New Keurig designed not to work with private label pods

[Sherman A1]

http://supermarketnews.com/beverage/new-keurig-designed-not-work-private-label-pods

Kroger, Meijer, Ahold and H-E-B are among the chains that will begin merchandising the new Keurig 2.0 hot beverage brewing system this week, according to a Keurig spokesperson.

The system is different from earlier iterations of Keurig brewers in that it can brew a single cup or a four-cup carafe of coffee.

The brewing system was designed to take back some of the single-serve coffee business that was lost to private-label marketers when patents on Keurig technology expired two years ago. The machine leverages anti-counterfeit technology to ensure that it's only compatible with official K-Cups, according to a CNN blog post.

Well, this should make the morning coffee thing a bit more "interesting".

[mythology]

1. I suspect that this will dampen sales of the new model

rather than initially dampen sales of other coffee brands.

[Sherman A1]

3. You could very well be correct

in your assumption. Consumers may very well opt for the older model (as long as they can get them) and the greater variety of k-cups they have available. That said I am perfectly satisfied with my standard coffee maker and never found a need for a k-cup thing.

[global1]

13. Maybe That's The Real Plan....

There are so many such one cup coffee makers in the market that Kuerig had to drop the price of theirs to compete. So now they come out with one that only brews their special pods knowing that people will probably run out an buy an older model that is compatible with all the K-cup knockoffs. Kuerig raises the price of their older models and they hold the market.

Any proprietary plan that Kuerig has to drive the knockoffs out is doomed to fail for them. They are just getting greedy - that is all this is about.

The plan should have been to sell coffee. They should have went out and private labeled all kinds of coffee in K-cups and flooded the market with them. That would have been smarter.

[karynnj]

25. I think they get more revenue from the coffee than the coffee makers

In that case, any sales of the new one - to replace either existing old ones or regular coffee makers, mean they get sales at the expense of a few non Keurig coffee cup makers. They are owned by Green Mountain coffee.

[brooklynite]

2. How hard is it to grind some coffee and scoop it into a 4-cup coffee maker?

[hobbit709]

5. In my case a 12 cup maker-I am a caffeine-based lifeform.

Keurig is for at home wannabe Starbucks.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Not hard -

But I've never been able to make drip coffee taste right (I can do it with a French Press, or an old perk pot - neither of which are practical at work). The stuff made through my Keurig tastes right - with the added bonus that I make exactly the quantity I want to drink and don't toss the rest when I don't drink it.

(Not to mention that I do grind my own & stick it in a reusable Keurig filter.)

[jmowreader]

30. Keurig is great at work

We have four...there's one in the composing shop (where I work), one in the newsroom, one in circulation and the fourth is in our sales department. There's no grounds to deal with, waste is eliminated and our vendor keeps us stocked with a couple dozen different varieties of K-cup.

I wonder, tho...how are they going to keep people from cutting the chip off a real K-cup and taping it to the side of a fake one?

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. hmmm... price per serving should keep ANYONE from buying these things

K-cups and their knockoffs are at a MINIMUM twice the cost of a cup that you can brew in a standard pot... and the WASTE is incredible...

sP

[Ms. Toad]

12. Not if you use a re-usable filter

Then the price goes down (once the cost of the machine is worked off), since I almost never drink a full pot - so I end up throwing out a lot of what I've brewed in a standard pot.

(And the new DRM assisted Keurig will prevent using a re-usable filter, as well.)

[ProdigalJunkMail]

15. well, I was talking about the K-Cups specifically

and I am glad there are ways around the expense and waste. our coffee maker has a setting for 1-4 cups and then a setting for 5-full pot... works well if we are only drinking a couple of cups in the morning!

the 'DRM' on these things is nuts... should be hacked soon

sP

[Ms. Toad]

19. I might do that if I could actually make coffee that tastes good.

Never have been able to in any drip coffee maker.

[mcar]

16. That's what I do

I love my mini-Keurig - for tea. I buy loose tea and brew a wonderful cup in the Keurig every morning. So much cheaper than the pods and I can use any loose tea I want.

[spinbaby]

6. Bah

I boil water and use a Melitta cone with filters I buy at Costco to make one cup of coffee at a time--no waste and takes no counter space.

[MANative]

7. This will probably backfire on them.

It's a business model that made the Tassimo brewer less attractive to buyers. They had a disc with a bar code that supposedly customized the brew, but really was a way to control who could produce the product. They lost market share rapidly. I also have no doubt that someone will figure out how to defeat the new system.

[Sherman A1]

8. I think you may very well be right

I just don't see how this works out well for them in the long run.

[conservaphobe]

9. I'll stick with my Bunn. nt

[MineralMan]

10. Keurig - The BetaMax of the 21st Century.

Going totally proprietary is a losing business model for consumer goods. Besides, someone will reverse engineer this and produce compatible pods if enough of the new model shows up.

