# Historic Price of a Can of Coke



## Pythagerous (22 September 2010)

Hi All

I am trying to do some research on the economy, and I wanted to chart to the average price of a can of coke in Australia over the past 30 years.

Does anyone by some weird chance know this? I have searched Google inside out and can't find anything?


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## noie (22 September 2010)

Well after googleing that for you.. (read the bottom text for ideas.)

[1886]
When Coca Cola was launched in 1886, it was offered free to customers in drug store soda fountains. This popular period marketing strategy soon created a demand for the product. About Coca Cola.

[1887-1959] According to the book Value of a Dollar the price of Coca Cola (by the glass or bottle) was five cents. This book extracts its information from advertisements.

[1942] Advertisement placed in the Daily Record [Morristown, NJ] newspaper, Pepsi .05/bottle
[1944] Daily Record, Coca Cola, .05/bottle
[1945] Daily Record, Pepsi, .23/six 12 ounce bottles
[1964] Daily Record, Coca Cola, .27, two 12 oz cans
[1968] Value of a Dollar, Pepsi, .59/6pack of 10oz bottles
[1972] Daily Record, Pepsi, .69/six-pack 12 oz cans 
[1974] Daily Record, Pepsi Cola, .88/6 12oz cans
[1982] Daily Record, Coke, .99/1 litre bottle
[1985] Daily Record, Pepsi, .89/2 litre bottle
[1992] Daily Record, Coke, 6.98/two 12-packs 12 oz cans
[1994] Daily Record, Coca Cola, 3.99/two "12" packs
[1995] Daily Record, Coca Cola, .59-.99/2 litre bottle
[2002] Daily Record, Coca Cola .99/2 litre bottle
[2005] Daily Record, Coca Cola, 1.09/2 litre bottle
[2009] Daily Record, Coca Cola, 3.99/8-pack; 16 oz bottles

If you need to obtain a price for a Coke or Pepsi for specific location/time your best bet is to check old newspapers for grocery store advertisements. Your local public librarian can help you identify/obtain old newspapers. Large national papers (New York Times) contained food advertisements in the early years. These are searchable via databases.

If you are studying the "Cola Wars" (competition between Coca Cola and Pepsi) we recommend:


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## $20shoes (22 September 2010)

Pythegarous, I don't have an answer but pouring through old newspapers may help. 

Trove is an amazing site but only indexed up to 1954 so may not be that helpful for your particular research. Here You can do an advanced search and filter your keyword to "advertising".

As an eg, this was one return - 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/27240334?searchTerm=Coca Cola


There may be other such databases (online/library based) that are more current?


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## nioka (22 September 2010)

The amazing thing about Coke is that the first serving of Coke in 1886 was 5c and that was the price for the next 70 years.:alcohol:


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## Pythagerous (23 September 2010)

Thanks for your help guys. I can't believe though, with the internet as big as it is, that I cant find the info I am after.

I am just trying to find out what a can of coke cost retailed for in 1980 vs what it retails for today (With a couple of intervals in between).

If you were to try and graph some basic information over the last 30 years, to get an idea on the cost of living, inflation and the economy etc, what would be the best things to focus on?

- Median House Prices?
- Average Wages?
- Gold?
- Oil?
- Sharemarket?
- Cost of a Big Mac?

Cheers


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## Whiskers (23 September 2010)

Pythagerous said:


> Thanks for your help guys. I can't believe though, with the internet as big as it is, that I cant find the info I am after.
> 
> I am just trying to find out what a can of coke cost retailed for in 1980 vs what it retails for today (With a couple of intervals in between).
> 
> ...




The CPI   http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6401.0


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## joea (23 September 2010)

Pythagerous.
I live in Nth Qld. In Mossman I can buy a can of coke for $2. 15 klms away in 
Pt. Douglas it $3.
So to eleminate that problem i would suggest to contact the company itself.
Cheers


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## explod (23 September 2010)

nioka said:


> The amazing thing about Coke is that the first serving of Coke in 1886 was 5c and that was the price for the next 70 years.:alcohol:




Not amazing at all.  Prices were kept in check by having paper money backed by a gold standard.  Unless there was gold backing it could not be printed.

Nixon did away with gold backing in the 1960's so the value of money became the value backed by the US dollar, the world reserve currency.   Putting dracula in charge of the blood bank, so to speak, and of course the rest is history.  So they just print the value away.


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## Sdajii (23 September 2010)

I remember cans of drink from vending machines being 40-50c when I was a kid (80s).

When I went to the USA about three years ago I was amazed at how cheap soft drink ("soda") is over there!


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## roland (23 September 2010)

I remember at the Kentucky Fried Chicken, on the way home from school I used to pay $0.16. That would have been approx 1974. At Woolworths during the same period it was as low as $0.12


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## explod (23 September 2010)

In 1961 I could buy a meat pie for 1 shilling (10cents).  Now 3 or 4$

In 1970 could buy a whole side of lamb for $6

And of course a round 1966 silver 50 cent peice was worth 50 cents, today $7.50

"its the money Ralph"


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## Agentm (23 September 2010)

reminded me of the fable that the gold standard being one ounce is equivalent to the price of a top quality mens suit..


