Odd Question--for those around in 1969--

[SRHowen]

or anyone who might know --

What did a bottle of Pepsi cost in 1969? You know the ones you could get at a gas station, the little ones that stood in the heat in those neat wooden crates until they put them in the machine?

Same for a Hershey bar. Think that was 10 cents, but I may be wrong.

Shawn

[wurdwise]

Well, let's see. I was 14 in 1969. My grandpa owned a service station, and there was a red Coke box, you put the money in and slid the soda down a metal trolley thingamabob. I think it was a quarter. I'm almost sure. Also, back then I would save soda bottles and carry them to the store in my basket on the front of my bicylce and sell them. The bottles brought good money, I am thinking you got, maybe a nickel for each one.

Pepsi's logo was different, I am sure you know that. You might be able to google Pepsi memorabilia to back up that price and look at that old logo, if it would help your story.

Hope this has been useful.

[CindyBidar]

I was born in 1967, and I have one of those magnets on the fridge that says what the average wage was, what a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread or a car cost, but nothing about soda. Maybe you will find something useful here, though...

Historic prices for Morris County New Jersey (http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/prices/)

Create your own time capsule here (http://dmarie.com/timecap/step1.asp)

Also, see if your local library has newspapers from that date. I have the one from the day I was born, but it's framed, so I can't look at the ads.

[SRHowen]

Yup, I remember the red box, and I remember the deposit on the bottles you bought in the 8 packs of 16 oz bottles. But I can't remember the price, I as well think it was 25 cents. I did google and found all sorts of stuff on Pepsi history--except price.

My grandparents owned a truck stop. I loved those wooden boxes the bottles came in--LOL

On one link you gave me I found Soda for 7 cents a can. Hmm---still looking.

Wonder if e-bay has any around? Side track, but would love one for my office.

Shawn

[CapeRuby]

I remember candy bars were under a quarter, but Pepsi? Hrm. Don't remember.

FWIW, this site lists the 1968 price of a vending machine Coke as a dime.

www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/paulos090904.html (http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/paulos090904.html)

[SRHowen]

Found the candy bar--10 cents

The Coke will work!

Thanks.

Shawn

[Tish Davidson]

You can check out dMarie time capsule. It has info like what stuff cost at certain times as well as the top movies, songs, headlines of each year.

www.dmarie.com/timecap/ (http://www.dmarie.com/timecap/)

[mr mistook]

I was born in 1969, but by 1976 I was old enough to have an allowance and buy stuff. I remember everything in the world was a quarter. A comic book, can of pop, and candy bar were a quarter each.

So it wouldn't suprise me if seven years earlier, all these things were still a dime.

[Greenwolf103]

Although I'm a Coke drinker, I avidly collect old soda and whatnot bottles. I have some pretty old Pepsi bottles, but not sure of the date. Also got Pepsi AND Coke memorabalia advertising the stuff at 5 cents.

[nightrider27]

Going back a ways but, the "small" bottles in machines were 10 cents at the gas station I worked at during highschool in 68-69. That included 7up, Hires Rootbeer, Coke, Pepsi, Diet Rite and Squirt. That's going back.

[anatole ghio]

I ditto the 10 cents. I remember those old vending machines and vaguely remember losing a dime and getting upset that I wouldn't be able to have a soda pop... I was real young then if you couldn't tell. :)

- Anatole

[Jamesaritchie]

In '69, the price of a Pepsi depended on where you bought it, and what size bottle you got. It wasn't the same price everywhere, but I know some vending machines did cost a quarter for a 16oz Pepsi in '69 because one of the newer, modern looking machines sat across the street from our house, and it was a quarter. Coke was usually, though not always, cheaper, and RC was cheaper still. You could still buy the 6 and a half oz Cokes for a dime, but that didn't last long, either.

We thought a quarter was an outrageous price, especially since candy bars had also gone up to a dime.

Only a couple of years earlier, a 12 oz Coke or Pepsi was a dime, and RC was eight cents, and candy bars were a nickel. RC was very popular in '69. partly because it was cheap, and partly because a suprising number had money under the caps. Pepsie started doing this, as well.

In stores, the two cent deposit on the bottles sent the price up, but vending machines cost more because you couldn't pay the deposit, so it had to be built into the cost.

The local grain elevator still sold Pepsi and Coke for 15 cents out of one of those lift the lid type machines, and Nehi was cheaper, but I don't remember if it was ten cents or twelve.

