All the big selling items have the same problem. Toilet paper, soup, chips/pretzels, and soda are way too prolific. There is only so much shelf space in the stores and the competition to get more and more of it is fierce. So, if you can sell three pallets full of regular Coke and only four cartons of Diet Coke Yellow, what do you think will get the most shelf space? Your taste in soda is impeccable, but you are in the minority.
I think we can appreciate the battle for shelf space but I am amazed at how some foods just are not heard of or stocked. Take mozzarella cheese as an example. I buy it in bulk for when I make pizzas and other Italian cuisine foods, which means I use a lot of the dry hard variety instead of the moist slimy kind. About ten years ago I was able to buy a particular brand, Sargento, of mozzarella made from whole milk. It sat right next to the stuff made from skim milk. Like your soda, they only had a few whole milk packages as opposed to two feet of shelf space for the skimmed milk variety. I often wondered why people used the tasteless skim milk cheese that did not brown when baked, not to mention having no taste. Well, the first thing that happened was they stopped stocking anything Sargento and put their in house brand in place of it. Amazingly, the in house brand did not come as made with whole milk. I talked to the butcher about this and he said it was a corporate decision but could order me whole 5-10 pound blocks from their distribution center. Even that was going to disappear in lieu of the house brand. No real Italian chef (which I am not) would use the skimmed milk variety, and the genuine made from buffalo milk is not available in this country. Down here in Missouri, whole mild mozzarella is nonexistent. I did find some at WalMart a time or two, but not any more. So, what is it about something really good, desirable, and easy to sell that makes it unmarketable?
I can give you a similar example for Spätzle which is now $11 for a 12 oz bag thanks to import duties being increased. That is the online price because they never heard of the stuff in the groceries around here. How about rye bread, the in house artisan kind? St Louis Bread Company makes a decent one ... about once a week. Maybe. There are three major chain stores in town and none of them sell rye bread with a hard crust. So I decided to make my own, but do you know how easy it is to get rye flour? Nearly impossible. Every other seed and wheat flour is readily available in all three chain stores. But no rye flour at all.
Which reminds me ... we took a trip to Kohn's Deli to celebrate our wedding anniversary last weekend. I have to admit that THEY do sell rye bread fresh baked, plus they also have Nova lox for sale. I thought I died and went to heaven when I saw that. Kohn's is unlike previous Jewish Deli's to which I've visited. It's an amazing place with great tasting food. The staff is overwhelming and helpful and I felt like I was right at home in my own kitchen while eating there. They are not pretentious at all. To say they are casual is an understatement. LOL I loved every minute of it. Too bad it takes more than 30 minutes to get there; but, they will deliver.