Back when I was about 10, this stuff was the cheapest soda in the store.
Fast forward 50+ years of never having seen or heard of it.
Lo - Wal-Mart carries it!*
And then Food Maxx**
Now, there is only online (ebay) which knows of it - and, at $20 for a 12 pack of 12oz cans, it remains gone.
Does anybody still remember this stuff?
Is it available in your area?
For those who never experienced it - remember “Red Vines” (by American Licorice)?
That love-it-or-hate-it flavor in liquid form.
WM shows it on their site as ‘in stores only’ and that none of the regional stores stock it.
I’m not a soda drinker so I’ve never paid attention to it, but my Dr Pepper/Snapple/7up distributor has it so I can tell you it’s available in Milwaukee.
It’s in the aisle at my local Kroger right now, though I haven’t had it in years (I don’t drink a lot of pop). What I remember most is it’s the most disliked flavor this side of root beer, which I suspect is disliked more because more people have tried it.
This kind of surprises me, because hailing from Indiana we would always buy about five 12 packs and take them to my Aunt in Brookfield because she apparently could never get it up there.
Good stuff, my parents still usually keep a handful in the garage fridge
Big Red was recently introduced into Pennsylvania in large numbers. I can have a bottle in my hand 5 minutes from now. And at 99 cents (for either the 2-liter or the 20-ounce, figure that out) it’s still the cheapest soda in the store. I haven’t seen Big Blue in about a year, they used to have it at one of the local truck stops (of which there are many nearby).
We have a discount warehouse type of store operated by Kroger, but no stores actually named Kroger (which I remember from IN). The local Kroger-run store has never carried it.
It is based in TX, so I would guess it would be common there.
I’ll play with their ‘find a retailer by zip’ and see what comes up.
Mountain Dew’s “Code Red” is a dead ringer for it, but the flavor is not even close.
Looks like I need to up my consumption of Red Vines before it goes extinct.
You know you’re officially old when you start out-living the things of your youth.
At least I can find comfort in the resurrection of Bonomo Turkish Taffy.
The TX based grocery chain HEB has a pretty good knockoff of Big Red, it’s even sweetened with sugar. Big Blue sounds good, but what I’d like to find is Big Peach, one of the best tasting sodas I’ve ever had. Never seen it in Texas, but had some on a road trip; I think it was in Alabama or Mississippi.
So Big Red is popular enough for someone to make a copy, but is so regionally isolated as to be a freak.
A local old-fashioned Hardware Store has a small theater-style popcorn machine and a rack of ‘Antique’ sodas - they have single glass bottles of Big Red at $1.79.
The Wal-Mart across the street used to have 2 liter for $1.39.
I’ve never seen Big Blue though.
Remember MAS*H’s “Radar” and his love of Grape Nehi? I loved Orange Nehi.
“Surrender gracefully the things of Youth - Clean Air, Tuna and Taiwan”.
Indeed.
It’s pretty common at convenience stores in Texas, although I have to admit that I have yet to see a 2 liter bottle of it in a grocery store though. The company also makes a range of other “Big” sodas that you’ll occasionally see.
Reporting from Tacoma:
–Just two blocks away from me, a corner store sells Big Red/Blue/Pineapple and Peach!
–Two other mom and pops within half a mile sell it too.
–The big supermarkets don’t handle it, and nobody sells anything except the 20 ouncers.
It looks like Southern CA is awash and the immediate SF bay has many independent stores.
A few Wal-Mart, Walgeens and Smart and Final stores carry it, but it seems to be by individual store, not even common at corporate regional levels.
I may end up having a chat with the manager at the last store to carry the 2 liter variant - maybe a pre-paid 1-off shipment of a half-pallet. They like to brag about their superior prices and selection. The brief offering is looking more and more like distressed inventory.
‘Distressed inventory’ - retail goods resold by original retailer to raise quick cash.
If payroll is coming up short, that back-room inventory can be sold quickly.
Drug Barn was based on this model, and I suspect Big Lots and several of the ‘99 Cent’ store also use it.
Beats driving more than 100 miles to the nearest store.
I see it at convenience stores all the time here in Houston and I see 2L at some grocery stores/Walmarts. Once in a while I do get a 20 oz at a convenience store and take a swig and remember why I don’t really drink it anymore. (Because I’m not seven.) It does take me back to my childhood in Kentucky when that was my favorite soda!
I found this. According toWikipedia, this is the retro bottle. I also found it, as well as Big Blue, by the case on Amazon. Personally, I never was a fan. The one time I tried it, it tasted mediciney and weird to me.