New soda shop chains are spreading across the country, according to The New York Times. Currently there are hundreds in the Mountain West, with Utah being the epicenter of the trend.
Swig Drinks, Utah's original soda-shop chain, has expanded to nearly 40 drive-through shops since 2010. And dozens of other chains and independent soda shacks have opened up from Idaho to Utah to Arizona.
The trend continues to catch on in other parts of the county like South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma, according to the article.
"Dirty" drinks are created by mixing flavor add-ins to brand-name soda or energy drinks, with typical additions being syrups, fruit purees, and dairy products. (The term "dirty" soda was part of a 2015 trademark lawsuit between competitors Swig Drinks and Sodalicious.)
“Some people say, 'Oh well, it's just a Utah trend,' and we kind of proved that wrong when we went to Oklahoma, and proved people like their soda everywhere,” Nicole Tanner, co-founder of Swig told The New York Times. “It may sound so weird to some people who have never been, but it's happiness in a cup. I've always known from the start that this is something that can and should go everywhere.”
Soda consumption in the U.S. has been steadily declining over the last two decades, but Americans still drink an annual average of 37 gallons of soda per person, according to 2019 data from the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Several of the major soda-shop chains in Utah, like Swig, Sodalicious, and Fiiz, are projecting aggressive growth in the next few years. Full Story
Related: Retailer Q&A: Dying Trends; Plant-Based Energy Drink to Launch at Kroger.