Cooling Station Beverage Store

[Bē-tin] Colloquial for not being able to satisfy your needs in the Filipino vernacular. That's how I perceive Coca Cola right now. For those who runs a business, it's tough isn't it? You have to know the business from inside and out. You have to feel your customers. You invest in everything and will take every opportunity to learn the trade. Coca Cola, on the other hand, is acting like it never knew how to conduct good business practices.

Coca Cola is our business partner since we opened mid-August 2009. If you have a partner, it means you help each other right? Not with Coca Cola. Since February this year, Coke has not supplied customers and store outlets consistently with its products which covers Minute Maid, Powerade, Nestea, and other household beverage drinks. But since this very mysterious development, a lot of the business folded up already or is dying - including ours. Good thing we have a retail store to look after.

In terms of communication, Coca Cola has done poorly. It sent mixed signals about its state. So much so that rumors started circulating. A lot of people were saying that the soda giant is on the brink of bankruptcy - suffering from huge lawsuits that they're facing from allegedly a poisoned soda.

Another story surfaced stating more than two months ago that Coke is suffering from logistical problems. The story goes that Coke is in need of more bottles because the demand is greater than they could ever fulfill and this is causing them problems. Yet another story came out stating that Coca Cola is suffering from its previous business handler. It's a long story but its basically putting the blame on the latter. And there are more stories that are going around. There's probably a hundred more stories floating and none of them are validated.

What's the point? You remain quiet - stories will circulate. Nasty stories. And Coke does not need that when they're already reaping good publicity out of their "Coke is Happiness" advertising campaign.

Coca Cola is basically managing its operations and public relations poorly.

Here's another one. Coke's people are cannibalizing other accounts within its portfolio. What does this mean? Our business serves a pocket of stores that we can support. "Coke Sales" (our contact) gave us a particular area to service that includes start-up stores and eateries. The problem started when "Coke Key Accounts" started courting these stores in our area. Now, "key accounts" mean that they're supposed to serve big accounts like 7-Eleven, Mercury Drug Stores, Max's Fried Chicken - you get what I mean. Since this crisis started Coke key accounts took our accounts - all of them - because we couldn't serve the needs of those stores. No supplies remember? Now, that story is validated. With this situation, even if we get to have our supplies back, we won't be able to get those accounts back because key accounts supply their need for the beverage. Such situation begs this question: How can you conduct a business with a straight face when you can't even protect those who help you make your business bloom? We're no "Einstein" in the business but each entity should have the chance to make it big.

In a book I read in Fully Booked says that the employers of your business are not the ones who funded the business - it's your customers. If this is Coke's way of treating its customers by not being forthright with its business partners and customers then they have every right to fire Coke.

They are missing the fact that we're partners but by doing this they don't even know what they're talking about. And like their promises to budding business like ours - they're basically empty like this bottle.

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