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## prawn_86 (23 September 2010)

Agentm said:


> reminded me of the fable that the gold standard being one ounce is equivalent to the price of a top quality mens suit..




Not anymore thats for certain! Although depends where you buy i guess and if you want a brand name


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## Assasin (23 September 2010)

In Roger Montgomery's new book he explains the history of Coca-Cola shares.
First listed in the US in 1919 for $40 per share ( that would have been a lot back then), the following year it had dropped back to $19.50. 
If your great grandfather had bought you just 1 share for the listed $40 and rode it through all the wars and market crashes and just re-invested the dividends, then in May of this year your family would have had 125,661 shares worth a market value of $6,509,239.80.
Not a bad way to make a dollar.
Anyone got any thoughts on any stocks that could repeat this???


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## againsthegrain (23 September 2010)

yea except he wouldn't be around to spend any of that money


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## Buckfont (23 September 2010)

Assasin said:


> In Roger Montgomery's new book he explains the history of Coca-Cola shares.
> First listed in the US in 1919 for $40 per share ( that would have been a lot back then), the following year it had dropped back to $19.50.
> If your great grandfather had bought you just 1 share for the listed $40 and rode it through all the wars and market crashes and just re-invested the dividends, then in May of this year your family would have had 125,661 shares worth a market value of $6,509,239.80.
> Not a bad way to make a dollar.
> Anyone got any thoughts on any stocks that could repeat this???




Assassin, dont know about stocks that could repeat this as my crystal ball is in the blink at the moment and its very long time horizon, but my buy of BHP at $3.91. some 23 odd years ago,and given another 70years, it may get there. All divs. have been reinvested or spent on wine, women and song and not necessarily in that order.

Still have the original holding.


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## Assasin (23 September 2010)

Congratulations Buckfont, your shout. Now there's a thread all by itself- original trades.
Feel a bit for Pythagerous, he hasn't been able to find out much as we've all taken this off track a bit.
Sorry Pythagerous


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## nulla nulla (23 September 2010)

I got a box of 10 cans of coke Zero at Woolworths last weekend for $4.99. Works out at $0.50ea. Cheapest I've seen a can of coke for yonks.


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## Smurf1976 (23 September 2010)

I remember buying Coke cans for around 40 cents in the 1980's. I also remember playing video games for 20c and taking glass coke bottles back to the shop to get the 20c deposit refunded which was a significant contribution to the price of a full bottle. Oh, and 2c lollies too...


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## nunthewiser (23 September 2010)

I remember "back in the day" they used to give coke out free at parties 

now they try and charge exhorbitant amounts in weighted servings instead.

the economy definately gone to the dogs i reckon


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## pixel (23 September 2010)

nunthewiser said:


> I remember "back in the day" they used to give coke out free at parties
> 
> now they try and charge exhorbitant amounts in weighted servings instead.
> 
> the economy definately gone to the dogs i reckon




Seems you go to the wrong parties.
Try and join your nearest Footy Team's end-of-season 'do. They'll crack you up.


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## nioka (23 September 2010)

Historic prices are not worth discussing without their relativity to inflation or the weekly wage. My first pay was 27 shillings and 6 pence. I gave my mother a pound and that left me 7 shillings and 6 pence ( how's that for a mathmatical calculation). Out of that I could buy chewing gum for a penny, go to the pictures for 6 pence etc and save up for an "Ashby" bike that cost 12 pound. 

However fishing lines were expensive. Nylon lines came in yard long "traces" that cost 6 pence each. That meant that a weekly wage would buy 57 yards of a 4lb breaking strain line. My grandson can buy the same line now for a few minutes work.

Our first clothes washing machine cost me 6 weeks wages at 16 pounds per week. I have just paid a tradesman for an hours work enough for him to go close to paying for a similar machine.

I don't know where the price of Coke fits into the scheme of things?


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## matty77 (23 September 2010)

Found this website 2day, might find interesting... even though its not really related...

http://greenopolis.com/goblog/jerryjamesstone/meet-new-eco-friendly-square-coke-bottle


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## johenmo (24 September 2010)

The AB have an "inflation calculator" which tells you what $x back whenever equals today.  e.g. $2500 in 1984 = $6600 in 2009.  Can't calculate backwards in time.

http://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/ 

This tool calculates the change in cost of purchasing a representative ‘basket of goods and services’ over a period of time. For example, it may show that items costing $10 in 1970 cost $26.93 in 1980 and $58.71 in 1990. For details of the precise conversion of pence to cents please refer to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 1965, 'Special Article - Decimal Currency', Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, cat no 1301.0.


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## Pythagerous (25 September 2010)

Thanks for all your help. As I was struggling to find accurate prices I decided to just ring Coke to see if they could give me the RRP for a 375ml Can of Coke today and back in 1990. They are getting back to me.

Todays RRP is $2.10, anyone remember what a can cost back in 1990?


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