Two stories. They aren't related except in that they happened today at the same place: My local supermarket.
First, there's the inflation story.
Kiss the traditional 6-pack of soda goodbye. Or, at least, kiss the 6-pack of 12 oz cans goodbye. Coke and Pepsi have simultaneously rolled out 8-packs of tiny soda cans. I checked their size: 7.5 oz.
Six 12 oz cans gave us 72 ounces of soda. Eight 7.5 oz cans give us just 60 ounces. The price is the same, so there's our inflation.
I can't wait for the advertisements to begin, with smiling liberals telling us how pleased they are that Coke and Pepsi are doing their part to fight childhood obesity. Of course, if THAT were really the case, they'd be rolling out 7.5 ounce TEN PACKS. We therefore know that inflation is the real motivation.
Boxes of soda, by the way, still hold 12 ounce cans. And the generic soda makers don't seem to have been affected. But, you can bet, it's just a matter of time before they'll be selling smaller amounts as well.
The second story came as I left the store. I was in the crosswalk walking to the parking lot as a grey cadillac cruised slowly toward me. She wasn't slowing in the least as she approached, so I slowed down and just watched. She cruised right up to me without ever stopping. Her head was craned almost 90 degrees to the right the entire time. I bent over so my head was about two inches from the driver window thinking "This'll scare the bejezus out of her!" But, no, she never turned her head and just continued on, oblivious to the fact that she'd just run through a crosswalk with a person in it.
If it had been a child who was crossing instead of me, she could easily have killed him. All at under 10 miles per hour. Nice.
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