On Thursday, January 3, 2019 at 6:17:02 PM UTC-8, Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Thu 03 Jan 2019 04:06:22a, l not -l told us...
>
> >

> > It was probably a regional thing. Back in those days, most widely
> > sold soda was produced by local/regional bottlers who bought syrup
> > from the "names", mixed, bottled and distributed it.
> >
> > Most of my knowledge of soda from "back in the day" came not from
> > drinking it but from stocking the coolers in my grandfather's
> > store. Soda was a very occasional treat for us, maybe one every
> > few weeks. But, I do recall that in western Ky in the 50s, at one
> > time we sold the small bottles of Coke, 7 Up and Dr Pepper.
> > Regional brands, Royal Crown, Sun Crest, Bubble Up, Double Cola,
> > Grapette, etc came in larger bottles, 10 or 12 ounce. The
> > regionals outsold the nationals due to more for the same $$. When
> > the "nationals" became available at our store, their sales
> > improved. By the time we sold the store in 1960, top sellers were
> > Royal Crown, Dr Pepper and Sun Crest Orange.
> >
>
> Yes, back in the 1950s and probably befoe that, thru at least the
> 1960s, there were a huge number of bottlers, mostly regional. I
> frequently visited my grandparents in Mississippi and always enjoyed
> the many fruit flavoars not available where my home was in Ohio.
> Most did come in 10 or 12 ounce bottles. You mentioned Grapette, and
> there was also Nugrape. I liked both. Of the colas Royal Crown and
> Double Cola ere very popular in the south, perhaps even more popular
> than Coke. These many years later I can't remember all the flavors
> but two of my favorites were a berry flavored drink and anotehr one
> that was almost a flourescent green in color and I think it was a
> lemon-lime, heavier on the lime. I'd really like to revisit all
> these some day, but that's not likely to happen.
>

I don't know about "regional." Royal Crown sold well into the
Midwest. Pizza delivery places carried it as opposed to Coke or
Pepsi, and they sold it cheaper. And Royal Crown produced the first
big diet soda, Diet Rite, available widely.

Regional brands I think of names like Faygo in Detroit or Canfield's in
Chicago.