Sodatorials: IS IT GOOD TO RECYCLE ALUMINUM CANS????
Those of you who appreciate quality beverages are most likely aware that the aluminum can is perhaps the worst beverage package next to the steel can and the pathetic plastic "bottle" (dare we inflate the ego of such a package by giving it the superior title of "bottle"?). If you watch TV enough you will probably see one of the commercials (or is it a "public service announcement"), most likely funded by the aluminum industry, in which buying drinks in aluminum cans is promoted as a positive thing. The problem with recycling aluminum cans is that once the can is recycled, it will most likely end up in the form of another aluminum can. That means that recycling aluminum cans contributes to the degeneration of beverages in general. What would be more earth-conscious (and certainly more favourable to the palate) would be to buy drinks in refillable glass bottles in the first place. Why are refillable glass bottles better
than aluminum cans? First, the drink inside will taste a few million times
better and will last considerably longer due to the thickness of the glass
and the lack of potential aluminum contamination and/or aftertaste. Second,
when you return the empty, you will receive a REAL refund because it is in
the manufacturer's interest to get it back to avoid having to buy new glass.
Third, if locally produced in reasonable quantity, the price will most likely
be much lower because you will be buying the contents and not the package.
(For those who are not aware, the package usually is a bigger cost to the
manufacturer than the contents) Fourth, the same truck that delivers full
product to the retailer can pick up the empties without driving extra distance,
thus preventing additional pollution to the atmosphere. Fifth, there is no
need to tell anyone to recycle refillable bottles or to give anybody an environmental
guilt trip; people historically have returned refillable bottles regardless
of their opinion of the environment because the empties are worth MONEY. I
think that the most positive thing that could be done with cans would be to
gather them all up and melt them down one last time. Afterwards, they could
be reformed into something positive like license plates or chainlink fences.
Then the rest of the world could return to refillable glass bottles; the manufacturers
could then put the bulk of their material cost into the content of the bottles.
IMAGINE THAT! Write your opinion of our Popaganda and give us some suggestions
or comments that might help us to provide you with the best beverages ever!
Sodatorials: STOP GETTING
CANNED AND GET REAL!
In the deep crevices of your mind, hopefully not yet beyond the grasp of ginkgo
biloba, might be the image of the bespectacled grocer in the overalls with
an apron, a dust brush in the back pocket. The whole family worked at the
store, the SWEDA cash register spit out blue chip stamps at the checkstand.
On the windows of the store would be big placards with the current specials,
and you could cash in your deposit bottles. If there wasn't enough of something
on the shelf, someone would get you some more from the back room; if it wasn't
available, they'd order it for you. Not all of these markets were "mom-and-pop"
stores, but even many of the bigger ones were often family or partnership
enterprises. The job of the person running one of these markets was basically
to try to be familiar with the demand of the store's clientele and to be aware
of what products were obtainable and how to get them to the customer for a
good price while still making a living. When a new product was created, whether
by a new innovator or a large company, it would be presented to the store
manager by the inventor or salesperson; if it appeared to be a worthwhile
product, it would be purchased and made available to the customers. Progressive
grocers would try to get as many good products as possible and offer them
at the lowest possible prices, while at the same time taking care to ensure
that the store was organized in an orderly manner with wide aisles and shopping
carts for the customers' convenience. All of these factors would come together
as the incentive for the customer to pick one market over whatever else was
out there. Unfortunately, the supermarkets of today have virtually dispensed
with these images, except to occasionally use them on TV commercials so as
to give the public the subliminal feeling of the "supermarket that cares",
systematically blocking the entrance of new innovations through new-age policies
and loyalties and most importantly, sheer CONTROL. In fact, most supermarket
chains are now so powerful and the range of suppliers they use is so narrow
that new products are forced to follow an expensive and winding path to even
get their product made available to the general public. In the United States,
most beverages are purchased in supermarkets and clubs, so if a new soft drink
is not available in either of the above, the opportunity to compete against
"the big ones" is limited far beyond the question of quality. The old grocer's
apron has been stuffed away and replaced by a white shirt, tacky tie, big
belly, and a gray suit in a swivel chair; whose occupant is more like a cross
between a real estate salesman and an auctioneer than an authority on provisions
or nutrition. Maybe the grocer's apron makes a Halloween (or Hollywood-commercial)
appearance, but the name of the game today is shelf-space rental, promotional
allowances, co-op advertising, kickbacks, payoffs, free T-Shirts, pens, pins,
and tie-clips, paperweights, pomp, hot air, and mail-in rebates. Generally,
a new product must be presented to the corporate office, at which point it
is usually explained how much the manufacturer will be charged to be allowed
to put it in the stores. Then usually a time limit will be given by which
it must be sold to avoid future charges or taking it back. The manufacturer
is then directed to make a deal with one of the chain's few suppliers, who
will also tack on a substantial markup, requiring the manufacturer to invest
alot of money and forfeit most if not all of its margin to make the deal possible.
