Limiting 20 oz distribution

At least for me the 20 oz soda is the best companion to roadfood......the kind of roadfood that you eat as you drive. I prefer Mountain Dew or Coke, but for the last few years I have settled for Diet Mountain Dew.
 
Around here, the 20 oz is no longer sold in supermarket 6 paks. A new smaller size is now sold in supermarkets and the 20 oz in c stores. I'm told that it is to preserve 20 oz profits at the wholesale level. Too many independent c stores were getting  the 20 oz  6 paks on sale at supermarkets and then breaking them up to sell as singles. I note that some c stores have decided not to play, and are now selling the smaller supermarket size. Who knows if my information is correct?

I don't know about all that but I did have a Pepsi rep tell me once that a huge majority of their profits come from the 20 oz single bottles, it's by far their most profitable item...much more than bag in a box (syrup, fountain), cans or 2-liters. If you look at the prices it's ridiculous. You can usually get a 2-liter at a supermarket for the same (sometimes less) price than a 20 oz at a convenience store.

I stop every morning at my local 7-11 and see the "Company Men" filling the shelves.

Don't think the trickle down theory is working here.

The 20 oz plastic bottle is by far my least favorite way to drink a coke.  I think it gets warm and flat way quicker than any other form.  I always loved the 16oz glass bottles but those are now usually only available in Mexican groceries and are too expensive to buy all the time.

So for me the ranking of preferred type of beverage is a good fountain coke (decent amount of ice, lots of fizz not too syrupy), cold cans, a fresh (non-flat) 2 liter over ice, and then a distant last is 20oz plastic bottle.  On road trips, we usually keep a cooler of ice with cans of coke in the back seat.

I agree, mostly, with hatteras04, but I'd bump the small glass bottle to the top of the chart.  Some of us are old enough to remember the original 6.5 ounce returnable glass bottle which Coke used -- the kind you had to open with a bottle opener, not a twist-off cap.  I loved those. They now sell a slightly larger bottle (8 ounce, perhaps?) in the old-style red cardboard carton, at an inflated price.
 
But it is still, in my judgment, the best way to enjoy a Coke (acknowledging, of course, that the formula has changed and I'm remembering the glory days of sugar Coke, now only reliably obtainable during Passover).
 
A good fountain Coke in a glass Coke glass, with crushed ice, is a close second.  12-ounce cans are next best.   A 16-ounce bottle of Mexican Coke is an indulgence -- nice if I can get it, but not so outstanding that I will go out of my way to find one.
 
Plastic bottles in any form are an abomination, although I guess the 20-ounce version is marginally better than the 2-liter bottle.
 
I speak solely as a consumer, not a vendor.    

My favorite soda, by far, would be A&W Diet Root Beer from the tap....so very good...so very cold....nothing even comes close. I find regular fountain quality can very greatly from place to place. Of course glass bottles are much better than plastic and like you both mentioned ice cold cans are good too.    

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I LIKE the 20 oz bottles (usually diet Coke or Pepsi or diet Dr. Pepper for me, I'm not brand loyal at all. The Lime diet coke is good too).

The 20 oz is perfect for my Roadfood day trps, one bottle lasts me thru all the day's stops. In between stops I keep it cold in a cooler.

I too have noticed that the 20 oz are impossible to find in Supermarkets. Fortunately my company caferteria carries a wide variety of them. It's a company subsidized cafeteria so the price is farily reasonale (I think it's 80 cents each). There is a one bottle per person limit, but I get around that by getting a fountain soda with my lunch and a bottle to take home. I usually have 4 or 5 on hand at home for future trips.

PS: I noticed that in Eastern Pennsylvania some beer stores carry the A Treat brand in 20 oz mix and match cases at a very reasonable price. I always stock up on their diet/non diet birch, red cream, root beer etc when I'm out that way. Great stuff.

Supermarkets around here carry the 20 oz sodas in the little cold boxes up front in between check stands.

<<Supermarkets around here carry the 20 oz sodas in the little cold boxes up front in between check stands. >>

Yes, here too. But that makes it a High Profit item. I was talking about never seeing them in 6 packs or 12 packs.  

So true about the high profit item. A 2 liter of Pepsi at our local Wal-mart is $1.25, plus tax. A 20 oz of Pepsi in the little coolers by the checkout are $1.38 plus tax. You lose 47 oz of Pepsi goodness and its 13 cents higher.

As far as the best container for a beverage, I believe its a glass bottle. The little bottles of Stewarts Root beers, or Red Rock cola, or even Walgreens new soda line in glass bottles are the best! Only an A&W straight from the tap at an A&W restaurant is better...like it was mentioned above...cold and delicious!

I never quite understood that...I guess no wants to be seen chugging a 2-liter while driving down the road ....plus they're rarely refrigerated. I know those are two reasons I grab the smaller more expensive item. Really it all comes down to what the customer will pay and I'm sure they've done their math...I bet there is a darn good reason they're 20-oz (not say 24) and the price is just slightly more. They're smart cookies those retailers them.

I believe the 20 oz was a marketing decision to increase profits by a LARGE increase in price over the 16 oz bottles (remember the short squat 16oz that dominated the shelves for years?). When the 20 oz came into being the price shotup disproportionatly to the 4 oz difference in quantity.

