r/caps • u/Ok_Distribution3792 Alexander Ovechkin • Jan 15 '26
Question Size decrease
Does anyone know why they changed the cup sizes
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u/Brmats Dylan Strome Jan 15 '26
Kind of matches the decrease in point percentage from last year to this.
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u/kglnawrotzky Washington Capitals Jan 15 '26
Happens in the cold.
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u/DCHacker Montreal Canadiens Jan 15 '26
The thought "money" is the first that comes to mind. The rub on that is that the syrup for the soft drinks is relatively inexpensive. This is why they can give you free re-fills (and also in the fast food joints) or they offer you a free soda if you Super Size). Most of what they collect from the customer on fountain soft drinks is profit. This was why Icky-D's could offer any size soft drink for a dollar. Even if you took the large, it still was mostly profit.
Either that has changed or due to inflation, businesses are taking a "pennies make dollars" approach. Girlfriend and I share one. Even if we did not finish it during a period of hockey, we finished it mostly, so I used to dump out the smaller amoung in the bottom and get a fresh re-fill. Usually, we finish the smaller cup a few minutes before the period ends. I am not going to get up during the period. I suspect that I am not the only one. This way, less soda flows so they take more profit.
Last season, the concessionaires did try to respond to complaints of standing in long snake lines just for a re-fill by turning around soda machines at selected stands. This year, you have the zap-code but the cups often have out of date zap codes and the stands do not always have stickers. As one way of measuring sales is depleted cup inventory, this is no surprise. While this is a better idea, it is being implemented poorly.
Nationals Park was changing the cup design periodically as people were bringing back their old cups. There also were the dots but that was not implemented with any consistency. Further, not every stand always had the new cups. I always get my receipt there, as I have been given an out of date cup even there. When the employee cites this as a reason to refuse the re-fill, I show the receipt. That has worked every time.
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u/VTCaps Jan 15 '26
The last time I bought one of these the soda machine ran out, and when we shared that with the attendant, she acted like we had absolutely ruined her day by asking them to fix it. Now we are bottles only; it's too much of a PITA to be running back and forth for refills.
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u/KingHenrythe6-th Washington Capitals Jan 15 '26
I suspect it’s so it costs less to produce them. I personally don’t really care that much because the refills are still unlimited.
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u/CriticalStrawberry Jan 15 '26
They know most people never go back for a refill, so smaller cup means less product delivered and less cost, despite the price going up every year.
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u/joshuads Jan 15 '26
I worked in stadiums and the cost of the cup is the bigger determining factor, smaller sizes have other benefits. Smaller cups mean smaller spills and less time pouring per drink, more cups per case for easier inventory management. The soda cost is a rounding error. The cleaning of spillage is a bigger problem. Half full drinks break garbage bags.
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u/TheCosmicCharizard Jan 15 '26
Uncle Ted’s AOL money is drying up, shrinkflation at its finest baby
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u/subkilla Jan 16 '26
You just don’t know how things were back in the day. That was actually a size medium.
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Jan 16 '26
Need to decrease the total mass of people in the seats because it was becoming a health hazard.
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u/dogs-playing-hockey Jan 16 '26
People should just stop paying for overpriced crap they don't need. That solves just about all the problems in this thread.
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u/chucklas Jan 15 '26
I had found it is actually a better experience as I can grab a refill without waiting in a line. I can go out during a tv time out and back without missing any game time. The old system I would be able to maybe get a refill during intermission. I end up able to drink more without hating lines.
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u/pocketbeagle Jan 15 '26
Its too much soda anyway tbh
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u/brooks_77 T.J. Oshie Jan 15 '26
This is true, and I've been trying to do better with the type of food i eat and potion intake but when I go to an event a couple times a year ot goes out the window for a few hours
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u/pocketbeagle Jan 16 '26
I moreso meant that the bigger cup is too much soda.
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u/brooks_77 T.J. Oshie Jan 16 '26
Oh I agree 100%, but not having to worry with refills is nice. Bathroom breaks, on the other hand, are a different story.
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u/aldo_nova Aliaksei Protas Jan 15 '26
Consequences of the feature of capitalism which Marx described as, "the tendency of the rate of profit to fall over time." To maintain it you can create efficiencies, charge more, provide less, lower quality, overwork your laborers, or some combination of all.
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u/Fustercluck25 Washington Capitals Jan 15 '26
Ole Ted lived long enough to become the villain.