About the only way the manufacturer won't end up bankrupt is if the product
is an instant success. That's no problem to the supermarket; once a real estate
holding becomes vacant, it usually gets replaced soon by a new tenant -- and
for higher rent! Where does all of this leave you, the consumer? Well, if
the facade of the old-time grocer polishing cucumbers fades away, you might
look down the aisle of your local supermarket and it might look more like
the alley in a public storage rental yard. Or maybe it's more reminiscent
of a mobilehome park; it just depends how "upscale" the main office has decided
to make this particular store. When you see a huge pyramid of a really junky
product in the middle of the store, do you really think it's because that's
the product in the highest demand? You would usually be wrong. That's the
real estate section in the highest demand, which means that the manufacturer
got milked for the rental of that space and probably had to send his own staff
there to build the pyramid while the supermarket's staff sat in back smoking
cigarettes and sending delivery vehicles away that didn't ring the receiving
bell loud or long enough. In fact, the more you stare down that aisle, the
more the shelves start to look like the trough, the parking lot like the corral;
the more you look in the mirror and see a farm animal. The major manufacturers
(of soft drinks and other products) and the major supermarkets and "clubs"
can work well under these parameters, and their television ads and coupons,
etc. work together to ensure the continuation of this type of practice for
as long as consumers are unaware of it. Those of you who had the opportunity
to travel through Soviet Bloc countries in the 1980's might have seen "GASTRONOM"
in Russia or "ALIMENTARA" in Romania, the state-run "supermarkets" whose names
mean something between "NOURISHMENT" and "FEED". Further centralization of
manufacturers and retailers in this country gets closer and closer to that
type of situation. For example, the incredible buying power of the supermarkets
keeps the big manufacturers' volume immense, and the price of the materials
used by the manufacturers (product and packaging) is considerably cheaper
than what is offered to smaller manufacturers. Sometimes manufacturers go
so far as to tell their suppliers not to supply the competition in exchange
for continuing business. The way this is achieved is by escalating minimum
purchase requirements beyond the grasp of any entity that isn't huge. Now
when you walk down those aisles and see miles of 2-liter plastic bottles and
12packs of aluminum cans, along with a pittance of token beverages in semi-alternative
packages, ask yourself what your big supermarket is doing for your beverage
enjoyment. Then wander into an independent, upscale market which doesn't rent
shelf space and see how the beverage aisle differs. While choosing from the
dozen different brewed root beers in amber GLASS bottles, try to appreciate
the fact that such a selection is EVEN AVAILABLE to you. In many parts of
our great country, nobody can afford to even construct a store of that nature.
SUPPORT RETAILERS WHO GET YOU WHAT YOU WANT! Remember, mediocrity is only
an Alimentara away!
