The Pop Shoppe

From what I remember, there was a the Pop Shoppe was not a separate store, but distrbuted their product in supermarkets. In late 1980 and the first half of 1981 (I was 13 and in the 7th grade at the time), my mom used to buy Pop Shoppe soda from a discount supermarket, and you would pick the varieties that you would select to put in the red plastic case and you would save the glass bottles the drinks came in and return these back to the supermarket to be refilled. They did have all variety of drinks, including ginger ale, root beer, creme soda, cherry, orange, pineapple, lemon-lime (this was green and not clear like 7-Up or Sprite), grapefruit, grape, cola and cherry cola. I don’t really remember when my mom stopped buying Pop Shoppe, so I must not have missed it all that much. But several years ago, I wondered what happened to Pop Shoppe and did a search. Apparently, they’re back, but they don’t sell near the variety of carbonated drinks as they used to.

The 70′s?!? I’ll have you know that we had a Pop Shoppe in my hometown well into the 1980′s. I know because I would always get the Lime Rickey flavoured ones. Those ones were so awesome. Best part is, one of the discount stores in the area have the relaunched Pop Shoppe drinks, and I can get my Lime Rickey sodas again. I also like the Black Cherry and Orange ones. Really good memories of that drink.

These were great in the 70′s. My younger sister is diabetic, and they were one of the few places that had GOOD sugar free pop. Tab and Fresca were the only other diet pop available and they tasted nasty compared to the sugar free pop available today.

I have one of the red crates, but, alas, no bottles! Any collectors out there? Our Pop Shoppe was on 35th Avenue north of Bethany Home Rd in Phoenix!

We had a Pop Shoppe in Apple Valley, MN when I was a kid. It closed in the late 70′s or early 80′s. Much to my surprise, I now live about 40 miles north of there, and I walked into the local convenience store and they had a whole shelf of Pop Shoppe Pop! Of course I had to buy the “green” one, and the “pineapple” one…my faves as a kid. But, as an adult, I could barely get it down – the sweetness and high sugar content knocked my socks off – not in the way I was hoping! Either the recipe has changed, or my pallet has…. Was a good idea in the day, and I miss it. But now I just walk right by that liquid sugar!

BEST THING EVER. I was a kid in the late 70s in Alexandria, VA and we would go to the shoppe and mix and match. It was like picking out a dozen donuts (a couple of those, a few of these, etc). Lime Rickey was the BEST. You could tell bottles that had been returned because they had a horizontal red stripe on the back. It was a great concept.

I was talking to a coworker about it and I googled them on a whim. Now I’m on a quest for some precious Lime Rickey!

instead of the quintessential keg and fully stocked bar which was vital to a good party in the late 70s, one of the rich kids at our high school had a party stocked with pop shoppe. only time I ever drank them. I remember the party was really fun! the live band did a frampton cover; the guitarist even used a talk box which was awesome. I told a guy next to me, he’s doing that with a tube in his mouth! to which I got the smart aleck reply no kidding!!