Coke Gets a Pass in Bottle Bill

"All of a sudden we were hit in the side of the head with this announcement that if we don't comply in, like, a week, they'll pull our inventory from the shelves," Goldin says. "We've spent tens of thousands of dollars modifying our inventory because if we don't comply, we face fines of up to $500 a day."

State officials point out that dealers were given an extra week to comply with the rules before the state started levying fines. "We did meet with the industry representatives and agreed to a grace period," says Maureen Wren, a spokeswoman for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany. Official enforcement began this week.

But Goldin maintains that the law is still creating undue stress on his company, which has been busy pulling bottles off store shelves and relabeling them so retailers can avoid a fine.

"We're spending a lot of money on fuel and, by the way, creating carbon emissions, to pick up perfectly good product and add the labels," Goldin says. "And it's crazy to have my head of sales sitting there applying labels to bottles when he could be selling."

-- Reported by Carmen Nobel in Boston.

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