DJ_Iceman

On my first trip to Atlanta many moons ago, I was shocked to find Coke products at the Marriott. The concierge lounge attendant must have seen the look on my face, because she volunteered that Marriott had a worldwide contract with Pepsi EXCEPT in Atlanta, where Coke is headquartered.

hockeyinsider

Marriott Account Lost; Coke Cites Loan Denial


ATLANTA, March 15— The Marriott Corporation's food service business switched from Coca-Cola to Pepsi-Cola after Coke rejected the hotel operator's request for a loan of up to $100 million, a Coca-Cola Company memo shows.

In the memo, a Coca-Cola senior vice president, Charles Frenette, who is head of Coca-Cola's fountain business, said approving a loan to Marriott would be unfair to other customers. "In effect, they were asking us to become a banking business," Mr. Frenette said in the letter to fountain divisions employees.

The Frenette memo suggested that Pepsico had agreed to lend Marriott between $40 million and $50 million. A Pepsi spokeswoman, Rebecca Madeira, called that assertion preposterous.

Marriott has been struggling with $3.5 billion in debt and last month borrowed $150 million from banks.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/16/bu...an-denial.html

sabre1041

Lounge in the Raleigh Marriott City Center is coke products instead of Pepsi. Its definitely regional and not strictly focused on Atlanta

HookEm

The link in post 17 above has the year 1991 in the dateline of the article. 26 years ago.

hockeyinsider

And by all accounts it remains the reason why Marriott still has a corporate agreement with Pepsi.

HookEm

Thanks to you and others, I know now I can ask to have Coke instead.

joshua362

You can ask, getting is another story... Although I was pleasantly surprised a few time in Atlanta area Marriotts.