thirsty?

All about everything else at Marriott's GREAT AMERICA
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steven
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thirsty?

Post by steven »

Image

These are examples of the soft drink cups used at Marriott's GREAT AMERICA. They came in one size only and were made of a glossy-finished styrofoam. Marriott had a special metal scoop that was used to deliver a specific amount of ice for each cup. As recently as a few years ago, one of these cups could be seen in a second-floor window of Maggie Brown's in Santa Clara. It has since disappeared from view.

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jonrev
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Post by jonrev »

Nice :)
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RLAiello
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Post by RLAiello »

One size only... back in the days when 16 oz. of Coke or another soft drink refreshed people. Now everyone needs 32 oz. or more. No wonder we're the fattest nation in the world. :-)
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Post by redfishpaw »

Nice cups, I do remember them, back in the days of Kiosks.
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klemrock
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Post by klemrock »

Cool photo! Amazing any of those cups survived.

The last time I visited the park (Gurnee), the vending machines were $2.75 for a 12-oz Coke.

That is more than I paid for an entire meal (cheeseburger, fries, soda) in the employee cafeteria 23 years ago. :D :oops:
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jonrev
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Post by jonrev »

$3.00 for a f*cking bottle of Coke now. It's insane.
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Post by Glorfindel7 »

jonrev wrote:$3.00 for a f*cking bottle of Coke now. It's insane.
Three dollars? Last I went there it was 2.25 and I thought THAT was a bit much :(

But considering how much gas cost nowadays it might be cheaper to eat in the park rather than go outside it.
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Post by SFGAmfreak4life »

Steven you must have an amazing collection. I'm surprised that the cups lasted that long. I want one :cry: .
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steven
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Post by steven »

I guess I'm just a preservationist at heart! Actually, these were preserved despite a big blunder on my part. I kept them, but never bothered to wash them out thoroughly. So, when I uncovered them to take the photo, there were spots of dried Coca-Cola still on and in some of them. I cleaned them as best as I could, but one or two are not as pristine as I would have liked. Live and learn!

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LS202
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Post by LS202 »

Last weekend I spent $3.50 for watered down lemonaid from the drink cart.
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Re: thirsty?

Post by jimmy gimbels »

16 oz bottle of diet coke is now $3.50...so it bottled water.
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Re: thirsty?

Post by MGA1 »

I remember those styrofoam cups. The styrofoam helped keep the drinks cold and didn't form condensation on the outside. Unfortunately, styrofoam is not biodegradable...so I'm not surprised those cups survived so well all these years. To talk about Marriott's accountabilty ...As Steven pointed out, Marriott's standard-operating-procedure required that the host/hostess use a steel scoop to place a measured amount of ice into each cup. The drink dispensers at the park kiosks were also set to only deliver an exact amount of soda (16 oz) with one push of the button (didn't waste one drop of soda). If a guest asked for no ice in their drink, the host/hostess would inform the guest that the soda dispensers were set to only deliver 16 oz per cup....with or without ice, so their cup would only be 3/4 full if they didn't have ice in their drink. If a guest asked for just a cup or a cup of ice, you had to charge the guest...I can't remember if it was .05 or .10 for the cup (and you had to keep track of how many cups with no soda you sold).

Marriott was so fanatical about accountability that each cup had to be accounted for when a host/hostess finished their shift. For example, if there were 500 new cups at your kiosk at the start of your shift, and only 300 cups remaining at the end of your shift, they assumed you must have sold 200 sodas. At $1.00/soda, you had better have $200 profit in your cash drawer or Marriott assumed you stole the money or gave away free sodas to your friends. If there was a broken or cracked styrofoam cup in the package, you had to keep that damaged cup until the end of your shift so that the lead could verify that it was damaged and subtract it from the number of cups you supposedly sold.

The inventorying of cups at each location at the end of every employee's shift consumed a lot of labor hours (collectively), and there were "ways" for hosts/hostesses to cheat the system anyway (pick up 10 used cups out of a trash can during your shift, crack them, add them to your damaged cup pile, and you could either pocket $10 from the till or give away 10 sodas to your friends), so eventually Marriott decided it was cheaper not to count cups or worry too much over whether hosts/hostesses were giving away free sodas to their friends.

Marriott also used the same cups in Bugs' Beanery (the employee cafeteria), however, they weren't anal about counting cups. Since the cafe didn't offer free refills, the "standard" employee trick was to take two cups. One cup you'd fill up with ice, the second cup you'd fill up with soda (no ice). The cashier would only change you for one soda.
"...and enjoy the rest of your day here at Marriott's GRRRREAT America"
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