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Why The Price of Coke Didn't Change For 70 years : Planet Money For 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola stayed a nickel. Why? The answer includes a half a million vending machines and a 7.5 cent coin.

Planet Money

Why The Price of Coke Didn't Change For 70 years

By 

David Kestenbaum

Why The Price of Coke Didn't Change For 70 years

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Mike Fisher/Flickr
Coca-Cola
Mike Fisher/Flickr

Why The Price of Coke Didn't Change For 70 years

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This episode originally ran in 2015.

Prices go up. Occasionally, prices go down. But for 70 years, the price of a bottle of Coca-Cola didn't change. From 1886 until the late 1950s, a bottle of coke cost just a nickel.

On today's show, we find out why. The answer includes a half a million vending machines, a 7.5 cent coin, and a company president who just wanted to get a couple of lawyers out of his office.

Music: "I'd Like To Buy the World a Coke" and "Always Coca Cola."

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