Smith College Kicks Out Coke II

I wrote before how Smith College, my employer, has decided to kick Coke off of campus. It occurred to me that Smith could have done this in a manner that would have caused less harm to itself.

Smith will soon hold a soft drink bidding competition. I suspect that the winning company will get the exclusive right to sell drinks on campus. Smith has told Coca-Cola that it can't participate in the bidding. Knowing this, other companies such as Pepsi will not make as generous bids. Given Smith's decision not to do business with Coke, Smith would have been better off keeping this decision to itself until after the auction because Coke's participation in the auction would have caused other firms to make better bids.