@Oranges w/ Cheese has 2 cats! ahahaha.: I would agree with you if my homemade sugar water tasted even remotely like Coke. If anyone has a recipe for homemade Coke, bring it on.

Thank goodness they didn't decide to stop stocking Pepsi though, I couldn't stand drinking another Mellow Yellow, it's just not the same as Dew.

Pop for life!

[www.drpeppersnapplegroup.com]

[www.gearculture.com]

I stock up when its on sale, which is about once a month at the Super Wal-Mart down the road from me.

@Kuchen:

Squirt is the best 'lemon' soda you can get in the US.

However, there are plenty of carbonated fruit drinks (most of them imported) that taste *FAR* better than anything else.

A guy had a idea to bottle coke, and the then owner, said sure and gave him the rights to bottle it for $1. Coke has ever since regretted that decision.

Not sure if that has something to do with the whole stocking issue, but it is interesting.

@Quake 'n' Shake: Not only do the beverage vendors have to stock their own products at the stores, WalMart has just started requiring the vending companies who own the machines outside the store to stock the Sam's Club machines, as well. The vending companies have to purchase the Sam's Club pop from the store itself, and then stock the machines. The next step is that the Coke and Pepsi stockers will have to stock the generic brand on the shelves, too.

The outside companies who stock their own shelves do so because they are leasing the shelf space. Part of the lease arrangement mandates that they come in and stock their own shelves with their own products. They send out drivers who do nothing else but go from store to store and stock and "face" product all day.

Coke, Pepsi, bread vendors, beer, Frito Lay and some other chip/snack companies, magazine, and greeting card companies do this routinely. Newspapers in most areas. Others sometimes include candy companies, flashlight batteries, occasionally pet foods and laundry products, and DVDs. It varies.

But they do it because they are leasing the space and they HAVE to come in and stock it themselves. If they do

The Mexicokes takes like the ones I got when I was a kid, except unlike most childhood memories, this one is still real and drinkable and THERE. It's the real thing. Everything else is crap.

Yes, I have tried the Mexican sugar Pepsi and it's good but not as good as the Mexicokes.

Anyway, GO COSTCO! Stick it to them!

Same in the summertime when it gets hot outside. Extreme heat does a number on the artificial sweetner in Diet Coke, for example.

Also, costco has some high grade cuts of meat that cant be found elsewhere

@mmmsoap: I think it's because those products are made at a factory relatively close to the store which has its own delivery network. The soda and bread companies want to make sure their product is fresh on the store shelves and the best way to make that happen is to deliver it yourself.

Come on now, don't you know that Kroger is not Walmart owned? LOL

But seriously how far do they reach?

We don't have any stand-alone Kroger stores here in L.A. but I belive that Ralph's is Kroger-owned, as is Food4Less

Where else does the Kroger arm reach?

@psm321: But clever, right? Am I right?

I live about a half hour away from those who think much like you and call soda "pop". I've also had many battles on this. Let's agree to disagree.

(But I'm right.)

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsBeing(pur)SuedByAMonster: I love Costco! I got my law degree there.

@PsiCop:

I agree. I shop at a warehouse club regularly and never by soda there. I buy it during big sales at the Stop and Shop next door. $2.00 - 2.50 per 12-pack is about as low as I've ever seen it. Buy a bunch around Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas when the sales are best. I'm glad Thanksgiving is coming. The stack of 12-packs in my basement is dwindling.

@CaptainSemantics: Bam! You get a heart, my friend!

@lehrdude: Isn't there a bingo square for "People still *|RANDOM_ACTIVITY|*?"

@consumerd: O'Fallon, IL. Because it's not East St. Louis :)

@psm321: Ready?

Soda Pop is the full name of this beverage. "Pop" is the last name. Therefore, you should refer to soda as Mr. Pop.

I like to call him by his first name, soda.

(Okay, so it might not be the best logic, but that's what I'm sticking with!)

You don't save much more on soda there, but hey, it all adds up. D:

Costco is nothing like Wallmart et al.

They are socially responsible, environmentally responsible, good to their employees, and good for consumers.

They are a good company and you might be pleasantly surprised if you visited.

I agree, I go to sams here in ofallon, IL and it's a joke at best. I wish we had a costco that was closer. It's always so crowded at the sams up there. Just getting in the parking lot of that store is a chore now.

@coan_net: The McDonalds in College Park, Maryland serves Pepsi.

The whole reason Costco & Sam's Club never really bother offering Coke (and Pepsi for that matter) at lower prices is that they offer it for their C-Store, vending, and restaurant customers. I used to work for Sam's Club and we had several members buy it by the pallet. We were able to sell a quantity that was manageable to them since the bottlers typically won't sell 15 cases to someone.

