The Pop Shoppe
- GCCB HQ
- Apr 27, 2020
- 2 min read
When I was a kid, this was the saddest and happiest sight I would see in our garage or our basement rec room:
As much as it meant our mini fridge was desperately out of Black Cherry, it meant a trip to hallowed walls of magical red cases stacked with soda, called the Pop Shoppe!
Popular Maple Leaf, Eddie “The Entertainer” Shack was the celebrity spokesman for the brand. The ads changed his classic catch phrase ”Clear the track, Here Comes Shack” to, “Clear the Shop, I Want Some Pop!”. Eddie always ended the ads ensuring everyone that “He had a nose for value”!
Every great brand needs their own superhero!! Captain Pop would be the avenger of sugary, fizzy drinks and graced their ads, letting you know that stubby goodness was close by to fight that wily villain known as thirst.
A Saturday visit to stock up always went like this:
Big bottles or stubbie bottles ?(of course ....stubbie.)
Grab a case and put it on one of those cool wheel carts.
Agonize over creating the perfect 24 combo.
Haul the red rack home in the back of the family truckster.
The Pop Shoppe was a regular Canadian staple from the late sixties into the early eighties, and a trip there was always as good as the pop itself. Nothing was better after mowing a lawn on hot summer day than an ice cold Pop Shoppe Cream Soda.
In 1977 we got Star Wars, Atari is born, French officially becomes the language of Quebec, The Montreal Canadiens sweep Boston to take the cup, and sales of the Pop Shoppe are hitting 1 Million bottles per day!
Unfortunately the Pop Shoppe stores disappear in 1983 due to the rapidly changing market, but the legend on the red 24 case lives on as:
GGCB ranks the Top 10 Pop Shoppe Classic favours from the original 26!
10. Cola
9. Fruit Punch
8. Grape
7, Strawberry
6. Orange
5. Lime Rickey
4. Cherry Cola
3. Root Beer
2. Cream Soda
1. Black Cherry
And a big honourable mention to Pineapple.
Other Flavours:
Grapefruit, Lemon, Lemon-Lime
And there were diet versions of the classics too:
Diet Black Cherry, Diet Cherry Cola, Diet Cola, Diet Grapefruit, Diet Lemon, Diet Orange, Diet Root Beer and Diet Strawberry.
And the old reliable: Ginger Ale, Tonic Water and Eddie’s reluctant choice.... Soda Water.........
The Pop Shop Brand returned in 2004 with some of their classic flavours .......
(Black Cherry..Yes!!).
Alcoholic versions also “popped” up and made the post lawn mowing victory beverage ever better.
The circle was complete when they brought back the classic stubbie bottle in 2009!
If you are craving a Black Cherry as much me, you can find out where to get one at:
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