Frequent buyers of Coke and Diet Coke from vending machines across campus may have noticed their usual payment of five quarters will no longer suffice. The price of Coke and Diet Coke has increased campus-wide, from $1.25 to $1.50 for a 20-oz. bottle.
For students who depend on these products every day, the increase could add up to spending almost $100 more a year.
Randy Wright, owner of Wright Vending Co., said the company has Diet Coke or Coke in just about every machine on campus.
He said the price increase is not a result of the vending company but that the Coca-Cola bottling distributor in Madison told him they were raising their price ""an unprecedented amount,"" which went into effect at the beginning of 2007. Wright said the price increase by Coca-Cola was unusually high.
""The price increases that we incurred from our other bottlers—Pepsi and 7-Up—were a little more reasonable,"" Wright said.
He said a reasonable raise in price was about a penny to a penny-and-a-half per unit, as opposed to the Coca-Cola's increase of 19 cents per unit.
Representatives for Coca-Cola did not return repeated calls for comment.
Wright said he believes Coca-Cola initiated the price increase because the company felt it was necessary to maintain profitability.
UW-Madison sophomore Maggie Collison said she did not notice the price increase until she went to the vending machine to get a Diet Coke, and suddenly realized she did not have enough money.
""We're all on tight budgets, we don't have spare change laying around,"" Collison said. ""I think it's a little unreasonable; I understand that there's inflation and stuff, but why just Coke and Diet Coke?""
According to Wright, this is only the beginning of price increases, so students should be forewarned.
""The Coke Company has already told us that this price increase will happen again, to the same level if not more next year,"" Wright said. ""This is just phase one. Phase two is coming next year, it could be two bucks [a bottle].""
Wright said he has received a number of e-mails from students on campus, as well as other accounts throughout the city.
""Overwhelmingly they have said, ‘I used to be a Coke drinker—now I'll drink something else,'"" he said.
UW-Madison sophomore Matthew Turner said he thinks the price increase will push people away from buying the product, adding that the price increase would deter him ""from being an occasional buyer to less than that.""
Wright said for those who want Coke or Diet Coke and are willing to pay for it, ""You can get it and always will be able to get it.""
However, in the words of Collison, ""I'll just drink Diet Pepsi. I can taste a difference between Coke and Pepsi, but I can also taste the 25 cents.""
