22 Jul
Okey Dokey Coca Cola?
I don't like Coca Cola, nor Pepsi come to think of it. Both are too sweet and far from refreshing, but, hey, I'm not going to tell Our Kid to stop drinking it while I'm downing a bottle or two of Bintang Pilsener during our regular sessions at Ya Udah.
Several years ago, because I thought that things went better without Coke, contrary to their then advertising slogan, and having no intention of teaching the world to sing, I went on several treks hoping to actually reach a place where I couldn't actually get a Coke, even if I had wanted one. I failed; I found it in tea stalls outside monasteries in the Karakoram range of the Himalayas, on the Burmese border of the northern hills of Thailand, and at the top of Gunung Batur in Bali.
Although I personally believe that their whole marketing strategy is one of cultural imperialism, what concerns me at the moment is their sheer cynicism – hypocrisy even – when it comes to their 'corporate social responsibility'. I'll explain this in a further post. First read this email I received yesterday from my favourite trough here in Jakarta.
Is Idiot Stencilled Across Consumers' Foreheads?
For over 10 years the Ya Udah Bistro has had on its drinks list Coca Cola products, such as Cola Original, Sprite, Fanta Red and soda water as well as Diet – now Zero – Cola. With the exception of Diet Cola, which always comes in a can, all others have been offered in 295 ml glass bottles. Recently, running low on Sprite, we placed an order with the Cola Company, but did not receive any delivery as they claimed that the 295 ml bottles 'tidak ada stock, i.e. not in stock.
After repeated orders and no delivery we contacted Coca Cola Sales and we were informed that not only Sprite but all other drinks in 295 ml glass bottles have been discontinued and only the baby 200 ml size is still available in glass bottles. There are now only their so-called PET plastic bottles and cans available.
Obviously we are not happy. Firstly, serving drinks in a can or a plastic bottle does not look great in a restaurant.
But what's more, Coca Cola are using this the size reduction as a reason to jack up its prices. After all, even a blind man on a galloping horse can see that one-way cans and plastic bottles cost extra which, alas, the consumer will pay for. With no need to collect and wash the glass bottles, it makes things easier for the Coca Cola Company. They can simply dump the stuff on consumers and have no further responsibility. We wonder if we just paid and did not get supplies, would that make it even easier for them?
And take this quoted comment from the Cola company for good measure: …Our suggestion is moving to can 250 ml which is more efficient because it is a one-way-package thus you don't need a large storage for our product. Plus an added value for our cans which are made by aluminum (Al Who?) and could be re-sold per kg in the market….
We do wonder what happened to avoiding waste, saving energy and all that stuff.
What are we going to do? Well, we have no other alternative but to serve the products in the baby size 200 ml glass bottle, but we shall not, cannot, lower the price. However, dear reader, we will try and discourage the consumption of these products and suggest that you consider an iced lemon tea, a milk shake or a smoothie instead.
One thing is for sure: we shall take the promo banner for Cola Zero off our website.
The Ya Udah would very much welcome it if you would let us know your comments and views on this.
Comment
Apart from continuing to personally boycott Coca Cola, I wonder if a possible alternative for Ya 'Udah and other like-minded establishments is Coke on draft.
Views
My views follow in a separate post – Hokey Pokey Coca Cola.
Gotta say, I cannot ever recall having a coke at Ya Udah…There has gotta be a way to get a coke machine that runs the beverage straight into a glass, right? They use 'em in fast food joints like Mickey Ds…
Not possible to boycott coke altogether?
Ah yes, "cultural imperialism", "boycott", those terms take me back to the good ol'days, why not bung in "running dogs" and "lackeys" and it'll feel like 1964 all over again. Why do we only use these terms when related to American products? Japanese manga comics, Brazilian football stars, Italian pizzas, British pop music – all factors in the great internationalisation of our world society – never seem to evince the same frothing at the mouth that is caused by US sandwich makers and fizzy drink producers.
Oddly enough the same people who get so hysterical about such globalism are usually the same sort of people who comment about how much more "vibrant" British society has become since the 1950's with the arrival of so many foreign cultures from around the world. There's obviously "good" and "bad" foreign influences I suppose and it's easier to ignore Islamic radicalism from the Arabian peninsula or rampant Chinese commercial exploitation of Indonesian natural resources and concentrate our vitriol on the real villains of Indonesian life; the makers of carbonated beverages.
There is a country that you can avoid Coca-Cola by the way, Pyongyang is lovely at this time of year too, strangely enough the Coke bashers are never actually very keen to go there.
So why do you stick to Bintang at Ya 'Udah, Miko? Besides, as I say above, I didn't stop Our Kid from having Coke when we were there yesterday.
As for Italian pizza, I much prefer it to the franchised chloresterol-laden stodge available here.
But back to my main point, which is Coca Cola's hypocrisy in 'sponsoring' go green campaigns whilst adding to the 4,500 tons of garbage dumped in the Bekasi landfill every day. (See the post below.)
Ok let's get this into some sort of perspective, what proportion of the 4,500 tons of garbage is made up from Coca-Cola products? I've no idea but at a rough guess I'd think maybe 0.00001% might be a fair estimate. This isn't the United States, Coca-Cola accounts for an infinitismal amount of the food and beverage market here, yet at the same time the only company which is prepared to at least give something back in the form of their environmental sponsorship is the one company you choose to publicly pillory in two posts on your blog.
When I've been swimming in the beaches of Bali and trying to avoid the countless Indomie wrappers and black plastic bags that once contained some form of Indonesian fast food I have to say I have never encountered a piece of Coca-Cola packaging but I don't recall you devoting as much energy to attacking home grown food manufacturers.
I think your outdated notion of sweet fizzy drinks being some form of " cultural imperialism" gives the game away, trust me in the grand scheme of things Coca-Cola poses less than no threat to Indonesian society, on the contrary it would appear from the evidence you yourself have provided that in fact they're being a damned sight more beneficial to Indonesian society than any of the local food and drink producers.
As Rob says all Ya'udah has to do is install a soda dispenser machine if they're that bothered about their carbon(ated?) footprint, but why do that when it's so much easier to blame the Yankees for all the problems in the world?