In Dallas, and for that matter, all of Texas, Coke is the ‘dominant’ soft drink. If you go into a gas station, 7-11 or grocery store, Coke is usually prominently placed, has a variety of specials, promotions, wider selection, etc. Pepsi is usually relegated to a couple of shelves near the bottom of the display and usually has only a few varieties. Likewise at most restaurants and soda fountains, its always Coke and their family of beverages…
However, visiting Philadelphia and other areas in the Northeast, I’ve noticed its the exact opposite. Pepsi is the dominant beverage, has a lot of promotions, much wider selection of Pepsi products vs. Coke, appears in most soda fountains, etc…
So what areas are dominated by what soda? It appears that Coke has a lock on the south, while Pepsi has the northeast. How about middle America, west coast? Is there any explanation for this phenomenon? Is it simply personal preference/tradition? An organized approach by the soda companies?
Probably not the US regions you are looking for, but I can give some international insight.
In Tanzania, Coke holds sway. In fact, Coke seems to sponsor of road signs and signs for cafés/bars. Just about every sign has a huge Coke logo, and the name of the town/café/bar beneath in the same hand painted font. I presume the signs are in exchange for selling Coke in said establishment or town. The closet I got to a bottle of Pepsi was a faded sign on top of a shop I saw from the bus.
In German Switzerland Coke is also dominant. There are two main supermarket chains, Co-Op and Migros, the former selling Coke and the latter selling Pepsi. Migros is often seen as a budget store, so Pepsi probably hasn’t picked up a good image in the eyes of the money-fond Swiss. The main supplier of vending machines, Selecta, used to provide Pepsi in the machines, but this is no longer true.
Though Pepsi has a considerable market in southern England, Coke is again far better recognized, and though Pepsi may be sold in most shops, you are more likely to be served Coke in a restaurant.
I live in Colombia and here, Coca Cola has the corner on the market. Very few Pepsi Cola sales here. If I go to a restaurant or a neighborhood store, they only have Coke. I have never been to any restaurant where Pepsi was served. Coke is king here.
Forgetful me… I forgot to mention that here, Coca Cola trucks go around the city delivering Coke to your home. You don’t even have to go to the store to buy it. We have it delivered right to our door.
In Toronto there is no clear winner. The cola wars rage on unabated, and have for some decades now. With no clear winner, the battles continue in the streets, the suburbs, and outlying areas for the loyalty of cola consumers. I can hear the shooting from my window, the explosions, the belches, the rattle of machine gun fire, the clink of ice in glasses. I see the bodies of Pepsi regulars and Coke commandos on my daily commute. Please, God, let one side vanquish the other. Let there be peace, as there is in Texas, German Switzerland, and Colombia.
Only Yankees drink Pepsi. And real Southerners only drink RC Cola (with a moonpie, preferably )
Of interest, this is a study of what soda is called in different regions of the country. In the South, Coke is not only the dominant drink, it’s the generic name for soda. It looks to me that the places where people call it “pop” tend to be Pepsi dominated markets.
A Southerner born and raised, I only drink Diet Coke but started calling it “soda” in my youth in an effort to irritate my folks…
In Atlanta, it’s next to impossible to find a Pepsi machine, and you have to look pretty hard in stores to find it, but that’s because it’s Coke’s home town.
Here in the Albany, NY, area, you can find both. I work on a college campus, however, and you can’t get Coke there – only Pepsi. The fact that our basketball team plays in the Pepsi Arena pretty much explains that.
Don’t resturants control what you drink? Like MacDonalds is Coke, Popeyes is Pepsi. I know some hotels like Starwood are contracted for Coke throughout their hotels.
Here in North Central Washington, it seems to be Pepsi. At least, the local Pepsi distributor seems to completely dominate the Coke distributor. One thing I’ve always thought funny: everybody goes to a bar and asks for Coke - as in “rum & Coke”, “whiskey & Coke”, etc., even though every bar in town has Pepsi on its gun.
Personally, I don’t care for colas. I prefer Mountain Dew. Which is a Pepsi product…
And I use the term “soda”. When I was a kid, I said “pop”, but for the last 20 years I’ve lived in a town with a large (30%) Mexican population. Spanish-speakers say “soda”, so I just figured it was easiest to use the word everybody would understand.
My last college roommate told me that Pepsi was the dominant product in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Another college friend from Ghana said that Coke was the dominant product in her country.
Actually, I’m pretty sure Popeye’s is Coca-Cola country; at least the one by my house is. But I’m down here in Atlanta too, and it’s no easy task to find Pepsi (a vastly superior drink, a fact that all those with discerning taste buds will attest to). I make do with Coke, but you’d better believe that I drink it without much in the way of enthusiasm.
New Mexico seems to be pretty evenly split between Pepsi and Coke. Sure, people have their own preference, but neither one is shunned out here (unlike the South it seems).
In New York, oddly enough (and unfortunately, to my Pepsi-favouring taste buds), Coke seems to be more common (oddly, as Pepsi has HQ in Westchester). Pepsi is certainly not uncommon, though.
Generally, for Fast Food Places around here, Coke is dominant:
McDonald’s, Burger Thing, Wendy’s, White Castle: Coke
The Quizno’s and the One Arby around here may be Coke (no idea, as they both have Barq’s Root Beer, so stuff Coke), while Subway may be Pepsi (at least the 2 places I visited).
KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Hell: Pepsi (these were once owned by Pepsi).
Dinners around here seem to lean torward Pepsi (sample size: 18 dinners), but no real statistics to back that up.
And 7-11 has both Coke and Pepsi, which helps quell dissension on both sides…
In my experience living in different cities in New England, I always found that Coke was more common than Pepsi, but Pepsi was hardly difficult to find, though.
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