Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: restrictions on coke bag in a box

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Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-08-2008, 12:44 AM:

we currently use coke pre mix, the metal canisters, and want to change to bib. our sales person says that coke has a restriction on bib. they are saying that we aren't doing enough volume to get it. anyone here deal with coke and do you know if there is a restriction or is our sales person just trying to keep their commission up. canisters are more expensive than bib. the margins on bib are much better though.

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 02-08-2008, 02:00 AM:

Is Coke currently supplying your equipment for free or at a reduced rate(based on volume) as long your serving their products or do you own the equipment? If you're currently leasing the equipment there very well may be a volume threshhold to warrant them sending techs out to do the conversion to BIB. I would imagine that if you were offering to out right buy the equipment they wouldn't be imposing a volume threshhold.

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-08-2008, 02:53 AM:

We are getting the equipment for free as long as we use their product. The pre mix is just to slow and we are loosing customers at the stand because of it. We have to wait for foam to settle, mostly on diet. Their solution is to switch to 20oz bottles which have even worse margins.

Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 02-08-2008, 05:49 AM:

Sounds like its time to call Pepsi, or at least threaten to do that. Its been posted on these forums in the past that service from Pepsi is not the best-I can't confirm that myself. The mere threat of dropping coke might be enough to get them to play ball with you though.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 02-08-2008, 09:42 AM:

Yeah, Definatetly call pepsi, and then call coke right after and say that pepsi offered to install a post-mix system and also give you this and that and the other thing. Coke should jump to give you a better offer than pepsi. Thats the old trick whenever you want a new sign, or menuboard. I persoanlly know of a very very small and slow theatre that got pepsi to build a marqee for them out in thier parking lot. It's worth a shot!

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-08-2008, 09:43 AM:

You may not have to deal with Coke or Pepsi directly. If there is an independent soda fountain supplier in your area check with them.
The independents usually have products from one or more of the name brands as well as generic brands. Service to smaller customers is often much better than Pepsi or Coke are willing to give, they only seem to be interested is the largest customers. After Coke became indifferent about service we switched to an independent company called Sodibar about 15 years ago and have received excellent service and a better deal on the equipment.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-08-2008, 10:01 AM:

quote: Scott McGuire
they are saying that we aren't doing enough volume to get it.

That doesn't make sense...as long as you're buying product from them they should sell it to you however you want. The conversion is no big deal.

In our region, Pepsi was EAGER to convert us over to the BIB system. I don't know of anyone around here who's still using the cans.

In this part of the country Pepsi gives FAR better service than Coke. In fact right now we are doing a lobby remodel - we had to remove our Pepsi machine yesterday and reinstall it today after replacing a cabinet. Pepsi sent a two-man crew on a 200 mile round trip each day to take care of us.

It's a pretty regional thing, so your mileage may vary.

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 02-08-2008, 10:41 AM:

You can buy the Coke Bag-In-The-Box products at Sam's Club. No minimums or maximums. Just purchase what you need. And since I am not a volume user the price is a couple of dollars per box cheaper than I can get it directly from Coca-Cola.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-08-2008, 11:09 AM:

If your equipment is being provided by the supplier at no cost or on a lease, it won't take them long to realize you're buying from Sam's instead of them and they will pull the equipment.

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 02-08-2008, 12:11 PM:

I don't buy my Coke from Coke... I get it from my foodservice supplier. What should Coke care (and they don't)? It's still their syrup. Been doing it this way for over 10 years, and had my equipment changed out while I was getting it this way.

The impression I get is that the soft drink companies don't look too carefully at volume, unless you're McDonalds or Burger King. Those are customers that would get your attention.

My speculative bet? Scott might be getting his syrup from a local bottler, rather than Coke USA. The bottler's trying to use up their inventory, or has other customers around to prop up their rationale for keeping pre-mix around. I'd be surprised to hear that the national fountain division really cares one way or another.

Posted by Roger Summars (Member # 4494) on 02-08-2008, 12:18 PM:

quote: Jonathan M. Crist
You can buy the Coke Bag-In-The-Box products at Sam's Club. No minimums or maximums. Just purchase what you need. And since I am not a volume user the price is a couple of dollars per box cheaper than I can get it directly from Coca-Cola.

