Yesterday I was really bored, so I started in Clarksburg, WV and then just worked my way up into Pittsburgh, and stopped at a ton of places, and saw a few interesting things.

In Fairmont at Giant Eagle (one of the screwiest markets I've ever seen) had PET FridgePacks of Coke, Diet Coke, CF Diet Coke, and Sprite. Why is this so interesting? Fairmont/Marion County is Central territory sandwiched between Morgantown and Clarksburg (both Consolidated). They came from code SY (Charlotte), so they're being sourced from Consolidated. It always confuses me in Fairmont because in this store I saw FP cubes, MM Limeade in 2L's, very little Mello Yello, and Barq's Red Creme, because my mind is always inclined to think Consolidated there.

Fanta is alive and well in Orange, Grape, and Strawberry, but there were coupons on the boxes, which always spells out doom.

I saw a bunch of interesting things in Cool Packs from ABC in Northcentral WV. I saw CF Dr Pepper, CF Diet Dr Pepper, Country Time Lemonade, dnL, Vernor's and Diet Vernor's. I found 1 stray Cool Pack all torn up of Red Fusion in the Morgantown Kroger near the campus. If it wasn't all ripped up, I'd have bought it.

As I worked into Pittsburgh, I saw some more things from ABC. I saw a good bit of Cherikee Red in the Giant Eagles in 12 packs and 2L's. These 12 packs either don't sell well, or they're being shipped in from a non-ABC facility, because they're still the rounded corner 3x4's. $2.99 reg. price for a 12 pack wasn't bad. Big Red all of a sudden seems to be disappearing, when 3 weeks ago, it looked like they were going for Big Red instead of Cherikee Red. I saw Diet RC in Cool Packs. I found most Giant Eagles had Crush and Hires as well, as well as Diet Hires in 12 packs and 2L's. One store had 20 oz. as well. The Crush came from Cro-Pac, the Hires had generic caps.

The Giant Eagle by the Waterfront carried 20 oz. Jolt Cola from Paul's for .99.

It looks as if ABC wants to give dnL the boot. One store was selling it off for .50 a 20 oz., and most stores still haven't received Cool Packs of it. Really sad that it looks like this drink might not make it.

Ruby Red Squirt has disappeared altogether, as has Sun Drop and Diet Ruby Red Squirt. I did see both Ruby Reds 3 weeks ago, but Sun Drop's been gone for a few months now.

The CF Pepper Cool Packs.. were they in Morgantown?

The coupons may not spell doom for Fanta. Coke is running flavor coupon deals this summer -- we have some POS with Fanta, Pibb, and some of the other smaller flavors, and I believe we can order coupons for them as well.

Yes...Morgantown. I found them at Kroger, Giant Eagle...and the Giant Eagle in Fairmont had them too. I found the one stray Red Fusion Cool Pack at the one Morgantown Kroger. I'd have went out to the other one, but they were remodeling last time I was there, so I figured it would be a holy mess.

I forgot to mention PBG is doing all kinds of crazy stuff in 8 oz. 6 packs. I saw Schweppes and Diet Schweppes, as well as Green, Blue, Red, and Purple Hawaiian Punch. Weird thing is the cans only had DPSU markings on the side, and PBG has never done blue or purple Hawaiian Punch before, until these 8 oz. 6 packs.

$2.50 a pop at Giant Eagle for an 8 oz. 6 pack. YIKES!

Ok, I made a road trip from Frederick MD, over to Morgantown, up to Uniontown, and then over to Somerset and then took 30 back to Delaware.

Here's what I found:

At a Hispanic grocery store in Frederick. Manzanita Sol, an apple soda from Pepsi. I also found Guarana Brazilia in longnecks there, along with the usual Coke, Pepsi, etc.

I also found the 36pk Pepsi/Diet/Dew supercubes in Frederick at the Giant. I think the code was SB?

In Frostburg, I grabbed one of the last two bottles of 2L MM Limeade. It wasn't in the system, so it wasn't authorized for FL. I never saw it again on the trip.

Next was Morgantown. This was my first sighting of the DPSUBG Cool Packs. They have these odd large rectangular buckets (the part you tear out), as opposed to the smaller ones on Coke FPs.

Big Red was at the Shop N Save. But they call their version the "Fridge Friendly Shelf Saver." I also spotted 12pk 16.9 RC/Diet Rite/A&W/Dr Pepper that was packaged like Dasani 12pk 16.9 usually are (with the cardboard tray and open ends). The odd thing was, the Dasani 16.9 in that store was actually packaged differently. It was a 6x2 configuration, with one big handle in the middle. Kind of like the 12pk 12oz Gatorades at Wally. I also saw boxed 12oz 24pk Dasani at the SnS as well (I've always seem them shrinkwrapped before).

I also saw something really suprising. At the Sheetz off Exit #4, they had some Pepsi and Dew 2x6 FridgeMates. Just one stack of the Pepsi, and two lone Dews. The rest of the 12pks on the display were the regular 3x4. Code was NR.

