The Price of Power Drinks

So I hated coffee. Still do hate coffee. Didn't have a cup of coffee until I was 26. Only reason I drink coffee now is because it has anti-carcinogenic thingies in it. And whilst I lived off of Mountain Dew and the shortly-lived Surge during my collegiate years, I would have killed to have had the power drinks that we have today.

Of course today I do not exert myself physically or mentally anywhere near as much as I did in college, but I have at least one a day, typically two. And depsite all the research and whatever else people say about it;

1. They do wake me up
2. The power drink of my choice has a full supplement of vitamin C in it
3. My liver be damned

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a classic, text book example the power drink market was of an industry going from monopoly to a perfectly competitive market. It should be in every modern day economics text book, of course, that would require most economists to get a clue and abandon "widgets" and "utils."

The most obvious characteristic of an industry going from monopoly to perfectly competitive is the decrease in price and the power drink market is no exception.

Notice Red Bull was the first to come out, debuting in 1997. I couldn't afford it back then and it was largely something for preppy frat boys from the suburbs to drink to cure hangovers, not so much as to wake them up cause they only got 3 hours sleep the previous night because they were working. It's market price was $2.12.

What was interesting was the introduction of two new comers to the market, Pepsi's "Amp" and Coke's "Sobe Adrenaline Rush." These (as far as my recollection can tell me) came in around 1999-2000. However, again adhering to the classical textbook of economics, we had an oligopoly and there seemed to be price fixing (or at least standardization) as prices remained at $2.12. And again, following a classic lesson in economics, product differentiation and improvement occured. Red Bull tasted like sh!t. Rush and Amp did not.

From 2002 or so on the flood gates opened and product differentiation occured. Michael Savage's son started producing "Rock Star" which was just one of a score of "double shots." I remember seeing one called "Bullet" which the can was literally in the shape of a large caliber bullet. I even remember seeing "Boo-Koo" a QUADRUPLE shot of power drink. Your pee would come out an interesting hue of yellowish green.

Come 2003, early 2004 the original players noticed they were being squeezed and thus you started seeing Amp, Sobe and Red Bull being sold at Wal-Mart in 4 packs, effectively bringing their price down to about $1.79. But then came my savior.

You see, even though by this time I was making good coin, I still couldn't get myself to splurge on things that seemed excessive. Maybe it's the economist in me, but I'll never drive a beamer. Beamers are for insecure baby boomers who still think they're in high school and have to impress everybody. I'll never buy anything at Starbucks because I am not a preppy gen-Xer that is stupid enough to drop $3 on frilly girly girl coffee. I'll never buy a suit that costs more than $500. I'll never stay at a fancy hotel when there's a perfectly good way side I can pull the car over and crash. Thus, forking over $2 for what amounted to a fraction of a soda was a no-no as well.

Oh, but the power of the free market should never be estimated for in came Rooster Booster.

4 pack.

$4.27

Full regiment of vitamin C

Cheaper than soda.

You gotta love capitalism.

Thus for the past 2 years I've had my daily Rooster Booster, usually an afternoon one too. I swear by them and the people at my office look at it and then look at me as if I'm some strange zoo animal.

But the forces of capitalism do not relent. For just last week I saw "Vault" the newest entrant into the power drink market.

Tastes good

Really wakes you up

79 cents.

It's a text book lesson come true.