Costco stops carrying Coke drinks in price dispute

The Associated Press ^ | 7:50 a.m. Tuesday, November 17, 2009 | The AP

[wbill]

My guess? Costco management tried to put the squeeze on their suppliers across the board. Many suppliers - not wanting to lose their distribution pipeline - took the hits. Coke wasn't willing to negotiate, or wasn't able to.

My company ran into this with a number of customers. They'd been given an edict (Board level? C-level? who knows....) to reduce expenses across the board by x%, and *told* us that they'd be paying us less when their contracts came up.

My company said "no".

Customers said "Either we pay you x% less, or we don't pay you at all."

We said, "Great, we'll be by the first day after the contract ends to remove our equipment. The pipe gets cut right then."

Customers said "!!!!!! Wait just a second.....we need that stuff to do business!"

Yep, and my kids need to eat. Interestingly enough, the cost cuts weren't "trivial" - they were north of 10%. And, more interestingly, the customers that pulled this (the ones I know of) all showed a profit last quarter. Guess they found some money, somewhere.

Costco was hoping Coke would blink. No dice. :-)

[Madame Dufarge]

Have you seen the sickening global warming ad sponsored by Coca Cola, SAP and Siemens that's been running on TV lately?

Lot's of tear-jerking music and exhortations about making "Hopenhagen" successful.

[tarawa]

Where else am I going to find Mexican Coke in bulk?

[wardaddy]

whoever said corporations are right wingers?

was nuts eh?