.

    • aulin@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Same. They look like the small 25 cl energy drink cans, so even if they’re still 33 cl, they look smaller.

  • fireweed@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    That’s a 2.24x price increase. That’s even beyond Argentina-hyperinflation levels of increase. Are we sure this is an apples-to-apples comparison? Like, was there a sale or bulk discount that made the shorter can relatively cheaper? I’m struggling to believe a retailer would engage in such a brazen markup in a single week. (Not to say it’s not possible, but it’s extreme enough that I’m not taking the word of some random hand-written graphic on the Internet.)

    • Sestren@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I mean… I’ll regularly go to the grocery store and see soda prices vary by 200-300% week-to-week. Sure, it’s all based around “sale” value, but it amounts to the same thing. If it’s $9 for 2 12-packs one week and then $11 for a 12-pack the next week, it isn’t an invalid markup because you had to buy 2 to get the first price.

    • Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’m more inclined to blame the manufacturer for the price increase (in this case Coke) as opposed to the retailer. Especially in this case, I kinda doubt a company as large as Coke would allow retailers to stray from the price they want by more that a few cents.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      It probably costs more to distribute the new can shape since our entire civilization’s can infrastructure is built around a standard can.

    • WetBeardHairs@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      It’s not an apples to apples comparison. This was a reddit post made by someone who went out of their way to buy things for different amounts to make ragebait.

      It’s a dumb post and it is safe to ignore it. Sadly someone reposted it here.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      9 months ago

      It’s not always an available option. If an ink maker deprecates old containers and starts selling smaller ones for almost the same price you can’t just buy something else if you need consistency. Coca-Cola probably thinks that you can’t just replace Coca-Cola®™© with substitutes and I know some people would agree

      • apprehentice@lemmy.enchanted.social
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        9 months ago

        Well, I meant within brands. Drug packages are the worst. I’ve seen two boxes of the same drug side by side and the smaller box had more tablets. That is to say, containers can be deceptive. Look at the volume and weight of the product.

        • lad@programming.dev
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          9 months ago

          Have yet to see those, but I met packaging for 1 (yes, one) capsule that was about half of a phone size, looked like the usual package for 20 something tablets. In this case it could be a matter of standard package though

          But then there’s Velaxin that was cheaper in 20×75mg pack then 20×32.5mg, and this I cannot understand ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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      9 months ago

      do other countries not have comparative price? here in sweden that’s listed right under the absolute price, e.g. a bottle of soda might cost 2 bucks and the comparative cost is 1.8$ per liter.

      my dad drives me mad because he utterly ignores that and instead manually tries to estimate the comparative price, it’s baffling

  • Zess@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Fuck corporations but I don’t believe this for a second. People are just making this shit up now. Some dude scribbles some prices on a piece of paper and this whole website loses its mind.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I was going to say… who the fuck was paying $1.06/can for Coke to begin with? Hell, I saw one of those 32oz Big Gulp cups selling for $4 less than a week ago.

      This all just looks made up and hysterical, because Americans cannot handle not having their sugary treats.

    • TokenBoomer@lemmy.worldOP
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      9 months ago

      This is testable. Go to the grocery store. Buy staple goods. Keep receipt. Buy the same products the next week.

  • vrek@programming.dev
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    9 months ago

    Several years ago mountain dew had the following prices

    20 oz - $2

    1 liter - $2

    2 liter - $2

    1.5 liter - $1

    It wasn’t a sale, they had these prices on several stores for over a year.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Honestly kinda based

      Soda costs pennies, the plastic container is the bulk of the cost, and not much changes in plastic quantity between container sizes

    • kevincox@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      These units hurt me. For others with the same pain 20 oz is a bit over 1/2 a liter

    • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.uk
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      9 months ago

      20oz are more expensive per volume because they sell faster. There’s less of a demand for larger sizes typically go flat too fast for people unless they’re having a party or something, and even in that case they don’t have the convenience of being able to drink from the bottle.

      • ChihuahuaOfDoom@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Do you leave your soda uncapped or something? I buy almost exclusively 2 liter bottles and they very rarely go flat on me. I’ll drink one over the course of about 4 days.

        • Plap plap 𓁑𓂸 @lemmyf.uk
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          9 months ago

          No. I never had any issues with larger soda bottles. I would usually buy the 1 or 1.5 liter bottles because they were usually the best deal.

          I did some sales work for one of the local soda distributors, and it was crazy how much better the 20oz bottles did in comparison to everything else.

          It was the same with energy drinks. Most people would buy single cans for $3 when they could get a 4 pack for $10 or a 12 pack for $20.

          We would usually just open the 12 packs at our accounts because the singles simply sold better.

      • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        When I was in college a gas station a block from me would do incredible deals on soda 12 packs abouth once a month. Like buy one get two free. We’d stock a full month’s worth every time and basically have a soda mountain for people to rummage through

    • Serinus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      A 12oz can was around $0.28 (when you buy a case). Today you’re lucky if you can pay $0.45.

      • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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        9 months ago

        I’ve had the best luck with Dollar General for affordable drinks. You have to wait for a decent sale and stock up though, and use coupons when available.

        For example: recently for Dr Pepper they had two 12-packs for $14, but you could buy three for $15 and there was a coupon for $2 off when buying three, making it $13 for three 12-packs. So you would pay a dollar less for 36 cans than you would for 24. Comes out to about $0.36 per can.

        • Duranie@literature.cafe
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          9 months ago

          You know how many smokers have/had their hard line on what price would make them quit smoking? For me (a 52yo woman) that was when pop breached $5.99 a 24 pack case. I would buy it again occasionally if sale prices dipped into that range, but having crossed that line it broke my habit. The thought of $7 for a 12 pack is just painful.

          • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, that’s fair. I haven’t stopped drinking it, but I’m reducing how much I drink as prices increase.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah, they’re happy to offer lower prices for people who are willing to climb barriers. It’s just a way of doing tiered pricing.

  • darn@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    if you’re buying coke in america, you should get the 12 packs at grocery stores instead. it’s anywhere between $5.99 to $8.99, which is less than a dollar per can

    • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      That’s fucking crazy. I stopped buying soda pre-covid, but I regularly got 4 12packs for $2.99 each up until at least 2019.

    • voxel@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      most people are getting cans like that in a pinch tho, if you want a lot of cola, regular 2 liter plastic bottles (or even better, 6-packs of 1.5/2l) are a much better deal

    • force@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Or get the 2L bottles, which are usually around the same price as the 500 mL bottles (for some reason).

          • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            IME, not only no, but they will yell at the housemate who does for putting it on too tight.

            • Gabu@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              It used to drive me mental when people would complain about how tight I’d screw the cap on. What do you even think the point of that thing is?!

          • the_artic_one@programming.dev
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            9 months ago

            Yes, it probably won’t be completely flat after half a liter but the fizzyness will be noticeably weaker and will only get worse the more you drink, especially if you don’t get to it soon. Two liters are ok if you’re sharing them with multiple people who will finish it right away or the next day but they suck for one person unless you drink a ridiculous amount of soda.

            • DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I think you’re just shaking it too much. If you are gentle to avoid losing the carbonation and put the cap on tight, it can last for days.

    • HeyJoe@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Not on sale? Where I am, I only see the $7 price when it’s on sale and you have to buy 3. So it’s 2 for $10 and get one free. Without that the normal price is about $10. The best sales that come around during big holidays only are buy 2 get 2 free, which brings it down to $5.

  • computerscientistI@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Maybe you want to have a cup of tea instead? Way more cheap and healthy. Or buy some off-brand soda. It is just as much garbage as coca cola but at least it’s cheap.

    • bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      The biggest absolute price decrease in the price of 2 liters of coca-cola was in 2015, when the price dropped by $-1.79, or -100%.

      Coke was free in 2015? Or is there a script filing is these paragraphs and it’s counting missed data points as zero?

    • Dabundis@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      One advantage of the tall narrow 12oz cans is they take up less horizontal space in the refrigerator

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      9 months ago

      Worked for Virginia Slims and other brands.

      Remember the connotation was slim cigarette, slim figure. I imagine the same psychological trick is at play with the slim can.

  • UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Soda is such a fucking profitable scam because it’s mostly water and that resource is mostly free. The syrup and carbonation should be pennies compared to what it actually sells for.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
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      Water is far from “mostly free”, especially at the amounts used by soda makers

      • WallEx@feddit.de
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        9 months ago

        Here in Germany they can extract millions of liters for a symbolic euro, that is basically free and also far from a third world country. Coke has enough power to get through with this.

      • 0xb@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Don’t know the situation in america so what you say may be true, but on some countries (developing ones where the power of the state is diminished) water is not free for everybody else, but multinational corporations get almost unlimited use concessions for their bottlers for a laughably low fee if any, drying out the area and sometimes literally leaving towns or regions with no public water left for other uses, forcing the people to have to pay for other sources. I don’t live in a place in that situation yet, but some other regions in my country are going exactly through that. In some cases, those beverages are for the american market.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          It probably not that cheap anywhere in the U.S., but on the other hand, they probably get enough tax breaks to make up for it.

  • MiDaBa@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    As long as I stay mad at “those damn libs” then companies can raise prices with impunity. If nobody boycotts these innocent companies then stock prices will be able to surge.

    Honestly though, I wish people understood that by blaming only inflation they’re effectively giving companies a blank check to keep raising prices. Sigh.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Y’all, remember this is sugar water and even at $1.06 there’s a significant profit margin.

    • GluWu@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Is not even sugar water, it’s corn tea with artificial flavors and colors.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Depends on the country. Corn syrup in everything is a distinctly American phenomenon

        • GluWu@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          If you look at the picture you might be able to tell where it was taken. There are some pretty good hints.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      Yeah, it certainly doesn’t seem like their production costs would increase much from inflation…

      • moody@lemmings.world
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        9 months ago

        They don’t increase from inflation. The price increase is inflation and I think it’s an important distinction to make.