But by '69, nowhere around where I lived sold Pepsi for less than fifteen cents, and that was the 12oz bottle.

[mr mistook]

It's just so amazing the way prices have gone up. I know what a banal statement that is, but I think this question makes us all feel our age.

I've jibed before about being a "youngster" on this forum, but to realize (as I have in many other instances) how close I am to that world where nickels and dimes still bought things - well, it's humbling.

My older brothers and sisters remember that nickel and dime world, and my parents remember when the penny itself was quite an economic force.

In my world of quarters, a dollar still had a lot of power. I could fuel myself for a whole weekend on comic books, candy, and pop, for only two bucks! If I scrounged up some change from inside the couch - there was penny candy! - it was all gravy!

I know my peers were the last in my town to have a drug store with a soda fountain. We took it for granted then. My soda fountain seemed different and more modern than the soda fountains of the 60's or 50's. But then that drug store closed down, and all these years later I realize I was on the cusp of an era.

(*sigh)

[katdad]

>>What did a bottle of Pepsi cost in 1969?<<

A quarter. Some rural machines were 15 cents but most had gone to a quarter. That was pretty much the standard then, a quarter. I was in SanFran, Washington DC, Daytona Beach, and most points in between, so I can speak from experience.

And bottles were being phased out and most were vending cans by then, mostly because of the deposit.

Bottle vending machines were also too easy to cheat, assuming nobody was there to watch. The vertical standing bottles? You could pop the top and use a straw. And those machines where the bottles lay on their sides, in a tall vertical row? Just have a big cup beneath, pop the top, and you've got a free Coke. So everybody went to cans quickly.

Beers were 50-65 cents a bottle in a bar, and we all griped when they went to a 75. Grrr.

Candy bars were mostly 15 cents but they'd begun to shrink them, and they had the original size for 25 cents.

I remember nickel Cokes and candy bars but that was when I was a kid. I was born in 41. I don't know how much beer cost because I had to wait till I was older. ha ha.

[preyer]

off-topic, but there's still one company i know of that still has 16 oz. returnable bottles and that's ALE81 (ale 8) based in kentucky. interesting (to me) to note that down there everywhere you see ale8 vending machines (i swear they must give these to people upon graduation), while i doubt you'll find as many coke and pepsi machines combined. i wonder if other places around the u.s. is like that.

[SRHowen]

I went with 15 cents for a 12 oz bottle gotten from an old upright fridge in a small local store. And 10 on the candy bar. Though the guy charges my character 5 cents deposit on the bottles---but that's for story purposes.

Thanks all,

Shawn

[katdad]

I went with 15 cents etc...
Sounds fine for a mom & pop venue.

Just remember that 1969 wasn't THAT long ago (ha ha). I was already out of college and sowing my wild oats by then. And I don't really qualify for geezer yet.

[rtilryarms]

Oh crap!

I was at the archives today for 3 hours going through the old newpaper microfilms. If I read this first I would have looked for an advertisement for you.

Dang
sorry

[Jamesaritchie]

There was an easy way to cheat the conventional stack soda machines, if you had strong hands. Any machine, can or bottle, that had the soda lying on it's side in stacks could be plucked easily, once the stacks were low enough to take some of the weight off.

You could reach up through the opening where the cans or bottles fell, liift the stack, and then slide the bottom can or bottle over to the drop chute.

Venders knew this, and tried to keep enough pop in the machines to stop anyone from pulling this stunt, but when a stack got down to fifteen cans or bottles, it was light enough to be pushed upward about four inches, and that's all it took. My guess is we drank more free Pepsi and Coke this way than we ever paid for.

If someone caught you with your hand in the machine you just said, "The &%^$#$% thing took my money. I'm trying to get the thing unstuck."

There was a man in our small town who owned a Papsi machine and kept it next to his garage. We slipped over there one night and reached up through the slot, getting out twelve cans before it went empty. It was so dark we couldn't see, but we stuffed a small sack and made our way back to our clubhouse to drink them.

But when we lit the lantern in our clubhouse, we found ourselves with twelve cans of Weideman's beer, rather than twelve cans of Pepsi. A rather pleasant surprise for fourteen year old kids. We pulled this stunt a couple more times before he got wise and moved the machine inside his garage.

[macalicious731]

That's a really great story, James. :D