# Free market failure, or: Why can't I buy Diet Coke? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** soda-softdrinks\ **Created:** [August 27, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924 "2009-08-27T17:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/41 "2009-08-28T05:30:48Z")
I sympathize. I used to notice this problem in Northern California at gas stations, with the 20 oz or liter bottles. However, it seems not to be a problem in SoCal. I wonder if this has anything to do with more- or less health-crazy statesa? Here’s a question and a hijack: have you ever tried to find diet Coke in any developing countries about 15 years ago? Good f’ing luck. I’m so glad that diet Coke (or Coke light) has caught on in places like rural Mexico (even though it’s not as fizzy). I hate being without it. I love diet Coke so much that I actually was one for Halloween once. When I was about 12. Yes, it’s been a long, wonderful trip. Oh, my mom was so happy when she found it in a little town in Ukraine (where she and my father live 2 mos. out of the year). Then one time she called and said sadly, “I bought all the diet Coke.” “OK,” I said, “Good. You have diet Coke.” “No. I bought all of it. In the whole town.” “OK, you have a lot.” I said. “No. It’s gone. They don’t restock it. It’s all gone. There’s none left. I bought it all. It’s gone.” It’s not their fault, but they _really_ don’t have the whole “market” concept down there… ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/42 "2009-08-28T08:15:10Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I’ve been drinking Diet Coke for years now and am completely hooked on this delicious, delicious beverage. > > Roughly half of the time I go to the supermarket, there is no Diet Coke. There is a lot of Coke. There is some Diet Coke sans caffeine. There are occasionally Coke Zeros. But no Diet Coke. \ Everybody has commented on how Coke Zero and Diet Coke don’t taste the same (and they really don’t), but no one has commented on the taste difference between Diet Coke and Diet Caffeine-Free Coke. I sure can’t tell the difference, and I am a super taster. The only way I’d know in a blind taste test is by how jittery I felt after drinking, as I no longer drink caffeine. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/43 "2009-08-28T10:20:03Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > I still try to find Tab. Occassionally I can get it. Although when “all Coke products” are on sale, Tab is not. > > Tab is the bomb. Better than Diet Coke. Better than Coke Zero. Probably because it still uses saccharin. Diet drinks went into the shitter with the 100% Nutra-Sweet craze. Tab? You can’t have a tab unless you order something. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/44 "2009-08-28T13:15:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > \ > > Everybody has commented on how Coke Zero and Diet Coke don’t taste the same (and they really don’t), but no one has commented on the taste difference between Diet Coke and Diet Caffeine-Free Coke. I sure can’t tell the difference, and I am a super taster. The only way I’d know in a blind taste test is by how jittery I felt after drinking, as I no longer drink caffeine. They taste different. Caffeine is bitter. And I’m not super happy about this being in Cafe Society. I don’t want to talk about Diet Coke. I want to talk about why the perfect free market doesn’t allow me to buy Diet Coke. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/45 "2009-08-28T13:26:38Z")
Reminds me of the little corner shop Iused to live next too with the worst business man ever. They almost never had diet Dr Pepper. But there was a spot for it, and occasionally there would be one left. Then one day the spot was gone and I asked the dude. He told me got got rid of it because he was constantly having to go in the case and restock it, and was out most of the time, so it wasn’t worth it. WTF? What kind of idiot stops carrying something because it sold too well? It’s not like it was at loss leader prices or anything, it was the same as every other gas station. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/46 "2009-08-28T14:02:36Z")
I secretly suspect that Coke is looking to phase out Diet Coke, and stick with Coke Zero in the future. It has been the most successful new carbonated beverage in a long time. McDonalds will start selling Coke Zero at their fountain, and stocks of Coke Zero have been steadly increasing over the past few months at my local stores. ::swigs out of my can of Coke Zero sitting next to me:: IMHO, Coke Zero is a gift from Og, and the happiest day was the day when I had one of these at a friend’s picnic last summer. I still check sometimes, just to make sure that there are no calories…it just tastes so good! And in checking the side of the can - there is no Splenda, but aspartame is the #4 ingredient on the list… ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/47 "2009-08-28T14:10:08Z")
Practically all the drinks you folk have mentioned as being scarce in your areas are readily available where I live, but I would not suggest coming down here. I don’t think any of you deserve that. I don’t think there’s necessarily an economic reason for any of it. Sometimes the soda gods just like to mess with you. ---
