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The Price Of Coke Stayed The Same For 70 Years — Why?

The thing about prices is they tend to change. But for 70 years, between 1886 and the late 1950s, the price of a Coca-Cola was a shiny nickel.

Think about how crazy that is: Between 1886 and the late '50s, you had two world wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression. But through it all, one constant in life was the nickel Coke.

This is the story of how two lawyers from Chattanooga struck a deal with the president of Coca-Cola that led to the company's pricing lockdown. With re-enactments from our very own Robert Smith & Nick Fountain, it's the fourth episode of Planet Money Shorts.

Listen to the original Planet Money podcast episode here! Subscribe to our video series here — and, while you're at it, subscribe to our podcast.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Bronson Arcuri is a Senior Producer on NPR’s visuals team. In that role, he focuses on developing new video formats and producing original documentary projects for the network's digital platforms and news programs.