More New Coke Math



  • From the help page outlining the new 120 points per week section.

    120 points a week is the same as:

    ...

    12 fridge-packs a week-144 cans per week or almost 20 cans per day



  • Which is equivalent to about 10-20 minutes of scavenging for points.

     When I was in college there was one of these (I think it was Pepsi). They had a maximum number of entries (around 300). I went to one of the large recycling bins on campus and collected all the caps in about 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately I later discovered that you were only allowed to enter 2 or 3 per day.

    They do this specifically to prevent scavenging so they don't have to pay out for any but the tiniest fraction of the points they distribute.

     Back when pepsi did its original "Pepsi Stuff" campaign (where you tore the points off packages and mailed them in), my family collected over 100,000 points in a few weeks. We ordered at least one of everything in their catalogue, dozens of shirts and other things.

    These new restrictions make it nearly impossible to redeem anything of value. Rather than removing high-vale items from "availability," they simply say they're available and make them impossible to attain.



  • @Anon Ymous said:

    Back when pepsi did its original "Pepsi Stuff" campaign (where you tore the points off packages and mailed them in), my family collected over 100,000 points in a few weeks. We ordered at least one of everything in their catalogue, dozens of shirts and other things.
     

    Wow, so your family is so poor that you guys go around scavaging trash and recycle recepticles for points in order to put clothes on your back?  Kenny, is this you?



  • @Anon Ymous said:

    Back when pepsi did its original "Pepsi Stuff" campaign (where you tore the points off packages and mailed them in), my family collected over 100,000 points in a few weeks. We ordered at least one of everything in their catalogue, dozens of shirts and other things.
    And just think, in another year you could have had enough points to get that Harrier Jet!



  • Apparently the OP and I are the only ones to notice that 144 / 7 > 20.  Shame on the rest of you.

     



  • @amischiefr said:

    @Anon Ymous said:

    Back when pepsi did its original "Pepsi Stuff" campaign (where you tore the points off packages and mailed them in), my family collected over 100,000 points in a few weeks. We ordered at least one of everything in their catalogue, dozens of shirts and other things.
     

    Wow, so your family is so poor that you guys go around scavaging trash and recycle recepticles for points in order to put clothes on your back?  Kenny, is this you?

    Not quite. My brother, sister, and I rode our bicycles around the neighborhood on Fridays (which also happened to be the day that waste and recyclables were collected by the city) usually for about 2 or 3 hours. One of us happened to notice a recycle bin with several 12-pack boxes in it and thought "hey... that's basically free stuff" and so took the points off. After that we noticed just how many points were ripe for the picking. By the end of the first Friday, we collected around 10,000-15,000 points (didn't ever count them til the end of the promotion). So from then on we stopped and collected the points on our weekly bike rides. We didn't realize how many we had til the end. After selecting all the things we actually wanted on the order form, we still had tens of thousands of points.

     We didn't NEED it. There were a few things we wanted; it was easy and convenient; we were kids. And, like kids, we overdid it by a tremendous factor.

    As for collecting the caps in college. I think that was for the Pepsi Billions sweepstakes (where each code was also an entry in a drawing for a 'chance' to win a billion dollars).



  • @belgariontheking said:

    And just think, in another year you could have had enough points to get that Harrier Jet!

     

    Damn, beat me to it.  You know, when that commercial first aired I just knew that someone was going to try to take them up on it.  And then we wonder why there's so much fine print on ads these days.



  • @cconroy said:

    @belgariontheking said:

    And just think, in another year you could have had enough points to get that Harrier Jet!

     

    Damn, beat me to it.  You know, when that commercial first aired I just knew that someone was going to try to take them up on it.  And then we wonder why there's so much fine print on ads these days.

    I'm actually surprised they didn't succeed. Laws against misleading ads are very tough in the US, I remember that back in the 80's, some store had its ad misprinted, so that instead of saying "99th customer gets a free microwave oven!" it said "All microwave ovens: 99 cents!" ... and were forced to honor these ads. Ouch.


  • @danixdefcon5 said:

    I'm actually surprised they didn't succeed. Laws against misleading ads are very tough in the US, I remember that back in the 80's, some store had its ad misprinted, so that instead of saying "99th customer gets a free microwave oven!" it said "All microwave ovens: 99 cents!" ... and were forced to honor these ads. Ouch.

    I don't buy it.  Not only is that an amazing typo that would be almost impossible to make in English, but most retail laws are enforced at the state level.  Mass has some of the toughest pro-consumer retail laws, and IIRC if an item is mispriced they only need to take up to a maximum of $10 off to make it up. 



  •  I thought ad errors or incorrect price listings didn't have to be honoured if there's an "obvious" mistake.

    Microwaves for ¢99 would be such a clear mistake, so the listed price becomes invalid.

    Or something. I only heard it somewhere, and don't have the gusto to investigate this particular topic further.



  • @dhromed said:

    I thought ad errors or incorrect price listings didn't have to be honoured if there's an "obvious" mistake.

    Microwaves for ¢99 would be such a clear mistake, so the listed price becomes invalid.

    Or something. I only heard it somewhere, and don't have the gusto to investigate this particular topic further.

    I'm not sure, but in the US a lot of retail consumer laws are enforced at the state level, which means they can vary state-by-state.  In some states, retailers have to honor incorrect pricing up to a certain point but not in others.  There are also other bizarre restrictions.  For example, MA requires all groceries to be tagged individually with the little sticky price tags in addition to the prices on the shelves.  Most other states do not have this requirement and have moved towards only having the pricing on the shelf with the goods, which significantly simplifies updating pricing.  There's been a debate to remove this silly restriction from the law, but consumer-protection groups have effectively blocked it. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    For example, MA requires all groceries to be tagged individually with the little sticky price tags in addition to the prices on the shelves.

    I bet they don't sell much rice, huh?



  • @Spectre said:

    @morbiuswilters said:
    For example, MA requires all groceries to be tagged individually with the little sticky price tags in addition to the prices on the shelves.

    I bet they don't sell much rice, huh?

    Sure they do.  They just hire one of those guys from the mall kiosk to inscribe the price on every grain.  



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @danixdefcon5 said:

    I'm actually surprised they didn't succeed. Laws against misleading ads are very tough in the US, I remember that back in the 80's, some store had its ad misprinted, so that instead of saying "99th customer gets a free microwave oven!" it said "All microwave ovens: 99 cents!" ... and were forced to honor these ads. Ouch.

    I don't buy it.  Not only is that an amazing typo that would be almost impossible to make in English, but most retail laws are enforced at the state level.  Mass has some of the toughest pro-consumer retail laws, and IIRC if an item is mispriced they only need to take up to a maximum of $10 off to make it up. 

    It wasn't a typo, more like someone in the newspaper screwing up the ad. I don't remember the details, as I was a kid back then, it could be an urban legend but then again, I have seen stores honoring ridiculous mistakes before.

    The funniest I remember was at Anaheim. Some guy in his mid-50's was buying something that had a 50% discount, with the normal price being $50. However, some sucker had also put a $17 "red sticker" (just like the ones morbs mentioned), so the store had to honor the $17 price tag, which they intended to do. However, the guy then proceeded to argue "this is 50% discount! 50% of 50 is 25 bucks!" for at least 10 minutes, and the manager had to be called. The guy actually wanted to pay more than the "red sticker" price. Geeze...


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