Over the Memorial Day weekend, I was able to visit Chattanooga, TN. I was hoping to find some of the new, Splenda-sweetened Diet Ski. Unfortunately, I had no luck. I checked a couple of Bi-Lo stores and a Food Lion. All three stores had plenty of Double Cola -- one even had fridge packs of Diet Double Cola (I bought one) -- and several Jumbo flavors, but only one had any Ski at all.

The store that did have Ski was a Bi-Lo, and all they had were a few 2L bottles with the older Ski label. I noticed that there were empty shelf slots labeled for Ski, Cherry Ski, and Diet Ski fridge packs, so I asked a store worker what was going on. I was told that their supplier was having trouble getting Ski to them. The guy told me "it sells well when we have it."

In those same stores, I noticed that among the Coke products, Vault and Vault Zero were both available. Also, Mello Yello seemed to be heavily promoted with readily visible endcap slots.

Marketing and distribution have long since been the shortcoming of this company.The Excel Ski with sugar is my absolute favorite soft drink.

Interesting comments. I'll be going through Chattanooga on my way to Virginia next week so I'll have to stop and get some Double Cola and Ski...