The High Price Of Addiction
Posted on | March 1, 2006 at 12:46 pm | 7 Comments
So I went to get my morning Diet Pepsi (which is almost tasting normal now, post-virus) from the Vending Machine of Death, and what did I find? The price of a can of pop in all the vending machines in the breakroom went up from $.60 to $.75. I believe this is the first price increase in my eight years at the company. What’s up with that? If you catch the pretty-much-every-weekend pop sales at Safeway, you can get a 12-pack of just about anything for around $3, which comes to $.25 per can. I had already been bringing in 12 packs of Diet Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper in order to give myself some variety, but now I guess I’ll have to bring in Diet Pepsi as well. That’s such a hassle to carry in though. And I have to use the communal refrigerators to store them, since having a small fridge in your cubicle apparently taxes the power system to the point where it blows some circuits. For some reason, some people obviously think that pop in the breakroom fridge is free for everybody and they will just take a can if they don’t have money for the vending machine. I’ve had to put “Hands off!” notes on the cartons. Also, the facilities people clean the refrigerators once a month or so and have been known to throw out anything left in them. They usually don’t throw out the pop, but they do throw out the cartons and scatter the cans all over the inside of the fridge. Hassle, hassle, hassle!
I’ll betcha that I’m not the only one disgusted with this price increase, and I bet vending machine profit goes down instead of up. At least now I don’t have to worry about the VMoD catapulting nickels and dime change across the room.
Oh, it could be worse. I could be working for an employer like Google, who provide their employees with free gourmet cafeteria food in return for indentured servitude. At least sometimes we get free water when the drinking fountains are working. (The plumbing is really iffy in this old converted warehouse – we’re lucky when the bathrooms work.)
Latre.
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7 Responses to “The High Price Of Addiction”
March 1st, 2006 @ 2:34 pm
Without fail, the cleaning staff throw out every single last item in the fridges here by 5:00 p.m. each Friday. While I see the logic in cleaning them out weekly — nothing’s scarier than an out-of-control corporate fridge — I’m not sure why they have to go to the extreme of tossing unopened sodas, yogurts, frozen meals, beer, etc. I’ve lost more than my share of Tupperware, delicious sandwich halves, pizza, fruit, and yogurt when I forget the time and go to rescue my food too late. One time, I even lost a very nice bottle of champagne that I’d been awarded earlier in the day at the company meeting.
They also throw out any workout clothes, towels, or toiletries left in the locker room each Friday. Ruthless!
March 1st, 2006 @ 2:42 pm
I sympathize. They had a fridge cleaning day last week while I was out sick, so I was unable to take my stash home. Lost some perfectly good string cheese and pudding cups. To be fair, they also threw out a sandwich I had never gotten around to eating and which had probably become a biology experiment by that point.
March 2nd, 2006 @ 5:25 pm
Amy, you can keep beer in your company fridge? Can you drink it with lunch? Lucky.
March 2nd, 2006 @ 6:25 pm
Yeah Amy, that’s pretty cool. Beer in our company fridge would probably get you suspended or fired.
I also forgot to mention that none of the three refrigerators in our breakroom keep things at what I would consider a cold enough temperature (especially compared to the vending machines). So that’s another reason to not keep pop in it. And with the ice machine out, there’s not much that people who like really cold drinks can do!
March 2nd, 2006 @ 9:28 pm
Don’t you live in Colorado? Just keep the soda outside – it’ll be cold enough!
March 2nd, 2006 @ 10:15 pm
What, and chain it to a bike rack?
Hey, I bet it’s warmer here than in Wisconsin. We were in the 70s a couple of days ago.
March 3rd, 2006 @ 12:20 pm
This-here company is pretty lax when it comes to alcohol. Before we opened a European office and had to schedule company meetings earlier in the day, we used to have beer during those monthly meetings. (Nowadays, we get beer, wine, and snacks at 4:30 on company meeting Fridays.)
Actually, I think there’s an ancient case of Heineken and a handle of Tanqueray in the cupboard below the printer across the hall from my office. Oh, and I have a bottle of Rioja in one of my file drawers should an impromptu late-afternoon shindig materialize. And, um, some Ukrainian vodka, courtesy of an ex-boss.