I have been trying to determine why seasonal products do not appear in our area. We do not have a DPSG bottler. The distributor says that they are unaware of the products (i.e. Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale). In contacting DPSG, I get canned or evasive answers telling me to speak with my grocer, etc. The distributor gets product from out of state (California) and DPSG bottlers/canners in S.F. or Sacramento. Where is the decision being made not to provide seasonal products? THANK YOU.

P.S. Bedford's Creme Soda, Rootbeer, Raspberry Creme may have been a NW product (I'm unsure) - has anyone seen Bedford's lately that either purchased it or saw it in the past?

Well it could be from a patchwork of bottlers who carry the products not wanting to dedicate more warehouse floor space to something in/out... to dealing with the store and getting new products authorized in time with live packages... to paying fee's to have new items slotted into a store...

The fact you said you don't have a DPSG bottler means they rely on the local company handling products to get authorizations and pay fee's to get products in and that bottler might decide its not worth the money or hassle to do it... thats why they want you to ask the grocery store for the product to put pressure on them to carry it without the hassle?

Just a guess but not really sure why you wouldn't see it... in my area we have the same issues, its hit or miss... a store across the street might not carry something and say they can't get it but the other one has everything... Haven't seen bedford's in the midwest though... I saw pomegranate 7up but not cranberry gingerale...

Oh and when the distributor says they are unaware of the products, are you talking to their actual offices, or just the delivery or sales guy who might not be told many many things? I could name all 13 sunkist flavors but I doubt many distributors could or even know...

Originally Posted by TACBOT

I have been trying to determine why seasonal products do not appear in our area. We do not have a DPSG bottler. The distributor says that they are unaware of the products (i.e. Canada Dry Cranberry Ginger Ale). In contacting DPSG, I get canned or evasive answers telling me to speak with my grocer, etc. The distributor gets product from out of state (California) and DPSG bottlers/canners in S.F. or Sacramento. Where is the decision being made not to provide seasonal products? THANK YOU.

P.S. Bedford's Creme Soda, Rootbeer, Raspberry Creme may have been a NW product (I'm unsure) - has anyone seen Bedford's lately that either purchased it or saw it in the past?

Thank you for your insight. I did speak with the main office of the distributor and the head of non-alcoholic beverages. Your comment regarding Sunkist was interesting, as we have now seen Welch's soda disappear and replaced with Sunkist orange, grape, strawberry, and diet lemonade.

Originally Posted by TACBOT

Thank you for your insight. I did speak with the main office of the distributor and the head of non-alcoholic beverages. Your comment regarding Sunkist was interesting, as we have now seen Welch's soda disappear and replaced with Sunkist orange, grape, strawberry, and diet lemonade.

The change to sunkist grape I can completely understand... sunkist is a great nationally known brand, and there is a lot of strength in getting people to see sunkist all over the shelf versus a smattering of many different names to make a complete flavor lineup... (personally I thought welchs grape tasted better, but the sunkist name has brought more sales to grape)

Its actually amazing how deep the flavor lineup goes for DPSG... lets follow the grape as an example... sunkist grape, welchs grape, nehi grape, countrytime grape (nobody distributes currently I think), crush grape, motts grape, snapple grape, mystic grape, nantucket grape, hawaiian punch grape, penafiel grape... and thats just what I can think of off the top of my head for grape people...

I only wish they had a better ability to get a variety of distribution everywhere... stores just want the top few brands and to ignore the flavor choices... I understand why they do it, but it really does not give the customer much choice... which if given from my experience, DPSG would have a lot more market share, just no one big flavor to push them up, simply a lot of good choices...

Someone once said Pepsi/Coke only need 3 flavors to represent 75% of their sales during an ad, but DPSG needs 9 flavors to represent their 75% of sales in an ad... that speaks volumes about the quality of selection when people buy from them but shows they need that solid anchor to help them gain shelf space to force the flavors into the picture...

I just feel like ranting and raving today... theres a hodgepodge of information.

P.S. thats why you see solid doors of pepsi or coke and a shelf of mixed flavors in c-stores for DPSG... great variety but no single killer to score the overall volume... if they had a whole door of variety I bet you'd see a huge shift in volume to them... variety, thats their strength.

The problem with having all that variety in a bulk store is if you're going to have all those SKU's, you need a strong merchandising and sales staff to back it up and keep all those products on the shelf. And around here (and I know in several other places), the DPSU bottler's merchandising and sales staff is overworked, severly underpaid, and as a result their customer service is pretty dismal.

With all of the flavors that DPSG has, they could really do well with a 100-flavor fountain outlet like the one Coke is experimenting with. They could even add in some of the obscure Nehi flavors (Luau, Bounce, Red, etc.) from long ago.

Unfortunately, I don't think DPSG has much as far as fountain outlets go.