Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Illegal Mexicans?

Just when one thought the war over the porous borders had worn out comes news of the latest Mexican invasion:

Let's pour ourselves a cold one while others pour over its meaning


After reading that Costco was now importing Coca-Cola made in Mexico with pure cane sugar instead of the high fructose corn syrup used when bottled in the United States, I picked some up when it finally became available at my local warehouse. The cost is outrageously high (75¢ per bottle vs. 25¢/can for the American-made stuff. Perhaps Costco is unable to buy direct from the Mexican bottler at the heavy discounts afforded it within the United States, or perhaps Costco knows a great booster for Costco's margin when they see one. Given that sugar on the world market costs even less than corn syrup in the U.S., at first I was leaning to the latter explanation. But then I remembered that U.S. bottlers of coke retain all distribution rights within the U.S.A., just as the Mexican bottlers reserve those rights within Mexico, so it sounds moe plausible that Costco is paying much more to bypass the distribution system regulations to get the product. Either way, I expect someone may be complaining about illegal Mexicans of another kind some time soon, if they are not already.

Some friends are getting together on Sunday and our idea is to conduct a "blind" taste test of sugary Coke and corny Coke. Until then,

¡Viva México!

Vive la différence!

¡Viva La Revolución!

(...Err, never mind that last one.)

(Photo: SFist.com)

6 comments:

Peter Hoh said...

I'm sure the glass bottles cost a lot more than the cans, and I doubt that Costco is returning the bottles for reuse.

I try to avoid corn syrup when I can. I enjoy Coke, but I keep my intake down. I'd probably drink more if I could get the kind made with sugar.

Randy said...

Peter: I thought this was pretty funny: First thing this morning, someone logged in at Costco headquarters clicked through to check out this post. They must keep a pretty close on eye on what others are saying about them on the internet.

chuck b. said...

I showed pictures of a certain large, well-known, local biotech's landscaping on my blog and named the company, and complimented their landscape.

Two or three different visitors from the company visited the blog for several weeks afterwards.

chuck b. said...

How do you know about global markets? Are you an investor, IR? :)

Randy said...

Chuck, was that biotech in Emeryville per chance? I'm past due to get over that way.

As for the investment angle - in what seems like a previous life, yes, that was once my vocation. Now it is my avocation ;-)

I keep checking for kitchen updates over on your site, chuck, but assume you aren't cooking on the new stove just yet.

chuck b. said...

No big visual changes in the kitchen, so I haven't updated it for a few days.

But the counter has been replaced (correctly this time) and the floor is in. Then they covered both the counter and the floor with paper in prelude to doing tile work. Besides the tile work, they just have to install the appliances, paint, and finish the electrical.

Two weeks max. But I'll believe it when I see it.

And, no--the biotech in question is Genentech in South San Francisco.