Food & beverage, Coca Cola

[Nettavisen]: There are new Coca-Cola cans on the market, and it can make it more challenging to compare prices – and to get the right can. While in all those years we have been used to boxes of 0.33 liters, there have now been Cola boxes of 0.25 liters in a number of Norwegian stores, including Rema, Coop Prix and Joker. Also note that there are two different boxes of the 0.33 liter box in some stores.

– You have to use a magnifying glass to see that it is 0.25 liters, says Rune Nikolaisen, who is behind gjerrigknark.com.

– Thinking about how they can “trick” us

Nikolaisen says that he has noticed that Joker has a weekend bargain on 4 packages with 0.25 liter cans for 20 kroner this week, but believes the five kroner box is normal if you buy a package with 0.33 liters on offer.

– It’s a test all the time. Consumers are tested in what we can accept and cope with. The manufacturers are probably thinking about how they can “trick” us into buying as much as possible at the highest possible price, says Nikolaisen, who thinks that is the reason why there are so many different sizes of boxes.

It is especially when there are offers that one must be extra attentive, he believes. He warns that you can easily end up paying more than you would if you took advantage of offers on the biggest boxes.

– Here, Joker tries to get away with the same price that you often get packages with the 0.33 liter boxes for, but with less content, they earn more, says Nikolaisen.

The price of a four-pack with 0.25 liters on the Joker on Thursday, however, is NOK 39.90. That is, it is almost half price Friday and Saturday. The price per liter will therefore be 20 kroner, but compared to, for example, a tip pack of 0.33 liters on Oda.no on Thursday morning, it is not such a good offer. The price per liter is NOK 23.94 for the tip pack with the 0.33-liter package at Oda.

Should look at the price per liter

He thinks it is extra important to look at the price per liter, if you want the most for your money, now that there are so many different sizes of soda cans and bottles.

– At the same time, it is important not to be fooled into increasing consumption because the boxes and bottles change. It is good if people drink less soda if they buy 0.25 liter cans, but it is not good if people bounce two such cans because one is not enough, says Nikolaisen.

It’s not just soda cans that come in different sizes. Also, several soda bottles have more than just two standard sizes – 1.5 and 0.5 liters. Last year, Nettavisen wrote that there were new soda bottles that held 1.25 liters, and the criticism was that it is easy to make mistakes when you are used to only two sizes, and it also becomes more difficult to compare price.

If you buy a four-pack of Coca-Cola without sugar in cans of 0.25 liters at Oda.no, you have to pay NOK 38.90 per liter, while the liter price is NOK 20.91 if you buy Coca-Cola without sugar in a teapot with cans of 0.33 liters. In other words, it is twice as expensive for the price per liter if you buy a four-pack with the new boxes than a ten-pack with the old boxes.

– Failed

Per Hynne, communications director for Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Norway, explains the reason why they have launched the 0.25 liter boxes in a four-pack.

– We do it because 4-pack is a popular multi-packaging and we can only deliver it with 250ml due to the packaging solution, he says to Nettavisen.

– But a four-pack with boxes of 0.33 liters is already for sale?

– They are outgoing and in the future there will be 250 milliliters in a 4-pack, Hynne answers.

He also responds to the criticism from Nikolaisen.

– The criticism is completely failed. It is about a technical solution that means that we have to use 0.25 liter cans to be able to continue to make a package with four soda cans, something consumers want, he says.

– But why do you have to have so many different different sizes of cans and bottles, regardless of whether they are sold individually or in different multipacks?

– It is about the competitive situation, and the needs and wishes of the consumer and grocery industry. We adapt to their needs. We could have made many more, but there is a limit to how much we can have, he says.

– Will be replaced

The online newspaper has submitted the criticism directed at Joker to Hanne Evensen, communications manager at Kjøpmannshuset Norge AS, which is responsible for the operation of Joker.

– Coca-Cola no longer produces 4×0.33 liter cans, but has switched to a new format in a more environmentally friendly type of packaging without plastic packaging and with a somewhat smaller “portion size” of 0.25 liters. The new 4-packs have thus replaced the old 4-packs in our range, she tells Nettavisen.

She says that in a similar campaign, as the Joker has on a four-pack with Cola now, at about the same time last year, the price per liter was higher – 22.65 kroner. Then there was a four-pack with 0.33 liter cans. The weekend coup this year, of 4 times 0.25 liter cans, is 20 kroner.

– We always state unit price (liter price) in our customer newspapers and on the shelf edge in stores, and customers should be able to easily compare with any offers in other formats, she points out.

– There is no automaticity in that offer prices are always the same on the same type of product at all times of the year. The choice of mechanism (percentage discount, price point or other types of offers) varies throughout the year. It is determined in advance of the campaign after an assessment of several factors; for example, price level in the market, activity with competitors, season and the like, Evensen explains.

She adds that the price level for groceries changes from year to year and one must naturally expect that the offer prices can also change from campaign to campaign and from year to year.

– We work continuously to ensure that we have attractive offers for customers, especially Helgekupp and Ukens Joker, which are our two very best offer mechanisms, she says.

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