Today was in Somerset, Cambria, and Indiana County, PA and I have to say CCE is an embarrassment to itself in most places. Pepsi has over double the space Coke has, and in many stores, CCE only has Coke, Diet Coke, CF Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke, Sprite, and Sprite Remix, and nothing else. I kid you not! Indiana area especially this happened, both like this at Kmart and Wal-Mart. Even at a Giant Eagle, all you added were MM Valencia, Barq's, and a ginger ale. Apparently, they can't even make their minds up on this one. I saw Seagram's in 12 packs, and Canada Dry in 2L at the Somerset Wal-Mart, along w/a lonely 12 pack of Fanta Grape on an end. Johnstown I only saw Canada Dry. In Indiana, CCE didn't even bother w/a ginger ale. Shelves in all areas where massively understocked, and selection sucked. CCE is doing pitifully.

The shock to me was 7Up/ABC, who has united w/RC to create a bottler there that is surprisingly strong. Saw 7Up, Diet 7Up, Cherry 7Up, Diet Cherry 7Up, dnL, A&W, Sunkist, Diet Sunkist, Welch's Grape, Squirt, Diet Squirt, Ruby Red Squirt, Sun Drop, Cherikee Red, 50/50, Big Red, Country Time Lemonade, Sunny Delight, Deja Blue, and Vernor's (in Somerset, Cambria), Canada Dry was in Indiana. I was in shock....Coke ditched all their successful products, and now ABC is taking them and running w/them here. Unless CCE does something soon, they're going to be #3 up there, as 7Up is closing in. At the Indiana Super Wally, the sections for 7Up and Coke were equal in size. Eastern Great Lakes is embarrassing Herbco, who held their own here for years, but this is a strong Pepsi region.

Thought this stuff might interest someone.

The opposite can be said in a lot of Pepsi Americas' territory. Here in Springfield, MO, Coke has HUGE amounts of shelf space, and Pepsi has to fight for it. At your typical wal*mart, Coke has 2/3 of the shelf space in the soda aisle (they have Dr Pepper too), and Pepsi has its products scrunched into place.

7up/RC isn't big here. 7up went to ABC from Pepsi, and the new 7up distributor has really dropped the ball on it. They have dnL, A&W, and such, but you don't see anything outside of 7up and dnL on thier shelves. No Cherry RC (Its no big secret though that ABC doesn't do Cherry RC), no SunDrop (only 20 oz), and you're lucky if you find a 3rd tier cooler.

Coke has a MAJOR dominance especially with Dr Pepper, and they also have Squirt and Canada Dry (not to mention Cactus Cooler). They're dying to get Fridge Packs here so they can put even more product on the shelves (I've been told they're holding products right now because of the pending conversion at LX)

Pepsi though can't give away its product, although they have a really good selection (all 4 hawaiian punches in cans, Schweppes, the usual Pepsi products...including Mr Green).

Pepsi Americas only seems to do well when it has Dr Pepper. Take away the Dr, they lose out. Des Moines is another Pepsi Americas market where they don't have DP, and they bomb with product as well. ABC does well with 7up and DP there.

I think there's a definate thing about Dr Pepper and sales. Bottlers who have DP seem to *always* do better than bottlers who don't.

I can't think of a Coke market that doesn't have DP that does overly well.

I really tend to think also that DPSU puts far more into marketing and slotting than does Coke or Pepsi. (and I say that because I think the lion's share of money is put into Dr Pepper. They have yet to advertise dnL being on the market, or anything extensive with 7up)

So true. This balance of power shifts when you enter the immediate Pittsburgh area, and Dr Pepper shifts from Pepsi to Coke. Coke does real well there, and Pepsi does OK too. 7UP has been ABC since I can remember, and RC is separate, and neither one are heard from a whole lot, 7UP more than RC. Although in DC, Coke is real strong, and they don't have Dr Pepper, Pepsi does.

7Up had more presence in this region of PA than they did in MD when they had no Sunkist, Squirt, Welch's, or Canada Dry. You could find coolers almost everywhere, and now they're even more frequent. People are resorting to the familiar names Coke offered them, and they're entirely ignoring Fresca, MM Valencia, and Seagram's that CCE is bringing them. I've never seen so much Squirt in my life. However, now that a third-tier bottler down here in MD has 7Up, you still can not find a 7Up cooler or even a vending machine anywhere. Wal-Mart doesn't sell the product, and when we had Kmart, they didn't until they changed to Big Kmart, and they only added A&W, Sunkist, and Canada Dry for when they had sales.

The only instance I can think of a non DP Coke bottler doing well is in the area I work in. We go up against an independent Pepsi distributor who buys his product from PBG and another independent. He refuses to price his products competitively. You'll see 12 pack 16.9 Aquafina at $7.29, 24oz 6 pack CSD at $5.19 and up.. and so on. He'd rather sell less and make a higher profit on each case.

Plus, he refuses to carry full lines of various product, even though customers want products such as Sierra Mist cubes (and it's even listed in the ads in some chains). He also won't take PBG's pricing lead for things such as restaurant chains, so he'd rather lose the business than sell at that lower price.

The whole company still sells off of sideload trucks, and they only have two 14 pallet box trucks for big sales.

I could go on, but I won't.