🚀 go-pugleaf

>  Fountain outlets (e.g., McDonalds)?
>       Maybe, but only if we push for it.  Most fountain machines have only
>       4 taps ...

You've hit on one of the most irritating abuses of statistics I've seen in
the "cola wars".

Specifically, I've often seen things in the media like "Brand X Cola is moving
slowly in the supermarkets, but doing very well in fountain sales," or
words to that effect.

A little over a year ago, when I was in Nashville, Pepsi cola scored a
major "coup" over Coke.  Somehow they managed to sell their cola for a
better price than coke, and to sell it to nearly all the fast-food
restaurants thereby.

Within a few months, it was almost impossible to get anything but Pepsi in
most fast-food establishments!  Lo and behold, the media reported, "Pepsi
sales have skyrocketed."  This was not particularly surprising, however,
since the people buying it in these places had no choice... if you liked
Acme Fried Chicken, you had to choose between the chicken or the cola (i.e.,
either go to Acme and drink Pepsi, or go to Mrs. Chicken's and have Coke.)
This was not much of a choice, since the difference in chicken is much
greater than the difference in colas.  To people familiar with business,
this was probably no surprise; but I tend to suspect much of the public
would interpret such a comment to mean "Many people are discovering the
fact that Pepsi is better than Coke."

[However, there was this problem with the Pepsi... it was very watered-down.]

--------
Disclaimer: Acme and Mrs. Chicken's are fictional; any connection with real
companies is strictly coincidental.

Pepsi is a trademark of the Pepsi Cola Company;
Coke  is a trademark of the Coca  Cola Company.
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
UUCP:       ..!{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!vax135!petsd!peora!jer
US Mail:    MS 795; Perkin-Elmer SDC;
	    2486 Sand Lake Road, Orlando, FL 32809-7642