Sodatorials: WHY MOVIE STARS DRINK OUT OF CANS
Movie stars are famous almost more for their decadent characteristics than
for their accomplishments as artists. Not unlike a child who excels when given
a colouring book complete with numbered spaces and an array of crayons, the
child who follows directions and colours in the spaces most neatly might be
analagous to the most accomplished "movie star". Movie stars are typically
people who go through great expense to satisfy their desires, fantasies, and
fetishes; all of which are magnified immensely by the fact that they have
the resources to follow this path to its furthest end. The viewing public
faints in the presence of one and tries to emulate popular movie stars in
fashion, speech, and perceived personality. So would it not seem somewhat
illogical for the same guy who flies in a renowned hairstylist from Paris
to trim his nose hairs to have a pantry in his 18-bedroom fortress-like mansion
filled with aluminum cans and widemouthed 5%-juice "all-natural" bellywash
punch drinks that can be found at any gas station? Gourmet retailers within
10 miles of their residences in the L.A. area stock around twenty different
brands of amber-bottled root beers and sarsaparillas, along with tens of ginger
beers, old-fashioned sodas, and longneck bottles of just about everything
-- at a premium price, but available nevertheless. Actually, this unfortunate
predicament exists primarily because the movie star is unaware of his/her
unfortunate existence. When you start to examine a movie star's rise to fame
and the gradual detachment from the public that develops with the onslaught
of fame, it's easier to understand just how the renaissance of quality beverages
could be occurring completely unbeknownst to the movie star. Let's start from
the beginning and see how it happens: Before the first "great gig", alot of
these future stars were struggling artists, often living as roommates with
others in the same situation. With little money to go around, and assuming
that this period in their lives is between 1970 and 1990, they probably bought
most of their beverages in either cans or 2Liter plastic bottles because these
things were cheap. As for socializing, during this time period even the coolest
places served alot of junky soft drinks in cans or even worse, from the soda
gun. (Use a gun, go to jail; right?) At most movie and TV studio sets, there
is something called "craft service". The people in charge of craft service
are given a budget from which they need to buy whatever food and drinks are
needed to keep the entire cast of the show fed, along with feeding the camera
crew and other workers, whose hours often lapse into the middle of the night.
If a program or movie is not yet popular or starring well-known actors, the
budget for food and drink is generally low which leads to the purchase of
alot of cheap common drinks in cans. You know a show is on the rocks if it
has a Sparkletts dispenser instead of shimmering bottles of glacier water.
If the show is popular or it has a famous actor performing, the manufacturers
of nationally available, uninteresting commonplace drinks offload pallets
of their canned drinks on the stages with the expectation that a famous actor
will drink it on the air. In the case of manufacturers of sappy "all-natural"
teas and 5%juice "cocktails", their pallets are stacked with widemouthed bottles;
all of these products are the generic junk heap found at any gas station,
major supermarket, or chain club. The manufacturers deliver these products
because when a viewer sees it, it's not only accessible just about everywhere
in the retail trade, but it's also the product or "line" that the manufacturer
most wants to sell. Now, remember that movie stars can afford most anything;
so why would the availability of free merchandise keep them from getting something
better? That's simple. First, over the years they have grown accustomed to
manufacturers showering them with freebies. Second, as they have become famous,
they have stopped socializing in many public places; they have hired personal
assistants who go for them to the supermarkets, gas stations, and other places.
The personal assistants purchase according to what the movie star orders;
the movie stars' isolation from the public forum means that the only new products
that they will sample will be those that have been delivered for free to their
stage. A handcrafted brewed root beer that makes its debut in an upscale shop
or in an eclectic coffee house will never be given for free to the stage;
the movie stars won't order it because they don't know it exists. The entertainment
industry is plagued with drug addiction, failed relationships, alcoholism,
and other misfortunes; why add beverage retardation to the list? Here's how
you can help: (1) Tell them directly! If you are personally acquainted with
a movie star, go to an upscale market or to the Real Soda In Real Bottles
warehouse and buy an assortment of brewed root beers and their varietals,
as well as a bunch of nostalgic sodas in longneck bottles. Bring these beverages
to them and let them taste them. They'll be ever so greatful as that first
taste whisks them to that prehistoric era in which quality beverages were
not extinct. Who knows, they might put your name on the credits at the end
of their next flick. (2) Show them how good Real Soda really is! Take your
friends and relatives and a big ice bucket and a few cases of Real Soda In
Real Bottles to the nearest film studio and congregate outside the gate, guzzling
down that beverage decadence in complete defiance of mediocrity; as their
Lincoln Town Car limousines pass by, they'll get jealous! Then they'll ask
their personal secretaries to get them what those people are drinking! Why
all of this concern with movie stars? First of all, movie stars are people,
too; and they deserve at least a bit of the best. Second, as they get as disgusted
with junky canned sodas as the rest of us are, they'll refuse to drink anything
that isn't good; all of the people who want to emulate them will do the same,
and then you will find gradually a better selection of beverages just about
everywhere you shop! Now that's a story with a happy ending!