**Author:** ![Hallucinex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba9def/32.png) [@Hallucinex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hallucinex)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/48 "2009-08-28T14:55:15Z")
> [@tesseract](#): > > Here’s a question and a hijack: have you ever tried to find diet Coke in any developing countries about 15 years ago? Good f’ing luck. My wife and I were in The Gambia the other week, and in the few places we did spot diet coke, it was double the price of the regular coke (and was only in cans whereas coke was in glass bottles). And I can’t remember for sure, but I think it was pretty hard to find in Cambodia a couple of years ago (and might have also been more expensive when you did find it)… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/49 "2009-08-28T14:58:47Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I want to talk about why the perfect free market doesn’t allow me to buy Diet Coke. The issue is that there isn’t a perfect free market at work here. I occasionally have the same problem trying to buy Caffeine-Free Diet Coke, or Diet Cherry 7-Up. My personal guess: when they introduced Coke Zero, they took some of the shelf space that used to be dedicated to Diet Coke, and apportioned it to Coke Zero. So, a full shelf of Diet Coke contains fewer cases than it used to. So, when demand for Diet Coke spikes (i.e., every time that your store puts Coke products on sale), it sells out more quickly than it used to. Parenthetical comment: Coca-Cola recognized that Diet Coke has a very female-skewing user base (as does almost every “diet” soda). Coke Zero was developed in an effort to attract male drinkers. Pepsi’s done the same thing with Pepsi Max…note that the word “diet” doesn’t appear in either name. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/50 "2009-08-28T15:25:53Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Roughly half of the time I go to the supermarket, there is no Diet Coke. There is a lot of Coke. There is some Diet Coke sans caffeine. There are occasionally Coke Zeros. But no Diet Coke. Wow, I can _never_ find the Caffeine-free Diet Coke, which is what I want. I’ll send you a case of the regular DC if you can send me a case of the Gold. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/51 "2009-08-28T15:26:40Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > The issue is that there isn’t a perfect free market at work here. The “perfect” was sarcasm. I’m told all the damned time how pristine and efficient it is, yet I can’t buy a popular beverage. I drink less Diet Coke. They lose sales. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/52 "2009-08-28T15:29:44Z")
I never have a problem finding Diet Coke. Caffeine-free Diet Coke, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/53 "2009-08-28T15:42:51Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > The “perfect” was sarcasm. I’m told all the damned time how pristine and efficient it is, yet I can’t buy a popular beverage. I drink less Diet Coke. They lose sales. Yeah, well. One could go all conspiracy-theory on this and suspect that they are understocking Diet Coke in your area intentionally, figuring that at least some of the people looking to buy Diet Coke will instead buy Coke Zero (a brand which they’re pushing right now)…though, clearly, you’re not among those people. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/54 "2009-08-28T15:51:00Z")
Since there is only occasionally Coke Zero, if that’s their plan they’re even stupider. “Let’s cause a shortage of product X to force people to buy product Y which will also have a shortage!” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/55 "2009-08-28T15:56:53Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Since there is only occasionally Coke Zero, if that’s their plan they’re even stupider. “Let’s cause a shortage of product X to force people to buy product Y which will also have a shortage!” Hmm. Then, I posit a couple of alternate theories: 1. Some combination of your local bottler and/or your local grocers is incompetent at accurately gauging demand, and having product on the shelf. 2. Your timing for going to the supermarket sucks. I know that, here in Chicago, “best food day” (i.e., the day that the new weekly sales start in the grocery stores) is Wednesday; if you go shopping on Wednesday evening, you’ll find anything that’s on sale pretty severely picked over. Since soft drinks are a category that’s highly promoted (i.e., Coke products seem to be on sale every other week, alternating with Pepsi products), that may be a factor here, too. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/56 "2009-08-28T17:28:07Z")
Coke doesn’t seem to go on sale that often here, and I buy it whether it’s on sale or not–when it’s there. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/57 "2009-08-28T17:57:30Z")
Coke Zero is one of the most disgusting drinks I’ve ever tasted. They were giving it away free outside a few weeks ago and it still wasn’t worth it. I always see boxes of Diet Coke on the shelves here, sometimes there will be no regular Coke left but there will be Diet. What is often hard to find are the 12 packs of Cherry Coke. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/58 "2009-08-28T21:42:14Z")
What bugs me is close to the opposite: I can find regular cola, diet cola, and diet caffeine-free cola, but cola without caffeine but with sugar is almost impossible to find. You’ll see it on the shelves sometimes in the two major brands, but for a smaller brand like RC or a generic, forget it, and likewise forget it in a vending machine or fountain. I can’t stand the taste of any diet soft drink, and there’s nothing that caffeine does for me that I’d not prefer that it didn’t do for me, but my choices are either to accept the caffeine, or accept the artificial sweeteners. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/59 "2009-08-29T08:53:42Z")
Can’t you just get regular Coke and mix it with some drain cleaner? That would give you the horrid aftertaste and tinge of brain-damaging poison that you get from the diet version. ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924/60 "2009-08-29T10:00:48Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > So you are the one that is doing it. What do you like about Moxie? I literally threw up the first time that I tasted it. Nyquil is an afternoon iced tea compared to it. I gave some to my little brother once as a joke. He managed not to hurl but still resents me to this day for it. I guess 19th century medicinal tonics just aren’t our thing. It’s a New England thing. You’re from Away, so you don’t understand. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-market-failure-or-why-cant-i-buy-diet-coke/507924.md?page=4)