I drove through Temple, TX to go to Austin yesterday. I thought that being in the hometown of Temple Bottling Co. I would be able to find Nehi easily. Nope, not a drop of Nehi anywhere. And I stopped plenty of times to check. But they seem to bottle a lot of stuff. I didn't realise how much they make. They bottle Dr Pepper/7up/RC, (They make Cherry RC! I was beginning to think i'd never see it again!) and also Crush, Spicewood Springs Lemonade, and Spicewood sodas like Apple, Cola and Strawberry. Plus Dr Pepper 6 oz. bottles with Imperial Sugar. Their bottling plant stays busy!

And in Austin, I went into an H-E-B grocery store and found things like Canfield's Diet 50/50, Ol' Bob Miller's Prickly Pear Cactus Cooler, and Jolt Cola 6-packs on the shelf. Alongside little 8oz. cans of Vanilla Coke and several Coke products. And pretty much everything made by Dr Pepper is in 3-liter bottles. I noticed that H-E-B also has two different store brands. One is just H-E-B soda, the other is Hill Country Fare, which from the looks of them are all naturally flavored.

I didn't find anything like Surge anywhere, but they still bottle Citra around Waco, TX in 20 oz. bottles.

Have you checked out H-E-B's Central Market in Fort Worth or Dallas? Lots of great sodas (plus Jones) to pick from. The closest H-E-B to us is in Waco or Waxahachie. There are rumors that H-E-B is interested in purchasing Tom Thumb for Safeway.

I didn't realise there was an H-E-B Central Market in the Metroplex. I guess i'll have to check one out soon.

I've noticed that Tom Thumb's store brand sodas are actually Safeway brand. Didn't Safeway use to sell Cragmont as their brand of sodas? Because I remember picking up a 6-pack of Cragmont Cola in the mid to late 80's, and really liking it. Kind of like a cola mixed with apple flavor.

Safeway owns Tom Thumb.

Safeway stores pulled out of north Texas about 10 years ago. The union demanded pay raises for their employees, and Safeway not only refused, they shut down the entire division. This might be Safeway's way to weasel back into this market.

True, Safeway purchased Tom Thumb and Randalls a while ago. Sales have suffered since then. I have heard rumors that Safeway is looking for a buyer (and H-E-B is interested). If Dominicks in Chicago gets sold off, I think Tom Thumb and Randalls will have for sale signs posted soon afterward.

Not beverage related but Safeway bought Genurardi's (spelling?) in the Philadelphia area and the sh*t hit the fan when customers left in droves because the customer service Genuradis was known for took a dive. Safeway had to buy ads saying they were sorry about the changes.

Yeah, it was all pretty sad. We have three Genuardi's here in Delaware. They replaced Genuardi brands with Safeway brands, like the Select sodas. Things just haven't been the same.

I was suprised that Safeway still makes Skipper (Dr Pepper knockoff), though.

Our Safeways in Indianapolis carry Vess as a store brand.

The Safeway in Indianapolis is not affiliated with the Safeway of the West Coast and Washington DC.