- Multinationals -

coca-cola corporation

I just addressed the issue of coca-cola to the student body government of my school, Metro State College in Denver, Colorado. Our campus holds three different schools including Metro. There are over 30,000 students on campus who drink coca-cola now. The reason all these students drink coke is because the schools signed an exclusive contract with coke to put all their products in every vending machine on campus. All products other than coke have been removed from the campus. I think this is a form of monopoly that impacts the students on campus. We have to pay the price coke offers for drinks because there is no other competition to compete for better prices-We pay $1.00 for every drink offered by coke, this includes their Fruitopia and Dasani water products. This also limits the choices students have at the vending machine. Most students I surveyed said they prefered Mountain Dew and Pepsi over Coke, however, they don't have that choice. This is a very serious issue here in Denver. For exsample, the two newest stadiums additions here, the Pepsi Center and Coors Field, are obviously named after and sponsored by beverage corporations. Also, Starbucks has taken over the market at the "16th street Mall" here, which is an outdoor mall that goes on for several blocks-Starbucks has 7 coffee shops in this strip. These do not include contracts with other businesses such as Barns and Noble who sell Starbucks coffee on the mall. These corporations are finding that if they sell to the highest bidder they can monopolize a great deal of business. The problem with coca-cola is they do these types of deals across the world. They are the number one advertizer of drink products in the world. People in other countries, like Mexico, will spend a whole days pay just to buy one Coke, because it makes them look wealthy and more American. Coke knows this and that is why it is so expensive in other countries. So what's the big deal. Big corporations like coke are buying the rights to control and influence major demographics. My campus has 30,000 students-that's a lot of advertizing and influence. The same can be said about the Stadiums. They not only own and sell drinks they own other companies that control and influence what we eat, drink, think, buy and believe. For exsample, Coke owns MTV-Coke now has a forum that is targeted to a whole generation they have the power to influence this demographic, too. The corporations control the media and influence government and they sell a lot of products we don't need. I don't even drink soda pop, but on my campus if I wanted to the only choice I would have is to drink coke...that bothers me!

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