Coke and Pepsi both refused to return our calls, no matter how high up the management chain you went. Fortunately, we had an old 6-place post-mix machine laying around that Coke had failed to pick up, even after we called them and told them we set it out at the curb for the trash man to haul off (they almost came un-glued at that idea). Luckily, there are independent companies buying and re-building these great machines, and some of them sell complete refurbished systems that are truly "plug-and-play", and come with some kind of "Soda Dispensing for Dummies" book. I have seen one of these, and they can be put in by anyone with minimal mechanical aptitude.

If I had to do it again, I would still go with the same used machine. We learned to change our own pumps, which cost almost nothing on ebay, and we keep several around as spare. You can change a pump in less than a minute with nothing but a small screwdriver or an ice pick or a pocket knife or an ink pen. Our concession girls keep the dispensers clean, and we buy syrup on an as-needed basis from a local distributor for almost the same price as Sam's.

And we aren't locked-in to selling just Coke or Pepsi products.

Roger

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 02-08-2008, 02:26 PM:

At my theatre, we use the Coke BIB's and the post-mix system. As far as how Coke treats us, I'm only going to guess that it is a good working relationship. We go through tons of Coke and Diet Coke syrups more so than Sprite, Mr Pibb, Minute Maid Lemonade Light and the Coca-Cola Icee's.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-08-2008, 02:40 PM:

quote: Roger Summars
Coke and Pepsi both refused to return our calls, no matter how high up the management chain you went.

Wow, that's amazing.

I should have clarified that we work with a local bottler, not Pepsi national. They bend over backwards to take care of their accounts. In fact the sales rep lives here in town -- the warehouse is in Hardin, 80 miles away -- and he has hauled film for us to the Hardin theatre more than once!

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 02-08-2008, 03:08 PM:

That's probably where the real variables are, Mike. Over here, the national people are MUCH more responsive than the locals.

Posted by Brad Allen (Member # 470) on 02-08-2008, 03:39 PM:

Pepsi all the way, Coke in my experience has been like trying to deal with the devil.
Pepsi has always treated us great, did anything with in reason ever asked of them.
Service? How's on average arrive in less than an hour or less even if it's 8pm on Saturday night when we call.
They've never charged me a dime for equipment or service.

Pre-mix is hard to make any money on, and simply not a viable solution for the fast service times we need.

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-08-2008, 11:47 PM:

We did try the Pepsi card and are still waiting on a call beck from Pepsi. Their service here sucks. Coke didn't seem to flinch when we told them we were talking to pepsi. The city we are in is a Pepsi town with only 2 other places using coke. Seems to me that they should let us have the product we want. Getting the product from sam's club is an option, we just need to buy the equipment. Any ideas on where we can buy that at a reasonable price?

Posted by Jonathan M. Crist (Member # 413) on 02-09-2008, 02:49 AM:

That sort of soda dispensing equipment is sold on Ebay all the time. Make sure whatever you buy is all fast flow nozzles.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 02-09-2008, 09:47 AM:

I would keep going up the chain of command at your coke dealer and if they are still unresponsive call the coke (the national distributor) directly, or if you are already using them try a regional coke dealer.

Posted by Dennis Udovich (Member # 1066) on 02-09-2008, 01:45 PM:

While I personally prefer Coke to drink, Marcus Theatres has had a national contract with Pepsi since 1990. My local area Pepsi supplier is GREAT! Never got any good service from Coke. I always had to re-order product from Coke and wait 3 or 4 days for delivery. Service was terrible! My Pepsi driver checks each Monday what I need and delivers on Tuesday. I just tell him to increase or decrease during the busy and slow times. Pepsi service is great 24/7. I've always been taken care of within a few hours, sometimes within 30 minutes. Of course, Coke or Pepsi service will vary from city to city and state to state.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 02-09-2008, 04:02 PM:

This does seem to be regional. Prior to becoming a Marcus theatre, we served Coke. We bought our Coke drop-ins and now that we serve Pepsi, Coke still provides us with small parts free of charge. We always had fast, friendly service from Coke, however we were completely out of our FCB from Pepsi over Christmas and New Years. I was not happy. Granted they aren't Pepsi machines, but during the transition, when Pepsi recalibrated them for their product, they were way, way off. I fixed it myself, as I still had a ratio cup from Coke.

