Have They Stopped Producing Coke Zero In Big Bottles?

[bkk_mike]

I drink a lot of Coke Zero and Pepsi Max, usually buying whichever I find in 1.25 litre bottles.

I know it's not healthy, but I stopped drinking the sugary versions because they were rotting my teeth, I don't drink beer when I'm driving and it tastes better than water.

I set aside the empties for recycling and on looking at them, I realised that I haven't seen Coke Zero in anything bigger than 500ml in over a month. I've been to three Big Cs, a Makro, four Tescos, a couple of MaxValus and a Tops Market in Bangkok in that time, and although I've found Pepsi Max to be in relatively short supply, it's at least been available some of the time.

They must still be producing it as the cans and 500ml bottles are still around, but the bigger bottles seem to have disappeared.

it's a long time since Coke could blame the floods, so any idea what's going on?

[nicolas18]

Same here in Pattaya... I haven't seen a large bottle of Coke Zero for approx. 2 months. Buying large numbers of small 500ml bottles every day is getting aggravating.

[jbrain]

This is something that has been going on ever since the 2011 floods, especially with sugar free verions of any softdrink.

Whenever i find coke zero 1.25 liter available I buy 1 x 12 bottles as I know they are almost never available. I mostly gat them in Non touristic areas since the Thais prefer sugar laden drinks and sugar free versions stay available for longer.

[jamhar]

So i'm not going nuts.

The 7/11 in chaing kahn ran out (i bought the last 2 bottles )

i kept going back to the store, only to find the spot still empty.

On my last day there, i checked and still empty.

Since returning to Bkk, Rayong and to Koh Somet, i havent seen any, anywhere.

[Fgis]

How can Coke company accept this situation ?

The company that bottles for them in Thailand should be fired, this is so crazy, worst than Africa.

Do they work for Coke as they work for a market stalls ?

I can't understand this situation and I can't understand why Coke doest not publicly apologizes !

The flooding was a first excuse, but now what is their fuxxing excuse ?

We should leave this poison, a company shouldn't treat its customers this way, especially a US company !

Gang of retarded !

[scotto]

Buy pepsi max it tastes better anyway and imho does not leave the after

taste that zero does

[bkk_mike]

Coke Zero seems to suddenly be available again. At least at the Tesco in Bangkok I went to yesterday. In sufficient quantity that it doesn't look like it's old stock they came across and put on the shelves.

[zydeco]

This happens with LOTS of food products, here. It's as if the thinking goes, "ooh, sold out of that too fast. Better not stock anymore for months and months. And maybe if I replace what you want with all this slow selling stuff, you'll buy THAT!" The Tops in Central Pinklao sold out of Cheez-its and refuses to replace. It sold out of beef jerkey, walnuts, saltines, guacamole tortilla chips, cheez-puffs, and replaced them ALL with slow or non-selling items. And I haven't seen the large Coke Zero OR Pepsi Max since before the flood. I have to go to Lotus out in Nakhon Chaisi for that. Lesson from Thai retailers: The Consumer be damned. Take what we want to sell (after our kickback???) instead of what you want..

Edited March 24, 2013 by zydeco

[bkk_mike]

This happens with LOTS of food products, here. It's as if the thinking goes, "ooh, sold out of that too fast. Better not stock anymore for months and months. And maybe if I replace what you want with all this slow selling stuff, you'll buy THAT!" The Tops in Central Pinklao sold out of Cheez-its and refuses to replace. It sold out of beef jerkey, walnuts, saltines, guacamole tortilla chips, cheez-puffs, and replaced them ALL with slow or non-selling items. And I haven't seen the large Coke Zero OR Pepsi Max since before the flood. I have to go to Lotus out in Nakhon Chaisi for that. Lesson from Thai retailers: The Consumer be damned. Take what we want to sell (after our kickback???) instead of what you want..

Must admit I've seen this too, generally with imported stuff.

The issue is usually that the importer ships it in by the container load, sells it all, and only then do they arrange another container load...

Coke Zero though is bottled locally, and the cans and small bottles were always available (outside of the actual time of the floods). Either they switched the Coke Zero bottling line to regular Coke for a few months to try and capitalise on Pepsi's issues with it's local bottler, not realising it sent all the Coke Zero drinkers back to Pepsi Max (it's been sold in Thailand for more years than Coke Zero).

[zydeco]

This happens with LOTS of food products, here. It's as if the thinking goes, "ooh, sold out of that too fast. Better not stock anymore for months and months. And maybe if I replace what you want with all this slow selling stuff, you'll buy THAT!" The Tops in Central Pinklao sold out of Cheez-its and refuses to replace. It sold out of beef jerkey, walnuts, saltines, guacamole tortilla chips, cheez-puffs, and replaced them ALL with slow or non-selling items. And I haven't seen the large Coke Zero OR Pepsi Max since before the flood. I have to go to Lotus out in Nakhon Chaisi for that. Lesson from Thai retailers: The Consumer be damned. Take what we want to sell (after our kickback???) instead of what you want..

Must admit I've seen this too, generally with imported stuff.

The issue is usually that the importer ships it in by the container load, sells it all, and only then do they arrange another container load...

Coke Zero though is bottled locally, and the cans and small bottles were always available (outside of the actual time of the floods). Either they switched the Coke Zero bottling line to regular Coke for a few months to try and capitalise on Pepsi's issues with it's local bottler, not realising it sent all the Coke Zero drinkers back to Pepsi Max (it's been sold in Thailand for more years than Coke Zero).

Yes, that's all true enough, especially about the imported food. The Cheez-its, for example, seem to make the import circuit from Tops (sold out) to Villa (sold out) to Emporium (sold out) and then to Central World (before selling out and starting the whole chain over again). But then how do explain things like Yamazaki. It's a bakery. And the one thing a bakery should have on hand ALL THE TIME is bread. I have gone to several Yamazakis where you cannot get a baguette or, my favorite, their raisin bread, because I need to wait until after 15:00 when they finish baking!!!! Again, it's a bakery. That's why bakers are supposed to get up early in the morning to have their shelves stocked in time for their customers. But not here.

[carlspencer]

Wow, we oughta change our places, the small 7/11ish mom and pop store down my building only has Coke Zero and Pepsi Max and smaller 500 ml reguilars. You should check out these obscure convinience store which 7/11 seems busy replacing, they often have stuff you wont find in the bigger chains. Also, that new Est might have something to do with the sudden unavailability of these drinks.