I am having a tad bit of difficulty keeping track of who is replying to whom, so I am just going to make a general point here.
1) This is not a simple matter of $1.00 or $1.50. One particular dollar for any given drink may not mean much, but when you we add up that extra $1 every time it is paid, the sums gets significant quickly. If we increased the price of everything in the market place by (lets say) 25¢, one could argue that 25¢ really does not matter. We probably all agree though that in this scenario the cumulative effect of the 25¢ increase would be significant to a lot (if not all) of us.
2) Going from $3 to $4 is in excess of a 33% increase which is substantial. The fact it is done in a small dollar increment does not change that fact. Almost any commodity that was presented with a 33% price increase will evoke some sort of response from consumers.
3) I understand that there is more than that there is more than water and syrup in that coke. I totally comprehend fixed cost, variable cost, mark up on sales, etc (my undergrad degree is in econ and accounting). I simply think that a price of $4 for a coke is well beyond an equitable allocation of these costs to this product.
Again I hope this isn't taken as a bitch fest by anyone. It is more me, as a consumer, giving feedback to the vendor. Sometimes we do this by choosing or not choosing a particular vendor. Sometimes we do this by engaging in a conversation as we are now. (I hope that all made sense. I feeling pretty crappy right now so I may be a bit delusional, even more so than normal!)