Commodity prices reach an equlibrium because everyone’s commodity items are fungible. One person’s bushel of field corn is indistinguishable from everyone else’s. So what happens is that one guy may undercut everyone, and sells all his corn, but next time, he realizes “Hey…everyone’s still buying at the equilbrium price, so next time I’ll sell for more.” Same thing in reverse- someone prices their corn too high, and he’ll end up lowering it to the equilibrium price to sell it. As supply or demand changes, that equilibrium price will fluctuate in response. In a sense, the equilibrium commodity price is basically a sort of crowdsourced average price- it’s based on the inputs of all the buyers and sellers of that good- which is only possible because their goods are identical.
In the case of an energy drink, it’s differentiated from every other energy drink, and from other beverages as well, so the manufacturer can set their price point wherever they like. Of course, there’s a sort of equilbrium pricing that goes on there as well, but there’s more room for variation based on brand. For example, the manufacturers know that they generally sell for $1.50-$2.00 per 16 oz can. So they may put some douchey graphics or super-macho branding on there and sell it as “Tactical Energy Drink” or some such, and charge a bit more than the going rate. But they can’t really charge much more without having some reason to be able to do so.
So a bushel of corn sells for a set amount, but energy drink prices can vary within a certain band of prices set by what people are willing to pay.
This is pretty much true for ALL retailed goods, FYI.
I like coffee, but prefer tea. But in my case, I don’t work a desk job where I can keep a cup of coffee at hand. Years and years ago, I got tired of getting back to my coffee cup at work and finding it had gone stone cold. There are few things that make me go “BLEH!” faster than getting a mouthful of cold coffee when I was expecting it to be hot.
As referenced, some people enjoy the taste.* I am not particular at all about food (I just hate olives.) I mostly just drink water and eat plain chicken and broccoli. However, as a rule for drinks, alchoholic and non, the more sour the better. I recommend Rockstar’s supersours, the only competition with regular green monster in terms of taste, imho. That being said I have maybe one a week? 8 a day is either an exaggeration or a cry for help, says right on the can (for Monster) to never drink more than two a day.
*Also it’s like Adderall for those of us who don’t actually have Adhd and just want to get stuff done.
I don’t think you’re getting enough. You should try to have at least 2 before you wake up in the morning and another one after you fall asleep at night.
You’ve heard of Diet Coke, yes? Now up the caffeine.
I don’t have some people’s habits :eek:, but if really tired I’ll have two in a day. Coffee gives me instant diarrhea, whereas sodas and energy drinks don’t.
Nailed it in the second post. They will charge what the market will bear, and the major companies will likely collude to keep prices and margins high. Price wars only benefit consumers. Personally, I wouldn’t drink any of them even if it was given to me for free, but that’s me. To each, his/her own.
A friend of mine manages a bar. The owner expects him to hang out and “have fun” once every week or two. Because this involves him giving out free drinks, he’ll tell me a day or two ahead of time when he plans to do this, and I’ll hang out and help him.
Assuming he isn’t being quaint -
8 monsters a day
56 a week
240 a month
2920 a year
That is $5840 + tax + deposit… $6000 a year on monster.
I mean it’s good but…
Anyway, I don’t see energy drinks as expensive because they aren’t meant to be had constantly, 2 a day max, that is slightly cheaper than one trip to starbucks for the basics before work each day.
I laugh when I see all these athletes bringing cans of this shit to their lips out of some obligation to their sponsors. It’s pretty obvious that many of them aren’t really drinking this crap.
But hey, someone’s paying for all those stickers on the car.
Likely. I didn’t want to get into the whole active/inactive collusion thing. It’s more of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge we won’t start a price war if you don’t start a price war sort of thing.
You’ve never heard of sugar-free energy drinks? Just about every brand I see has that somewhere in their lineup. My husband’s diabetic, so we’re very alert to low-/no-sugar options.
It’s closer to $4000-$5000 a year, but yea. It’s not cheap. If I ever feel like I need to start watching my spending, it’s the first thing to go. Well… chewing tobacco ($20-$30 a week; $1300 a year) would be the first thing, then cigars ($300 quarterly; $1200 a year) would be next. Then Monsters. Okay, so I have a few vices. I can quit anytime.
Could be worse. It could be alcohol and meth.