The Golden Age of Cup Manufacturing

jonerik writes "The Washington Post has this article today on the disappearance of traditional 'small' (8 oz.) cups of coffee in favor of a larger concept of 'small' (12 oz.). In the case of Starbucks, for example, a truly small 8 oz. cup of coffee is still available, but it's called a 'short' and isn't listed on the menu. Why not? 'We still have it,' says Starbucks spokeswoman Lara Wyss, 'but we don't advertise it because of the size of the menu board, the physical constraints.' Yeah, sure. Disposable cup manufacturers have taken notice of the popularity/compulsory nature of larger cup sizes. The Sweetheart Cup Co. started manufacturing a successful 24-ounce hot-beverage cup about two years ago, and Kathy Deignan, the company's national vice president of marketing and account sales says 'The eight- and 10-ounce cups are pretty much gone.' Sweetheart also manufactures 7-Eleven's 44-ounce Super Big Gulp cups, and Deignan says the company is considering producing an 80-ounce cold drink cup - that's 5 pints, folks. Christ, how much do these companies think people need to drink, anyway?"

Need? What about want?

[SirSlud]

>Christ, how much do these companies think people need to drink, anyway?

I thought need has no place in a free market. Arn't companies supposed to give you what you think you want, not need? Are people really surprised that people in a market want stuff thats bad for them in the same way that people want bad stuff for them? (Except in a free market, you're much more likely to have that want fulfilled if you have the cash?)

Supersize is in.

[hex1848]

Every fast food restaurant from Wendy's to McDonalds has been increasing the size of there portions based on demand. Fatty and sugary foods taste better so we are ticked into wanting more to eat. The same thing goes for soft drinks, drink an 80 oz coke everyday and see how long it takes before you are shooting up insulin twice a day.

Re:Dixie cups

[xiaix]

And instead contribute to the paper in landfills. At least its paper and not styrofoam...

Re:Dixie cups

[ImaLamer]

the famous paper cups in the dispenser that save dishes from piling up in the sink.

Funny, I just re-use dishes to keep the sink from over-flowing.

Re:Well...

[sphealey]

Actually, I lived in Phoenix for two and a half years. Try commuting 45 minutes a day in a 1970 volkswagon beetle with black vinyl interior in 120 degrees and 0% humidity. You can't even imagine how much water you lose. I would suck down big gulps like nothing.

Of course, here in the midwest, I can't imagine finishing 5 pints of anything other than beer.

(1) Caffine is a diuretic, so the faster a person drinks Big Gulps of cola, the faster he loses water from his body.

(2) Here in St. Louis, we had 6 weeks of temperatures in the 95 deg.F - 101 deg.F range with the typical St. Louis 90% humidity. None of your wimpy Phoenix "dry heat" here - 32 days straight of heat stress warnings with heat indexes in the 110 - 120 range. Take that ;-).

sPh

My rant.

[FreeLinux]

I feel that the massive cups are linked to another phenomenon that I have noticed. That is, the new need for people to always have a drink in hand.

Up until recently, when people got thirsty, they went to the kitchen and got a drink. They finished their drink in the kitchen and went about their business. People also drank at the table while eating. But now, people seem to be incapable of going ANYWHERE without a drink constantly in hand.

It doesn't seem to matter what the drink is or if they are even thirsty, just so long as they always have a drink. Regardless of whether it is a ridiculous 44oz Big Gulp or a 12oz bottle of water, they must have a drink in hand.

It appears to me that people have developed some form of security blanket complex where they are out of sorts unless they have a drink in their hand. You notice this with the constant sipping. They are obviously not thirsty but every couple of minutes they are compelled to sip a half ounce or so. They seem addicted to the act of drinking, rather like smokers are to the act of smoking.

What's up with that?

Re:Not just drinks...

[bobKali]

It's not just that they've renamed small to medium, but at many coffee shops for example they don't even use descriptive English words to describe the volume of their drinks. Instead we get short, tall (I don't care about the height of the cup), grande, super-grande, etc... names that don't mean squat to me reguarding the amount of coffee I'm buying.

Maybe they could just put the diameter of the pizza or the number of ounces up there and skip the meaningless (ever-changing) names.

Yea, I'd like a 40 of Espresso.....

Re:My rant.

[geekoid]

whats funny is, when your sirring around with all your friends, wait until there not paying attention to you, then take a sip of your soda. everyone else will follow suit, not relize it. People with out a soda, will gt up and get one.
I've been running that experiment for years. it just cracks me up.

We eat too much.

[Anonymous Coward]

We drink too much.
We consume too much.
We SHIT too much.
And, yes, we weigh waaay too fucking much.

American = Pig is not an epithet. It's realism.

This really is a weight problem concern

[GweeDo]

I recently stopped drinking pop all together. Now I only drink water, milk (one glass per day), and juice (2 glasses per day roughly). In the 6 weeks since I started this I haven't really changed anything else about my excerise and eatting habits. I have already dropped 8lbs. I used to drink close to 5 12-16oz pops per day. At the low end that is 60oz (smaller than the 80oz drink they are talking about). So I think you see the weight concerns here. This is truely making America fatter... :(

Re:Bloody hell!

[Luminous]

Who's making your coffee? I'm not keen on sweat and creamy, I like the bitter edge that coffee has, but when made correctly, isn't rancid at all.

I definately agree, don't drink rancid coffee.

Re:Supersizing doesn't matter...

[nelsonal]

I recall an old WSJ article about the new meal deals and McDonald's, back when they were new, and one of the points brought up was that the burgers were sold at about break even, but the fries and drinks carried gross margins of almost 80%. Meaning the cost of the drink, including cup, ice, and straw is about $0.20. What annoys me is the increase in size of straws. If you don't get the mega cup, your drink is gone very quickly.

Do they top them off with ice there too

[StormCrow]

Remember, at most fast food places here in the US, somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of any soda you order will be ice. Sometimes even more than half of it.

Re:Not just drinks... No wonder everyone's fat

[gessel]

This subject relates nice to the Atkins [slashdot.org] diet craze. Not to reopen old wounds, but despite the absurd implication that obesity paralleled the rise in "healthy" eating (avoiding fat), doesn't it seem obvious -- and shouldn't both Atkins fans and those who's diets are based on actual research happily agree -- that increasing the average dose of coke from 10oz bottles to 32oz big gulps (an increase of more than 200 calories) would be expected to cause a dramatic rise in the rate obesity?

Gosh, per capita consumption of soda has doubled [cspinet.org] since 1974. Not at all surprisingly the obesity rate in the US has risen more or less in synchrony. [cdc.gov]

Re:Is this just America?

[selmer]

It mostly is, us Europeans always have trouble believing the sizes. We find it even more silly that in a fast-food joint where you can choose between small (which would be European medium), large and Extra-large drinks, you also get free refills. Then what's the point in ordering the large drink?