Smaller Soda Sizes Might Increase Sales

Looks like Bloomberg's soda ban, an effort to reduce soda consumption, might have backfired had it actually been implemented. 

A study from University of California, San Diego, found that people actually buy more when sodas and sugary drinks are sold in bundles of small packages. The research, published in PLoS One, presented subjects with three different menus, each one offering varieties of drink sizes.

The first menu offered 16-ounce, 24-ounce, and 32-ounce drinks. The second gave them a 16-ounce drink, a bundle of two 12-ounce drinks, or two 16-ounce drinks. The third only offered 16-ounce drinks.

The results? Consumers tended to buy more soda when they were offered in bundles of two 12-ounce or 16-ounce drinks. This means that even if soda sizes had been restricted in New York, people probably would've just gone around buying two of the largest sizes they could.

"Restricting larger-sized drinks may have the unintended consequence of increasing soda consumption rather than decreasing it," the researchers wrote. Not to mention an increased amount of waste. Restaurants, in the meantime, may have benefited from offering two drinks in a bundle, selling the same amount of sugary drinks or more.