Historic Price of a Can of Coke

[Pythagerous]

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?

 

[noie]

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:

 

[$20shoes]

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?

 

[nioka]

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:

 

[Pythagerous]

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

 

[Whiskers]

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

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

 

[joea]

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

 

[explod]

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.

 

[Sdajii]

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!

 

[roland]

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

 

[explod]

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"

 

[Agentm]

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

 

[prawn_86]

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

 

[Assasin]

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???

 

[againsthegrain]

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

 

[Buckfont]

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.

 

[Assasin]

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

 

[nulla nulla]

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.

 

[Smurf1976]

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...

 

[nunthewiser]

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