Posted by Paul Van Dusen (Member # 3640) on 02-10-2008, 03:19 AM:

It's funny, I just had my first horrible experience with coke the other day. I recently took over a theatre in Lynchburg, VA. Well had ran completely our of Dasani, so I called up the sales rep. He was extremely rude and told me I had to wait until friday to place the order, as that was the scheduled order time. I politely explained to him that i'm out of his product and i'm expecting a busy weekend, and wanted to be supplied ASAP. He actually told me no. He said you'll order on friday and the delivery will be monday. Unfortunately there's not much I can do as i'm at a carmike and have to order with who they tell me to. It just seems dumb to me that i'm willing to bend over backwards to get their product in stock before a big weekend, and they don't care. I literally hung up the phone and said what the fuck.

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-10-2008, 08:09 AM:

Chain theatres...you're trapped. Others? don't threaten, just make the change.....remember, YOU control the contract. Don't be afraid to add or delete ANYTHING! Sky's the limit. Louis

Posted by Adam Holland (Member # 4539) on 02-10-2008, 05:30 PM:

In Northeast Louisiana several people have gone to getting their Coke Product from ICEE. They have the equipment that they send out on loan as well. Also their service is alot better for the smaller customers than Coke is. In Northeast Louisiana, Coke is King, so a swap to Pepsi would be out of the question so dealing with Pepsi is the next best thing as you can still sell Coca-Cola. Coke was frist put into a bottle just across the river in Jackson, La. and the Bedienhorn family that did that was also the orginal stock holders in Delta Airlines.

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 02-10-2008, 06:43 PM:

All the problems with Coke is the reason we don't buy from them, they're assholes. Sodibar makes a regular resupply stop every Monday and if we run low or run out in between they will bring more within 24 hrs. or less with a phone call. The rent on the equipment is very low and CO2 is $2.75 per cylinder. Product is cheaper than from Coke too.

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-22-2008, 12:26 AM:

We just bought a machine and are leaving our local coke company as they would not do anything for us. I also found out that we can buy bib cheaper from Sam's Club and Sysco. Not sure of the brand that we bought but we have to hook it up ourseleves, any one have any info on how to do this?

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 02-22-2008, 09:29 AM:

Just about everything you need to know is here:
http://www.boneville.net/soda/

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-23-2008, 12:56 AM:

Great site thanks for all the help.

Posted by Cody Martin (Member # 2523) on 02-23-2008, 08:50 AM:

Scott,

Just sent an e-mail with some tips and an installation manual. I'm going to be going through this entrire process again very soon..timme for a refresher!

Hope this help,
Cody

Posted by Blake Zaugg (Member # 1455) on 02-23-2008, 10:48 AM:

Be sure to check with your Coke rep for marketing money and rebates.
If you run Coke trivia slides OR trailers every 6 months you can submit a report of your attendance and you can can get x number of $$ fore every 1000 customers to be used for marketing. The marketing $$ could be used for signage, buttons, coke tower pos, just about anything. We used ours a couple months ago for new uniforms. You just have to have the coke logo on them.

Also, you should be geting rebates based on the number of gallons used too. If you have frozen cokes (not icee) you can accumulate those gallons too for rebates.

It all ads up!

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 03-23-2008, 01:08 AM:

Wanted to post an update. We finaly bought our own machine on ebay and also found a local company that sells a generic product that was happy to come and install the machine for a very small fee. They did this even though i told them we were not going to buy their product. We get the product at sam's club cheaper than the distributor sells it and it has all worked out. Also we haven't placed an order with coke in 5 weeks and the sales person hasn't even called to as why!

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 04-03-2008, 02:34 PM:

We used coke for years. About nine years ago the local bottler was bought up by a regional bottler and they began to, by intent and neglect, piss off all of the small local clients. The local Pepsi bottler jumped right in and have been very good to us since.

I suspect many of the problems the small exhibitors are having are local/regional problems rather than brand name problems. So just go with whomever is good to you.