Yeah, I worked at a fast food place and we got our soda syrup basically free if we served the drinks in Pepsi cups instead of the restaurant’s branded cups.
The margin difference is significant when you factor in the retail price of the soda is $2.59 and the retail price of the milk at $1.50.
Culvers can’t pull off a 500% margin with the milk like they do with the soda and likely uses a standard margin of about 20%-25% which still comes out cheaper than a soda. (I have no idea what their margins are, so just guessing.)
It depends on the serving of milk. If it’s a larger sized milk or juice, it’s going to be more expensive like you say. If it’s a school sized box, the total cost should be much less. Small drink boxes can be had for < $0.20 wholesale depending on your location, which should challenge the total cost of a fountain drink. (Total cost is raw materials + employee time + delivery overhead and other factors.)
There isn’t a specific source for this other than googling a bit for wholesale school milk prices. The rest is just estimates for normal business and delivery overhead.
Edit: I saw the size of the milk you just posted for another comment. The cheapest retail price I saw for that was $1.50. Locally, the cost of a Culvers fountain drink is $2.59 for me.
I just edited the post above after I did a price check. The retail price of the milk was more than a dollar cheaper and the milk is likely going to be even cheaper due to wholesale pricing and less delivery risk.
The .31 discount was in whatever other thing you bought,
You order cheeseburger deal for 9.00 with a coke it’s 9…00. That’s the list price. If you get it with milk 8.69. Pretty much everything is .31 cheaper with milk instead of the soda it normally comes with (though soda costs them almost nothing and milk costs several times more).
Like u said, I get how this works, but I find it mildly interesting since I haven’t seen other places do this.
It’s “cheaper” from a margin perspective. They can still apply a standard margin on the milk and have the price be less because of the ~500% markup on the sodas. (Admittedly, you have to twist your brain a little to think this corporate accounting is the slightest bit logical.)
If they applied the same margin to the milk, people would go batshit crazy.
But to clarify, I was initially assuming these were school style boxed milks where the raw costs could be comparable. The actual reason the milk is cheaper was price fuckery.
It’s not just that the drink is cheaper, though – the meal comes with a soda by default, but if you choose water or milk, the meal is 31 cents cheaper than normal.
That makes no sense, because the soda costs far less than the milk. It’s costing them more than 31 cents in profits than if you asked for no drink at all, though the milk costs them far more than the coke they’d give you by default.
The good will they get from having this on their menu must be worth those profits, and most people going there aren’t going to order that, so it’s got to be worth it, I guess.
Source?
I’ve worked in many restaurants, and Coke is far cheaper than milk of any kind. You buy Coke as concentrate.
Priced less*
Yeah, I worked at a fast food place and we got our soda syrup basically free if we served the drinks in Pepsi cups instead of the restaurant’s branded cups.
The margin difference is significant when you factor in the retail price of the soda is $2.59 and the retail price of the milk at $1.50.
Culvers can’t pull off a 500% margin with the milk like they do with the soda and likely uses a standard margin of about 20%-25% which still comes out cheaper than a soda. (I have no idea what their margins are, so just guessing.)
It depends on the serving of milk. If it’s a larger sized milk or juice, it’s going to be more expensive like you say. If it’s a school sized box, the total cost should be much less. Small drink boxes can be had for < $0.20 wholesale depending on your location, which should challenge the total cost of a fountain drink. (Total cost is raw materials + employee time + delivery overhead and other factors.)
There isn’t a specific source for this other than googling a bit for wholesale school milk prices. The rest is just estimates for normal business and delivery overhead.
Edit: I saw the size of the milk you just posted for another comment. The cheapest retail price I saw for that was $1.50. Locally, the cost of a Culvers fountain drink is $2.59 for me.
This:
e: And again, this was -.30 off my bill. Getting nothing at all would have cost more.
I just edited the post above after I did a price check. The retail price of the milk was more than a dollar cheaper and the milk is likely going to be even cheaper due to wholesale pricing and less delivery risk.
Now the question is, why only a $0.31 discount?
Healer than what? Free?
The .31 discount was in whatever other thing you bought,
You order cheeseburger deal for 9.00 with a coke it’s 9…00. That’s the list price. If you get it with milk 8.69. Pretty much everything is .31 cheaper with milk instead of the soda it normally comes with (though soda costs them almost nothing and milk costs several times more).
Like u said, I get how this works, but I find it mildly interesting since I haven’t seen other places do this.
It’s “cheaper” from a margin perspective. They can still apply a standard margin on the milk and have the price be less because of the ~500% markup on the sodas. (Admittedly, you have to twist your brain a little to think this corporate accounting is the slightest bit logical.)
If they applied the same margin to the milk, people would go batshit crazy.
But to clarify, I was initially assuming these were school style boxed milks where the raw costs could be comparable. The actual reason the milk is cheaper was price fuckery.
Thanks.
It’s not just that the drink is cheaper, though – the meal comes with a soda by default, but if you choose water or milk, the meal is 31 cents cheaper than normal.
That makes no sense, because the soda costs far less than the milk. It’s costing them more than 31 cents in profits than if you asked for no drink at all, though the milk costs them far more than the coke they’d give you by default.
The good will they get from having this on their menu must be worth those profits, and most people going there aren’t going to order that, so it’s got to be worth it, I guess.