I guess in this case Coke is jacking up the price, so Costco is playing "who's is bigger". The members who complain enough will get those products back.

As for the average consumers... The prices are too high. Better "deals" at whatever supermarket you are shopping at.

It's neither, they're soft drinks. So say all the menus in Southern Ontario.

I guess the proper name is "flats". The cardboard tray with like 30 or 36 bottles all shrink-wrapped together...

@Sanspants:

At least he's not trying to check receipts...

But I do generally buy my husband a case of the Mexican Coke for Christmas so they'd better resolve it by mid-December or I won't bother...

Not Costco that I ever went to has ever carried Full Throttle drinks. I would have actually gone there if they did.

Man, all of these comparison prices for soda makes me glad we barely drink the stuff. A place I volunteer at has a $0.25 coke machine (Coca-Cola donates the soda, and they sell it as a small fundraiser.) I buy 4 cans a week, which we drink mainly mixed with rum (Sprite and Rum is the favorite--a Santo Libre). I've decided that my consumption of sodas is like a gas--it will expand to fill the parameters I give it. If we have a 12-pack, we'll drink that in a week. If we have 4 sodas, we'll drink that in a week. If we have none, we almost never go make a special run to get them.

I hope, for the sake of some people's lives, this event stretches out for weeks.

*Cue sarcastic/indignant comments*

@psm321: Pop is what you call your grandfather or the sound that a gun makes. It is by no means a drink.

@pecan 3.14159265: Kroger. So not Walmart owned.

*ducks*

But seriously, purchasing sugar water in general is a waste of money.

@nstonep: Don't forget Maryland!

But I've never understood not renaming the stores. The Dominick's name is so trashed here in Chicago, no one understands why they kept it. Before Safeway decided to remodel the stores a couple of years ago, they were desperately trying to sell it off for about a quarter of what they paid for it! But Safeway had so wrecked it, nobody wanted it, even at a bargain price.

And the remodeled Dominick's look exactly like the Von's I've been in when I went to California.

@Pibbs: Did you go to law school at Costco too?

In my area, they used to sell cases of Kirkland soda. The kids loved it, and much cheaper than buying cases of soda at the store. if Costco doesn't sell Coke products, I'll just buy my diet coke somewhere else, not a biggie, certainly not a reason to stop shopping at Costco for me. I don't have a car, when I get a ride to Costco, I buy for about a month for the family, save all those very rough bus trips with carts and backpacks of groceries.

But $5 for a 12 pack of Coke products as the regular price in Shaw's? I don't think so. $3 is my limit in the supermarket. I can usually get better Coke product pricing at my local self serve gas station.

[popvssoda.com:2998]

I hate the way Coke sales reps act! It's like they are always playing chicken...I mean, what are you going to do, not sell Coke?

@MostlyHarmless: *|INSERT_RANT_ABOUT_BIGOTRY|*

That's right people. *| is back.

I guess that makes sense. I've seen the "soda guy" stocking at supermarkets before, but never gave it much thought.

We only buy soda when it's on sale for $3/12 or $6/24 or cheaper. The local stores have it on sale at least once a month so we stock up. If the price went up a lot we'd just quit drinking it.

@CaptainSemantics: "Lisa, I made you some homemade Pepsi for your dance."

If coke won't play nice with prices, they don't deserve to be in Costco. It's practically all Kirkland stuff anyways.

Of course PepsiCo spun off it's food brand into Yum.

And of course the other places serve whatever will give them the best deals.

... and it is funny, I stopped eating at Wendy's as much also when I could not get my Mountain Dew anymore. I do occasionally, but now will pass that to go to Taco Bell since I know they have my Dew.

@MostlyHarmless: You just wait for that Friday shift. *narrows eyes*

Kidding!

@pecan 3.14159265: I'm fairly certain in this case it is definitely Coke.

But it's not fucking pop.

@WatchOutNow: Huh?

@DreamTheEndless: Death's little brother: Totally agree, 7up is way better than all of the other lemon-lime sodas.

A lot of not changing the names out has to do with customer perception, they like going to their local whatever it is and don't want to see the name change every time there is a merger. However the store brands usually get paired down to one.

@ToddMU03: It's soda, not pop or coke.

For the love of all that is holy, people, I GET IT. Kroger is not owned by Wal-Mart. Oy.

In my previous job with Wally World, be actually removed every last piece of coke from the store because they failed to keep it stocked and we got tired of complaints. It didn't last long as one of their sernior VP's flew in and had a one-on-one with us where he kissed some major ass and told us there would be changes to how we were being stocked.

The changes were a simple fix. Don't pay a stocker to come to the store and sit and talk for 2 hours.

