Freshman Pharmacy major Nicolas De La Torre buys a Coke from a Coca-Cola vending machine Wednesday afternoon on the ESU Campus. Alissa Miller/The Bulletin.

After Emporia State’s 10-year contract with Pepsi expired on June 30, the campus officially switched to Coca-Cola products. ESU started the new 10-year contract with Coca-Cola on July 1.

Raymond Hauke, vice president of Administration and Fiscal Affairs Department, said that Coca-Cola offered a better deal than Pepsi. Now, the university will receive a 10.5 percent cut of products sold, and the Coca-Cola Company also provides an amount based on the total cases and products consumed at the end of the year.

“So, how much money ESU can make depends on how much the products are considered and it really depends on how much product people drink,” Hauke said.

The contract with the Pepsi Company provided a flat amount of money plus $30,000 at the beginning of the year with a percentage. The campus had been a “Pepsi campus” for the past 12 years.

“We felt what Coca-Cola offer is better arrangement for the university,” Hauke said.

There will be 38 vending machines selling Coca-Cola products on campus, and Hauke believes that people will find that the arrangement and service of machines is better than before. The price of soft drinks went up from $1.25 for Pepsi products to $1.50 for Coke products.

Senior Rehabilitation Major Lauren Lowry said she felt Coke burns her throat, and it would be better if they had both Coke machines and Pepsi machines on campus.

“It never bothered me until it changed this year. I was upset that I found out last week that I can’t get Mountain Dew on campus and I get used to get Mountain Dew and do homework in the library,” Lowry said.

Hauke said that if Pepsi and Coke both had machines at the university, the school wouldn’t get any money.

“So at least the university and the students of the university get some money from the products that they are consuming,” Hauke said.

Hauke said Coca-Cola Company is local in Emporia, so it is an advantage because the company is able to refill the Coke machines more frequently than Pepsi.

“Over the last few years, since Pepsi served out of Wichita, it took longer to get products in the machines,” Hauke said.

Jeff McCullough, General Manager for Sodexo, food services contractor for the Memorial Union, said he has had good experience with the new vendor during the transition.

“Coke has been instrumental in helping us upgrade the concession program at the stadium, as well as supporting our recycling and sustainability efforts,” McCullough said.

Hauke said he thinks the new contract will work out well.

“I think the Coke Company enjoys doing business with us,” Hauke said.

Lauren Lau

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Pedersen

On Monday, I have a photojournalism class in the evening. The first Monday back is always a tiring one, so I decided to buy a Mountain Dew during our break to wake myself up. So I went to the vending machine, pulled out my $1.25 and prepared my mouth for some limey refreshment.

But alas, there was no Dew to be had. In fact, there were no Pepsi products at all, and the drinks cost $1.50. And it was then I remembered that Emporia State had signed a deal with Coca Cola to sell their products exclusively.

Now I am not a man who has to have a soda every day, nor do I really prefer Pepsi over Coke. I will enjoy a soft drink from time to time, but not very often. But when I do enjoy a bottle of the bubbly, I do not want to pay as much for 16 ounces as I would for an immense 44 ounces at the Kwik Shop across the street.

And, of course, it is not just soda that has risen in price, but also juice and bottled water. A few years ago, bottles of soda were only $1 and they haven’t risen by that much anywhere else.

When the school signed the deal with Coca Cola, it seems that they were cutting out competition in exchange for, perhaps, a larger cut of the profits. The prices of Coca Cola products have not risen anywhere else. It is only on campus that we are forced to pay extra, if we choose to drink things from a vending machine.

This bothers me.

It may not be a big deal. It is only a quarter. But it shows to me the trends that ESU has been following and it shows what they could do in the future. Perhaps they will require art supplies and books to be purchased exclusively from the campus bookstore and enforce it by threat of fines.

Hopefully that will never happen, but if they continue to reduce competition, we could eventually find ourselves in a situation like that. Our entire economic structure is based on choice and preference, and they are rocking the boat.

We are a capitalistic society and competition is the backbone of our economy. The cola wars have been going on for as long as I can remember, back to the days of Pepsi Blue and Coke’s failed new recipe.

Now the school has cut out that competition in exchange for a deal. I can understand that the school always has a need to be greedy, we are renovating the Memorial Union and, let’s face it, much of the rest of the campus could use a renovation as well.

But I still don’t see that as an excuse to charge us more for soda. Student fees have already been raised and they will probably continue to be, so why not add in some extra money for what we can maybe assume the school can make from soda and call it even?

Personally, I will not buy into this game. I have not purchased anything from a vending machine yet this year, and I don’t plan on doing it in the future. I will gladly bring a bottle of water from home which I can reuse before I will pay an exorbitant amount for a bottle of water from a vending machine, and I urge you to do the same.

¡Viva la Revolución!

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