The rising price of oil is touching many of the things we buy and use. As crude prices go up, so does the cost of the things that depend on oil for either manufacturing or delivery. But you probably wouldn't have guessed it might affect the soft drink cups at Quik Trip. Several of us at KRMG noticed that QT had a 32 ounce styrofoam cup along with the plastic cups at all of their stores. So we decided to ask why and we went right to the horses mouth. We called Mike Thornbrough, a spokesperson for Quik Trip to get the inside scoop on what brought about this change and he was happy to tell us.

Thornbrough says customers have requested the cups but finances had something to do with it as well. Thornbrough said "the cups are getting more and more expensive so we've taken advantage of one,  listening to the customers who wanted it and two, also a cost savings as well."

Lets get back to that part about people requesting styrofoam, why would they do that? KRMG talked to several drink buyers to find out and two answers seemed to come to the front of the line. Carrie Salce was in the no melting camp saying, "I think it keeps the ice together longer, that was the main reason, I resisted it at first but I gave in."

Ed Raymond grabbed a plastic cup for the age old reason of habit. "First of all, conditioned response, it's what I'm used to doing."  But Raymond also had an environmental reason, "I was under the assumption that there were more petroleum products in the styrofoam cup so I preferred the incumbent."

Thornbrough says Quik Trip tried the styrofoam in Phoenix for a year with good response before deciding to branch out from there with further tests.

For more on the story, check the links below for the interviews with Mike Thornbrough as well as the QT patrons we spoke to.