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Comment by mootothemax | Hacker News Reader

But once you're done drinking your tiny amount of Pepsi, if you get thirsty you'll have to buy Coke.

Not true, here's the sample menu from London 2012 that illustrates what will typically be available at venues inside the olympic park:

Bottled water – £1.60

Fairtrade tea – from £2.00

Fairtrade coffee – from £2.60

500ml bottle of Coca-Cola – £2.30

330ml bottle of Heineken – £4.20

London 2012 red wine 18.7cl – £4.80

http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/Documents/General/01/2...

Definitely overpriced, but Coke isn't the only option.

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£2.30 a bottle??? What the fuck are Coke thinking? Paying all that money to sponsor the games and then absolutely shafting anyone who actually buys your drink. Everyone will be walking away saying "Fuck me, that coke was expensive." - I can't believe that's the message they're wanting to leave behind.

I have a flat in London, but I'm staying away for the whole of the Olympics. I'm ashamed of the whole thing. "At this unprecedented time of War, Crisis and Recession. Your Dear Government offer you to enjoy the International Games. But you must Be Cautious at all times. Our Security Services and Army will try to ensure that you are not killed while watching the shot-put."

I don't see why this is surprising? All big events have outrageous prices. Compared to some gigs I've been to they even seem somewhat reasonable. There are much worse things brought about by the Olympics being here than the prices charged to those in the event itself.

Will you be renting your flat for the duration of the games? In Vancouver they tried to regulate that too.

This definitely reinforces the point. You're not allowed to bring your own drinks in, if you want to drink anything you must buy an overpriced drink from one of 3 or 4 sponsors.

This definitely reinforces the point. You're not allowed to bring your own drinks in, if you want to drink anything you must buy an overpriced drink from one of 3 or 4 sponsors.

Well, that's a different argument from the one that coke is your only option ;)

Can't say that I like these sponsorship deals enforcing things like this though. Going to a festival? Flat Carlsberg it is!

  > that coke is your only option

For instance, The Coca-Cola Company owns several bottled water brands. No one said that "Coke the drink" was the only thing available.

"Dasani - London tapwater with added toxic levels of Benzene"

Admittedly the tag line needs some work, but with a good enough Logo it will sell.

Fairtrade tea – from £2.00 Fairtrade coffee – from £2.60

Rather expensive for a cup of hot water. Does that price include a teaspoon of fairtrade sugar and a dash of fairtrade milk or cream?

Then again, its not very fairtrade for coffee farmers/producers to get 60p more for their product than tea farmers/producers. Wonder how much of that excess markup the farmers actually end up seeing.

$3.56 coke must be mighty special.

I don't get why any sports enthusiast would ever drink a drink that's just corn syrup, even if it were free.

McDonalds is the official fast food sponsor of Londinium MMXII !

I read they will have the worlds largest McDonalds there.

Well I will feel very disappointed if we don't see all the athletes eating there every day

I guess money is money, doesn't matter where it comes from, it's sad but the games have gone downhill ever since they stopped letting lions in the stadium, in my opinion.

UK Coke (and large parts of the non-US world) is cane sugar based rather than corn syrup.

It's not good for you, but it tastes a whole lot better.

That's typical London pricing.

Paris is much worse. The same 500ml bottle will cost you $5.33 at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The Heineken's cheaper than in a pub in Dublin!

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