Bevrage Company

[David Kelly]

What was the name of the Beverage Company that Dean was talking about at the Nationals? I could never figure it out. I want to look for FIRST on it.

[Libby Ritchie]

I believe it was Faygo, which I spelled originally as Fago, but Wes gave me the correct spelling! They sell it at Marsh if you want to see what it looks like.

[Nate Smith]

Yeah, it's National Beverage...who does Faygo...when I took a look at one a while back(a few weeks ago,) there wasn't anything FIRST on it yet...but knowing how those bottling plants run (I should know - I work for a similar company), even if the labels exist for the bottles, it'll take a while before they actually get on the market...have to get all the old ones used up first...

[Matt Leese]

I believe the National Beverage Company also makes Shasta (this is from memory -- I looked it up shortly after nationals). My bet is that FIRST will make an appearance on Shasta and not Faygo but that's just my take on it. I get the feeling that FIRST will make an annoucement when it's released but keep your eyes open anyway.

Matt

[Andrew Dahl]

shasta rootbeer and icecream

it does not get any better than that

dahl

[Jgreenwd1]

i thought it was coke.

[patrickrd]

I've never heard of either shasta or faygo... Are these regional companies of some sort?

Patrick

[Matt Leese]

Shasta is an off-brand soda product. They have cola, root beer, lemon-lime, all your classic off brands. I know you can get it in Maryland but I'm not sure about elsewhere. They tend to come in cans if I remember correctly (I neither buy nor drink the stuff).

Faygo is an off-brand diet soda. They have a large variety of flavors, some of which are just plain odd. Occassionally my dad buys them (for my mom I believe, but I really don't know, I just see 'em in the fridge). Shasta comes in glass bottles (well, they were glass last time I checked). Just like the glass bottles Pepsi and Coke came in (not the real old glass bottles, the ones that came before our current plastic bottles).

I have a feeling the FIRST logo will be on Shasta but that's just me. Maybe because I'm not too interested in Faygo. If you want more information, do a search on Google for National Beverage Company.

Matt

[Joe Ross]

We have Shasta here in LA. Like Matt said, it is a cheap alternative to the name-brand sodas. Ours only comes in aluminum cans (at least I've never seen Shasta in a bottle). We also have it in large plastic bottles. They look larger than the 2 liter bottles, but I've never checked the label.

We don't have Faygo, though.

[Chris Hibner]

Faygo's big plant is in downtown Detroit about 1 mile south of Joe Louis Arena. They make about every flavor you can imagine, in both diet and regular. Shasta and Faygo are like Hellman's and Best Foods Mayonaise. Since they're made by the same company, you will never find them in the same area (the exception is if one doesn't have a certain flavor or that flavor is not available in diet under one of the brands).

(For those that don't understand the mayonaise reference, Hellman's and Best Foods mayo are the same company, they market under the name "Hellman's" east of the Mississippi and "Best Foods" west of the Mississippi. The reason for the different names is due to history and familiarity in the regions that they are sold in - they were originally different companies but were then bought out and merged. The same happened with Faygo and Shasta. In each case, the companies decided that it would be easier to have two set of labels than launch a big marketing campaign to reassociate people's brand familiarity.)

[Matt Leese]

I know you can get both Faygo and Shasta in Maryland. Well, I'm not precisely positive of that. I've only seen Faygo in Pennsylvania however this store was about 10 minutes from the Maryland line (from Maryland Line, Maryland actually). I've also only seen Shasta in Maryland itself but then again I haven't paid too much attention to it in the past.

Matt

[Anthony S.]

Faygo and Shasta are sold here in Huntsville, AL. Faygo has many different flavors including the basic soda flavors plus more. The Faygo's generally come in glass 16oz. bottles. They taste pretty good. I'll have to take a look and see if FIRST shows up on them.

[Chris Hibner]

I find it strange that National Beverage is competing with itself in some markets. When you see Faygo and Shasta together, are they the same flavors or do they have one brand to cover the flavors that the other brand doesn't have?

Shasta was sold in Michigan for about a 2 year period quite a while ago. When Faygo and Shasta merged (or one was bought out, whichever is the case), Shasta disappeared from Michigan and I have not seen it since. Since this time, I've never seen the two together in the same store except when one brand isn't carrying a particular flavor and the other brand is used to cover it.

[Matt Leese]

I don't think they really compete against each other. Shasta is just a generic knock off of name brand sodas. Faygo tends to be more "exotic." Faygo has all those bizarre and wierd flavors and I believe all Faygo is Diet. And they may have kept both in some areas because both did well and they didn't want to lose the branding they already had.

Matt who finds it funny that he's talking about off-brand sodas in a robotics forum....

i know we have faygo here in indiana, because that and milk were the only drinks they gave us at lunch in my middle school. lol..but i've never heard of shasta..