Reverend JC said:
If you are suggesting the people will simply stop buying beer because of a perceived cost i am going to have to pull the bs card.
What I was doing is 'throwing a BS card' on the statement you made (although I don't like the confrontational nature of that phrase--- I'm merely presenting my opinion and leaving it for the reader to determine the bull**** quotient of the conversation).
Reverend JC said:
So i do not think it is a market force that guides it.
The price of deposits in a given area is what it is because of a combination of 2 main things:
a) any legislative madate to drive the price.
b) market forces
In the absence of a legislative deposit price (which is most places and not all communities that require registration require a specific deposit) then the deposit price in that area is wholly driven by market forces.
Example: Odds are the $25 deposit I pay here in Madison, which hasn't changed 20 years, was once upon a time a legitimate replacement cost for a keg.
However, that is no longer the case and the only reason that a company absorbs a cost is because they can't find a way to pass it on directly without hurting their sales. If beer companies could require deposit for replacement cost on their kegs they undoubtably would (the interest earned could be another revenue stream). Since the market wouldn't bear that because people would perceive a raise in price, even if there was no actual cost in the end, they don't.
Bottom line: market forces in most US areas have maintained a very low deposit price for quarter and half barrels, such that most deposits do not even begin to approach replacement cost of the item.
(On another note: everytime I've paid a deposit at the dozen or so places I've bought kegs, they've cashed the check and refunded the deposit on return in cash. Although I have a good enough relationship with my purveyor now that he no longer charges me a deposit at all.)