Posted on 05/31/2012 6:24:16 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
New York City officials displayed big cups of soda along with the amount of sugar in them
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed banning sales of large soft drinks. Does this herald the end of the popular, money-making bucket-sized cups of soda?
The cold, sugary caffeinated goodness of a big cup of Coca-Cola so delights Chris Alexander he quips it helps sooth his post-traumatic stress disorder.
"If I get agitated, I'll have an incredible urge to get a Coke," says Alexander, a 37-year-old US Army veteran who served several tours in Iraq.
"I'll go get a 48-ounce Big Gulp every once in a while. It's just convenient. If I'm working a lot of hours, I'll just grab a giant one and take it to the office and let it sit there for a while."
Forty-eight ounces (1.42 litres) of soda has more calories than an eight-ounce (227g) T-bone steak, and 5.5 ounces (156g) of sugar, and Alexander admits he gains weight if he slurps the sodas but lets his exercise routine slacken.
But in convenience stores across America, one can buy even larger drinks - one of America's largest convenience store chains, 7-Eleven, sells a 50-ounce (1.5-litre) "Double Gulp" soda, and has at times sold a 64-ounce (1.9-litre) soda.
"They're quite popular," says Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, which has 7,800 convenience stores in the US.
"People are quite thirsty and want a large-sized soda."
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
will there be soda rationing too?
you have to buy two $2 cups vs one $3 cup.
also
will there be a per day limit?
How about those that sip one soda all day?
have a 2liter bottle in the office fridge?
and Bloomberg owns a financial reporting news network?
I think some areas of NYC are better off than others, but on the whole it is not doing well. I live a few miles from a mall that was built in the NJ Meadowlands to cater to NYC shoppers (we have a lower sales tax). This thing has an indoor ski slope and all; it was finished a few years ago, and it has never opened. It is very eerie to stand outside it; a brand-new, finished mall, less than 5 miles from Manhattan, and it never opened.
For something more recent than 11 years ago, remember Governor Paterson and Commissar Bloomberg insisting the banks that received bailouts still be permitted to pay bonuses?
They very frankly stated that the state of NY, as well as the city (which has its own income tax), were completely dependent on the taxes from those bonuses for their budgets. After 9/11, when the city was asked how they would replace the 343 firefighters that died, their response was: we won’t. The city is in bad shape, and while you mention people moving their, I can’t imagine what they are doing for work.
Of course they should have been permitted to pay their bonuses. We forced bailout money on even the healthy banks and if the banks didn’t pay bonuses to their top bankers, London, Hong Kong and Singapore would have been the beneficiaries—NYC, much the loser.
The City’s in great shape though not and never perfect. (And fire departments, while staffed by great guys, are one of the areas of major government fat in most cities.)
That mall not opening is a sign of the health of NYC, not the other way around. Sounds like it was conceived of the era that New Rochelle and other struggling fringe cities tried to lure shoppers with variations on an amusement park theme—a tacky trend that I’m glad didn’t succeed.
“That mall not opening is a sign of the health of NYC, not the other way around.”
NYC still empties into northern NJ for their shopping every Saturday (Bergen County has “Blue Laws” that keep most retailers closed on Sundays - they actually fought for an exemption for the never-opened mall); it didn’t open because they were a high-end shopping and entertainment mall at a time when most Americans have no money for “high-end” or entertainment.
When the Blue Laws were reviewed a few years back, and people asked if it was a Christian holdover from a bygone era, many non-Christians in Bergen County fought to keep the laws in place. Because of the influx of NYC shoppers into NJ, Sunday is the only day of the week when Bergen County residents can actually drive without horrible congestion.
"You ever tried going mad without power? It's boring, no one listens to you." - Russ Cargill (The Simpsons Movie)
Maybe people from the Bronx and Staten Island head to NJ to shop on Sunday, but those in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn overwhelmingly don’t.
OK; you apparently know more about it than I do (I would have no idea where they come from). In Bergen County nobody can shop on Sunday; to the south in Hudson (Jersey City, Secaucus - close to Manhattan) & Union County (Elizabeth - close to Staten Island) they can.
Here in northern NJ, NY state had toyed with the idea of sending investigators to our mall parking lots to chase down sales tax revenue (using the license plate of all the NY cars parked here); as one astute FReeper pointed out at the time the mall could probably have had them arrested for trespassing.
Again, they want it to be like Europe where you order a soda and get about four ounces of drink for about $7.00. The elites won’t rest until every bit of enjoyment the serfs have is so cost prohibitive we will have nothing left but sitting around in our 50 square meter flats staring at the walls.
Step away from the counter.
Stand back.
The Mt. Dew will sell itself, for less than it’s worth.
(no wait, that’s not what’s happening)
That sounds like MA trying to get after their shoppers in tax-free NH.
With 8 million people crammed into NYC, you’ve got to expect a few of them to spill over—and a few of their suppliers to be there across the river ready to serve them.
Who is getting squeezed out of NYC is the middle class. I mean firefighters, nurses, cops and secretaries with families. More neighborhoods now tend to be gentrified, hardscrabble, or even a combination of the two. But that is largely high real estate costs chasing them out of Manhattan at least, and maybe farther than that.
There’s demand for much more housing and construction, but then the issue is the transportation infrastructure. Just how many more passengers can they cram through the subways every day?
I moved to the edge of CT a few years ago, but I’m still in a couple of times a week. There are pockets of small-scale teen/gang crime creeping back into pockets here or there, but there’s also gentrification going in even the toughest of neighborhoods.
I see your point about the middle class being squeezed out.
In terms of the infrastructure: I know that when Governor Christie canceled the project for a rail tunnel from NJ to NYC, he simply stated there was no need for it. I’ve had that confirmed by both friends and family that commute into the city on trains - there are less people on the existing trains than there were in the “before-times”. The proponents of the tunnel were reduced to claiming it would make it easier for people to see a Broadway show - an admission that in fact there was no need for it. Granted, that was not for the internal infrastructure.
I think at a certain point congestion takes so much away from the quality of life.
Yes, though naturally from Jersey you look with the perspective of a car driver. Not the issue for most NYers—other than the slowness of buses and taxis.
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