[LibertyLover]

14. We have a very basic Keurig

and it's great fun trying all the different beverages for it. I don't drink coffee but I can make hot chocolate, tea or chai with it. My husband, who likes coffee, can have several different types during a day depending on his whim. He has diabetes and finds that black coffee is a nice taste treat that doesn't impact his sugar levels. A hardware store (yes, I said hardware store) near our house sells single K-cups and has a wide variety from several manufacturers. It's a treat for my husband to look things over and pick up 4 or 5 to try. I don't think we'll be moving to this new technology unless and until it's absolutely necessary.

[hunter]

17. Huh? What?

Am I the only one who didn't know what a Keurig or "private label pods" were?

In our house it's pointless to make less than six cups of coffee. If one person desires a fat mug of coffee, someone else certainly will too.

[snooper2]

20. No, you are not LOL, I guess some people are really picky about their coffee LOL

$20 coffee maker- check
$7 Folgers medium roast- check
$0 tap water- check

make your fucking coffee

[haele]

18. I wrote a paper in marketing class how that was the killer of the Starbucks/Kraft partnership.

Keurig is being idiotically greedy with this; one of the major differences between the Keurig and the Verissimo or Tassimo or whatever Starbucks called their pod coffee maker was the ability to purchase a wide range of hot drink product and other brands that could adapt their products to be used with the Keurig. While it is true that single serve product distribution (or sale of the K-Pods) is the main revenue stream in the Keurig system making re-usable or counterfeit K-cups a concern, the fact is that fewer people are going to even buy your units if they are stuck with only the product that you provide. The reduction in the amount of Keurig units sold is going to negatively impact the sale of official Keurig K-cups far more than confederate K-cups or Ronco coming up with a re-usable K-cup that can be used buy environment/budget conscious consumers or people who don't like the selection of hot drinks that are available through Keurig distribution.

This is a bad marketing move for Keurig. Consumer habit and name will only carry them so far; they should have observed what happened to the competing Starbucks product back in the late 2000's; both companies had come up with the single serve pod machines at about the same time, but the versatility of Keurig at the time was what won it for them.

It's too much money to pay for something that you can buy a single cup or small Black and Decker unit for and do about the same function. And the cost over convenience product analysis won't hold; our coffee mess ditched the Keurig for a triple-burner coffee and water set-up and a few pour-over filter units because of the increasing limitations and decrease of availability of product to use with the Keurig. Because we couldn't get individual K-cup flavor selections we wanted and had a shit-load of flavors we didn't want left over from the variety selection sets we bought for the mess, convenience over cost no longer became as important as cost over convenience. It became more convenient and cost effective to buy a couple different bags of coffee, tea, and cocoa we liked that would last a month/month and a half than have to buy Keurig variety sets every week and end up with a quarter of the box left over when we had to buy a new box - because you couldn't get a particular coffee brand in decaf as an individual box, and three of the people in the office liked "French Roast Sumatra mix" coffee all day long, but had to switch to decaf for their afternoon drink.



Haele

[Xyzse]

21. Meh, I'll never buy their disgustingly colored water.

It is tasteless, and barely works as is.

[tabbycat31]

22. I love my Keurig

But after about a month I found the single-serving pods very wasteful (they're good for when you have guests and can offer a variety). I still keep them around, but bought a refillable pod (not the official one, but a knockoff) that I use about 3-4 times a day.

I save the coffee grounds and give them to my parents for their garden (I use them as a fridge deodorizer first).

[Sherman A1]

23. I agree they do appear to be wasteful

but I am sure have a niche as you describe. It was just never one that fit into my scheme of things, but if it works for others.......

[tabbycat31]

24. To each his own I guess

(My Keurig was free as my cousin upgraded his and gave me his old one). I have a drawer full of K-cups but don't use them myself (others don't like my reusable cup). When I was buying the K-cups, I found them at Wegmans for $30 for 72 (house brand).

I drink about 4 cups of coffee a day (sometimes more) and it's nice to have a fresh one every time. I'm only one person so it fits me fine.

I do worry about waste a lot and seeing the empty K-cups really bothered me, so I found another solution and still kept my beloved Keurig (which you have to pry out of my cold, dead, hands). My fridge is deodorized without baking soda, my parents tomatoes and hydrangeas thrive, and I get the caffeine. Win win.

[eShirl]

26. Brilliant!

[Not Me]

27. Go big or go home

I love my Jura.

[DonCoquixote]

28. there are so many gadgets

that allow you to fill your K cup, the whole "wasteful" aspect is a joke. Fill any of th5 5-10 dollar gadgets with the scoop, and you will waste even less than the regular coffeemaker that demands you keep using filters.

Of course, I want to see one that can do an espresso

[Sherman A1]

29. Agreed

However those gadgets (filter baskets) exist for regular coffee makers as well. With the K-cups packaging I still find them overprices and wasteful, but everyone makes their own determination of what they like or do not in our market based economy.

As for the expresso, you are certainly correct.

[DonCoquixote]

32. though Kueirg is comign otu with the Rivo

which is made with the Italian espresso giant Lavezza. Frankly, while I liek the italian models, I wish they would release the rivo, and let the inevtiable flow of Latino style coffees flow.

Though i cannot believe they made an Espresso for the K cup, by BUSTELO, the Latino brand.

[NaturalHigh]

31. Well that sucks.