Kinda dumb question but I figured it fits the sub lol
so these boxes are at my work and they’re a syrupy hyper sweet mixture that when combined with carbonated water make soda and it got me thinking:
why don’t they sell ones for like Monster energy?
is it because of the costs, or kids accessing it, or some law?
Costs. These types of machines are generally free refills. You take a 32oz coke, and say actual cost to the store for you getting that coke is about 15 cents. You paid $2.30. Most people get 1 refill. But even if you get multiple, they still make profit.
I don’t know wholesale costs of monster, but I know a 20oz bottle in stores here costs about $2. While a 24oz can of monster costs about $9.
It wouldn’t surprise me if a 32oz fountain of monster cost the store like $0.70 wholesale. So there’s no way they could make profit if people got multiple refills.
Plus, if you try to sell the monster at a higher cost than coke, what would stop someone from dumping the coke, and refilling with monster? Paying the lower innitial price, and now getting refills.
Monster costs the company pennies more to make it. They just aggressively marketed these if they had a higher price because the original one in the USA, Redbull, was imported from Ireland at first which made the entry price higher.
wtf? 0.5l of coke and 0.5l of monster cost the same where I live
That’s because monster overcharges, caffiene powder is cheap and you could add it to soda for cheap
If you can get ahold of it, yes, very cheap. The problem is that a little goes a very long way, so it’s not so easy to get a hold of anymore, at least in the US.
It was probably 10 years ago that I discovered that I could buy a 500g bag of pure caffeine powder for about $20, plus a milligram scale for another $20. I was drinking quite a bit of sugar free Red Bull at the time, and had been ordering them by the case ($50ish?) to save a little money, so it was a no brainer for me to switch to caffeine powder. Break even point was maybe 2 weeks worth of caffeinated beverages.
The bad news is a few people OD’d on caffeine powder around that time (completely unrelated to me), so it was pretty much banned. The good news is that 500g is a fucking shit load of caffeine. I often get my caffeine from more traditional sources now (coffee, tea), so that bag may end up lasting me the rest of my life.
For some additional context, a 250mL (8.4 oz) can of Red Bull contains 80mg caffeine, while a 1/16 teaspoon (~0.3mL) scoop of pure caffeine powder is about 200mg. That works out to less than 0.5¢ ($0.005) of caffeine per Red Bull, and I’m not even getting wholesale pricing.
WTF? Monster costs $9? That’s insane.
But you’re right it’s cost. I had a Soda Stream and I had the red bull syrup for it so the ability is there and the materials exist.
where the fuck you live that a monster costs nine dollars
People have been doing that for years with buying water, and then filling it with fountain drinks.
I suppose you could counter it the same way that some stores handled the soda refill issue. Have the energy drink refills behind the counter, where only employees can refill it. Have a special cup so employees can tell which customers actually bought an energy drink. Also gives employees a chance to intervene if someone tries to get too much and kill themselves (like with the Panera Bread lemonade/