I do get soda from costco, since we go through it pretty quick. Diet-types only anymore. Yes we know some people think artificial sweeteners are bad. I don't care, I just don't want all the sugar.

Can't the consumerist get an article about the rise and fall of brands like RC cola and schlitz beer?!? Oooh...and something about burples!

@pot_roast: Hm, I stand corrected. Okay.

I miss bojangles :(

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsBeing(pur)SuedByAMonster: Do any of Coke's products contain electrolytes?

Cheers

@qwerty001984:

I have a really hard time shopping at W-M just on principal. They just might be the single largest factor, perhaps aside from union labor, that forces American jobs to be lost to foreign lands.

...on top of all the other fun stuff you read about them in the news.

@MikeHerbst: Maybe they don't want to be seen as RetroSexual. Anyway, I'll miss Mexican Coca-Cola, but maybe they'll start carrying cases of bottled Pepsi Natural. That stuff is like ambrosia.

[en.wikipedia.org]

[money.cnn.com] (#2 and #22)

[www.thekrogerco.com]

One of the few upsides of Jersey. That and cheap gas that you don't have to pump.

Because Kroger is a Mom and Pop shop? Do you realize that Kroger is larger than Costco? (By 2009 sales, net income, and employees, anyways)

@Coelacanth:
It pisses me off when stores offer Coke and not Pepsi.
Coke is so bitter. I think only smokers and coffee drinkers like coke since they have no taste buds anymore.

The only savior is some Coke only places sell Dr. Pepper, without that I would not go there.

@plim: I agree, but with the caveat that there is something very delicious about Cherry Coke.

@bigd7387:
They have much better prices.
I never used to shop at Walmart for food, but I priced out the items and everything at the local grocery chain was at least $1 more.

It was insane at how much more expensive the local stores were.

@lehrdude: Because some of us don't stop by CVS every other week just to get soda. One trip to Costco and we're set for a month.

@bigd7387: The only Wal-Mart warehouse store is Sam's Club. You shop at Kroger, though, which is Wal-Mart owned.

Costco is a fantastic place.

They are socially responsible, environmentally responsible, good to their employees, and good for consumers.

They are a good company and you might be pleasantly surprised if you visited.

Taco Bell/KFC/Long John Silvers/Arbys FTW

@RecordStoreToughGuy_IsBeing(pur)SuedByAMonster: I supersize with you...

This is sad news for me.

Yes, I will mourn the loss of easy-to-procure-Mexi-Coke.

Hey CocaCola: Bring back the sugar cokes! Call it "RetroCoke" if you have to, but many of us CAN taste the difference between sugar coke and HFCS coke!

Supermarkets can afford to price soda as they can because margins on other items are quite a bit higher. Soda is often used as a loss leader in order get people in the store.

That said, when I come to expect to find certain items at Costco and have done so for years and then they stop carrying it because the manufacturer raised the price and Costco "wants to give the consumer the best deal" annoys me to no end. Last week is was the kitty litter I've been purchasing for over a year...and the cheaper kind to boot.

My boyfriend likes to get Coke on occasion and he really liked that Costco carried the kind that uses sugar instead of HFCS...he's gonna be bummed.

While I normally hunt local supermarkets for the 4/$10 or the occasional 5/$10-12 sale, they are becoming far less frequent in my area (northern nj), so i don't mind dropping $9 for a 36 pack at costco. better than paying normal price ($4.50 for a 12 pack) when they're not on sale.

the latest sale tactic? 2/$9 what a ripoff!

@Burning pakalolo not even noticing the weather: I'm with you. I frown upon establishments that only offer Coke products and thinks they're suitable alternative for Pepsi. =)

@lehrdude:

But now, if you "NEED" coke at Costco, you can't get it. I'd say that's pretty news-worthy.

Just the other day I stocked up at that price, and now have enough soda stockpiled for a couple of months.

I don't know why the warehouse clubs have so staunchly refused to be competitive in soda pricing, but that's how they've been operating as long as I've been going to them (and that's over 2 decades now).

I always frown upon an establishment that doesn't offer Coke products (and believes Pepsi is a suitable alternative.)

Then again, I rarely shop as Costco.

I wonder if this will affect their food courts since I think all locations have Coke fountains.

Who buys soda at Costco?

It's much cheaper to wait for it to go on sale at CVS/Walgreens every other week. I've belonged to these shopping clubs for years, and if I EVER bought soda from one of them, it was only because I NEEDED it in a super rush and didn't have time to make another stop.

Wow another place I don't shop anyways. I shop Kroger, Giant Eagle and a local shop, never seen a reason to shop the Walley Worlds of the food business.