Being a major consumer (for an individual) of those products, I have forced myself to stop buying the new 24 oz bottles. I found I was knocking down a 24 oz at the same rate I used to do the 20's or the cans. That meant more soda in me and a lot more money spent on that soda.

When teaching in the High Desert of SoCal, the standard size was 16's then 20's in the machine dispensers, but the campus store sold 0ne-liter's for the same Price. Considering the climate, especially in the Summer season, that was a good decision. Seldom did a one liter of Pepsi or Dew last long enough to "lose it's cool" !

The Pepsi products 24oz bonus size is on sale at our local Price Chopper,  6 paks 3/9.99. Pepsi products in cans 12 paks 4/10.00. Maybe it is the first shot in a new cola war. 

Not intending to hijack the thread, but has anyone tried the 8.5 ounce "contour cans" of Coca-Cola?  They are shaped like regular Coke bottles, but are made out of aluminum.   They were selling them individually in our student union market before the Christmas holidays for $1.94 each.   I bought one out of curiosity.  They have a twist-off cap.  These were red and white (standard Coca-Cola colors).  I'm not sure whether they were intended to have a holiday theme, but I didn't notice any.  I read online that Coke is distributing contour cans with an Olympic (Vancouver) theme in Canada.
 
The Coke tasted pretty much the same as Coke out of a regular can.  But at that price, I certainly can't justify buying them.  The ones on sale here aren't aesthetically interesting enough to merit collecting, at least in my opinion. 
 

Haven't seen the shaped cans of Coke yet, but they may attract a small market share in the collector ranks.

Regarding the 24 oz bottle, I really think that is a ploy on the part of the beverage companies to sell more soda. They price it fairly evenly with the 12 pk of 12 oz cans...but the production costs must be lower. I may be a poor example of the typical consumer, but I stopped buying the 24 oz because I found I was downing a 24 oz the same way that I had been doing the 12 oz cans. I mean I was doubling my intake due to the size of the container. It sure is quicker to drink one 24 oz bottle than it is to drink two 12 oz cans. I have altered my purchasing habits and do not buy the 24 oz 6 pks anymore. I seldom buy a 20 oz from a vending machine for the same reason.

Hmmm, Maybe after Sixty years of "Soda Mal-practice", I am getting a grip on the habit.

While the best soda is from a can directly into an icy glass, and 2nd would be a coke from Chick-Fil-A cause they use lots of ice and a styrofoam cup.   Any other fountain drink just never really turns out well, it either doesn't taste right from the start, or gets watered down before I can finish it.  Plus it's a hassle to carryout a fountain drink  (drive through fine, but not from a carryout place).   

The 20oz bottle is perfect for me, as it'll normally last all day, I occasionally put it back in the fridge at work to chill it back down, but am fine with it either way.  It's great to be able to put the lid back on so doesn't get spilled, and it doesn't sweat on the counter, and i don't have to worry about throwing the ice water out in the sink before throwing away, just straight in the trash.

I don't really mind the 16oz bottle, as I figure it's saving me calories, as I don't go get a 2nd one.   My mom always taught me to finish my plate (or glass)  so anything that psychologically will get me to consume less is good.   Plus at a convienence store I'd rather pay $0.99 for the 16oz than $1.59 for the 20oz.    Here the 20oz is still more popular in the grocery stores, just coke/dietcoke in 16oz.  (we have mostly food lion and wal*mart here).

Anything to keep me from chugging 12 oz cans.   By taking a few sips from a bottle, then putting away and coming back helps.   I found myself drinking about 5 cans a day, because once it got 1/2 empty, i'd chug the rest to empty the can to toss in recycling bin.  Didn't want it to sit around and get flat.

bwave


While the best soda is from a can directly into an icy glass, and 2nd would be a coke from Chick-Fil-A cause they use lots of ice and a styrofoam cup.   Any other fountain drink just never really turns out well, it either doesn't taste right from the start, or gets watered down before I can finish it. ...............

There was a thing on the news last night about the germs in fountain drinks. It was a little sensational (and the type of thing that can be filmed ahead and then canned for a slow news day).  They checked c stores, fast food etc and the result was bad. IMO there is a big "but", as very , very low levels of germs can be detected by science today, and the story never said if germs were at a dangerous level. At the end of the piece, the reporter reccomended soda from a bottle or a can, but what if the top of the can is dirty? At least the drinking surface of a 20 oz is protected.

ken8038
 

Yes, here too. But that makes it a High Profit item. I was talking about never seeing them in 6 packs or 12 packs.  

  20oz sodas were never intended to be sold in multi packs.

OK, I realize that this is VERY local, but if anyone is in the vicinity of the Amelia's Discount Grocery outlet in Allentown PA, they currently have the 20 oz Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry on sale for 25 cents each. I was in there Friday and bought a case. They had plenty of them.

I like this small chain very much, it's sort of a grocery outlet version of Big Lots, with a lot of good prices and some unusual brands (I don't know if any of the other outlet locations have the sale on Dr. Pepper). Too bad there are none near me, but I happened to be in the Allentown area on Friday:

http://www.ameliasgroceryoutlet.com/