In Uniontown, at the Super K, I spotted Cherikee Red and 50/50 in 2L for the first time on the trip. Coke also has Pepper in this area. In the front of the store was a 30¢ RC-fronted vendor, with Grape, Orange, and Ginger Ale Nehi buttons. But it vended Cotton Club flavors, not Nehi.

I also found 8oz Pepsi Edge at the Shop N Save. I saw it a few times later on the trip as well. Pepsi also can't seem to get rid of Brisk Lemonade Cubes. I saw a few here and other places with an August 9 04 date code.

On a side note, I was suprised to see a few "brew thru" places in SW PA.. one in Uniontown, actually.

Connellsville is home to Faris Distributing, a tiny DPSU distributor. They buy everything from ABC, apparently. I rode by their warehouse and saw Cool Packs through an open garage door. They had a few vans out front with RC and Dad's painted on them. I didn't see any Dad's around, though. Nearby was Connellsville Bottling, which now looks to be just a regular beer distributor.

I also found 8oz HP Green/Blue/Purple in the Shop N Save from Pepsi. I'll add here that all the 8oz I've ever seen from Pepsi has been code AE, which is Epic in Ayer MA. Also spotted 3L Pepsi/Dew/Diet/Mist code JE. Cotton Club Tonic and Club 2L, 50/50 in Cool Packs, and Cherikee Red in round corner 12pk.

In Somerset at the new Super Wally, I found Canada Dry from CCE. Cool Pack was TB, but they bought the 2L from DPSUBG-CB. I can also say that from here, and all of the DPSUBG territory west, I saw a lot of the Diet Rite flavors in Cool Packs. all dpsubg stuff from CB. Frozen Run Birch Beer in 6pk can from ABARTA-BH in the DPSUBG section.

I skipped stopping a lot of places, because it's relatively boring in south-central PA. Central Coke, Davis, and PBG.

Last stop was in Lancaster. Redner's Markets had Trop Lemonade, Light Lemonade, and Peach Papaya, and Brisk Lemon, Diet Lemon, and Raspberry (cold fill) in the 16.9oz 12pk "fun runner" package. Also code NR. $4.99.

Super Wally had Dr Pepper and Livewire in 8oz 18pk. I had spotted Livewire before, but not Pepper.

I also have to say that I am suprised at all the packages PBG Johnstown (LE) churns out. All sorts of weird stuff.. Diet Wild Cherry in 24oz 6pk, every flavor imaginable in cubes, and so on.

I forgot to add that I found this really odd drink at the Redner's. I didn't buy it, though.

Green Spot orange drink (noncarbonated). Apparently it's big in Asia.. but the address was a California one. It was canned by A-Treat in Allentown PA.



The Wally also had the Coke Flavor Rage Packets. Chocolate, Cherry, Vanilla and Raspberry. 25¢ each.

[ 07-23-2004, 07:37 PM: Message edited by: fusion ]

MM Limeade is a regular at the independent grocer here in Cumberland, Farley Foods. Exit 46 (Naves Cross Rd.). Turn left, and the store is on the left at the intersection of Naves Cross Rd. and Bedford Rd. Below the produce is their 12 packs, and they have a better selection of 3rd tier 12 packs here than anyone else. I'd never seen it at Food Lion myself, so that was interesting. The Fairmont area had a good bit of it.

I haven't seen the Big Red Cool Packs myself. I'm hoping to find some of Cherikee Red as well. Did you see Sun Drop? That has appeared from ABC territory that I have seen. Frozen Run Birch Beer in the Somerset Wal-Mart? Never seen it there before. I'm glad CCE remembers they have Canada Dry. Until recently, they didn't have it in most stores all. The only ginger ales you could buy were Schweppes from PBG and Vernor's from ABC.

Did you see anything exciting from Consolidated in Morgantown? I haven't been over there for about a month now. I was wondering if Red Fusion Cool Packs stayed.

Hmm. The only Red Fusion I remember seeing at all was two round-cornered 12 packs in the Kroger.

No Sundrop at all. None. Anywhere. I also don't remember seeing any dnL Cool Packs, but I could be wrong.

Vernors seemed to really get harder to find as I went further east. I never saw any Cherikee Red Cool Packs, either. Though I did stop at a Giant Eagle (can't remember where), and they had it in a high-cone 20oz 6pk package. I thought that was odd.

Something I forgot, but that isn't that exciting is that I bought a lime iced tea at CoGo's at the Donegal exit off the Turnpike. It was ok, not something I'd buy again, though.

Tradewinds makes a lemon-lime iced tea. It was pretty good, suprisingly.

I'll be going to Louisiana next week to visit my sister. I'll be picking up a lot of sodas on the way. I can't stop all the time, because i'll be driving my mom down there, and she'll get cranky if I stop too many times. The trip will take me through Shreveport, down through Alexandria, past Lafayette, and to Morgan City. Lots of different bottling divisions i'll be driving through. I'll drive back through Lake Charles and Houston. I'll at least find Cheerwine along the trip back.