Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Why do Jollibee and McDonald's charge so much for iced tea?

Unfortunately the title of this post poses a question to which I have no answer.

If you want iced tea instead of Coke with your value meal at McDonald's or Jollibee, you have to add 12 pesos more to the price of the value meal. What's the deal with this? Iced tea is supposed to be cheap. In fact, iced tea is supposed to be cheap cheap cheap. Certainly less expensive than Coke.

They use Nestea dispensers, don't they? Let me do some math: A few days ago I bought a pack of powdered Nestea that costs 55 pesos, and the packaging says it's good enough to make 5 liters. Now, assuming a serving size of 16 fl oz (that's the size of their iced tea cups at McDonald's or Jollibee), it should cost them just 5.20 pesos to make. Probably less since they're surely getting the Nestea in large quantities at wholesale prices.

And how much does their cup of iced tea alone cost? Believe it or not-- 40 freakin' pesos.

I had wanted to try not drinking soft drinks as a token sacrifice for Lent, but it's annoying that it comes packed with an unwanted bonus sacrifice of having to pay extra for something that should cost less. Too bad the price of iced tea isn't something that could be government regulated, like taxi and bus fares. I know it's nothing illegal, but it feels like I'm being robbed.

3 comments:

  1. Read the Undercover Economist (http://books.google.ca/books?id=6BLqprHdwygC) - it talks about how companies give us ways to indicate our price insensitivity. ;)

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  2. True! sa iced tea pa lang kitang kita na sila.

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  3. I know right? Bought a "large" iced tea (I just actually wanted to drink hot choco but it wasn't available for breakfast then - wtf?) and since I don't drink soda for breakfast opted for iced tea instead. Grabe! Rip-off talaga. Large iced tea for 58 pesos but actually it's sa "medium-sized cup". I asked the staff why she didn't use the "large-sized cup" and was told that it was only used for soda.

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