Great Disney is lowering prices. However, for an entertainment venu, I have never found their prices to be high but rather middle of the road for such venues.
I would be suprised to see them actually lowering prices and still offering the same quantites of beverage for the lower price. If I had to guess here, I would bet that the new $2.00 bottle of soda will be of the half litre variety. The half litre is 16.9 ounces of soda per bottle vs. the current 20 ounces at 2.50. On a per ounce basis, the smaller bottle, if indeed selling for $2.00, would give the end purchaser a discount of about 0.67 cents per ounce. Just to clarify this is not a 67 cent discount but 67/100 of a penny discount.
I am sure after many studies marketing folks have found that this slighly less soda in the bottle will encourage folks to buy another soda or two during the course of the day. There is probalby an inventory storage factor to the entire equation that benefits the company as well.
This would not be a new practice as other companies have been doing this for the last 20 years or so on a frequent basis. For those of you who buy pet food, check your 5 lb bag of dry food. While the bag is still the same size as the old 5 lb bag, the contents have been reduced to about 4.7 lbs. It is effectively a price increase for the company because the new lighter 5 lb bag sells for the same prices as the older heavier 5 lb bag. There are many other products using the same scenario, I just used this one because of my familiarity with the pet food industry.
The marketing folks spend a lot of time researching the price points at which consumers will be comfortable purchasing a given product. After, reaching the price points there job then becomes how to best acheive maximum sales and profitability while still convincing the consumer that the value of the product is the same.
