Since their big reveal during Star Wars Celebration 2019 (Remember conventions?) leading up to the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the land’s exclusively themed Coca-Cola products have made headlines more times than you’d expect for a sphere of soda. First came the overall mystery and intrigue of these themed beverages, designed to look like thermal detonators from the Star Wars universe with names even written out in Aurebesh. Then came the controversial, yet very short-lived TSA ban. Now that the parks are closed, these refreshment orbs have been relegated to a local grocery store, and it’s not a cutesy Trader Joe’s. It’s not even in Florida.
Nearing expiration, entire pallets of Coca-Cola products originally destined for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios have been sent to a small, family-owned grocery store in Alabama.
Interesting find of the day… this random little store near where I live has whole 12 packs of Galaxy’s Edge drinks for $6.99😂😂 pic.twitter.com/M79vMxdLZQ
— EscapedStitch (@escapedstitch) April 26, 2020
Twitter user @escapedstitch took to social media to share his findings. The cost of a 12-pack cost little over the price of one soda inside the land––just $6.99.
All three soft drink varieties were available: Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Sprite. It seems the Dasani water never made it, or may have been donated to other causes during the closure.
If you look closely, the bottles are printed with an expiration date of “APRIL 20”, meaning that they’re either nearly expired or already expired… but probably still good, especially for collectors.
If you’re in the Hartford, Alabama area, the store where these were spotted is called Tate’s Supermarket, and it’s unclear if many are left given that word has been going around on social media. Whereas normally you’d have to venture out to Galaxy’s Edge and find a Coca-Cola droid cart in the middle of Batuu to find these, you can find them in the pantry aisle, stacked in nondescript boxes, while supplies last.
If they’re being sold off because they’re about to expire, that might explain why the Dasani water wasn’t there; bottled water has a MUCH longer shelf life than carbonated sodas.
Odd that they went to Alabama. Why couldn’t they have been sold semi locally, or even donated to the food banks where they donated the other food? I’m sure there is a reason. Would be really interested in hearing that reason.
Soda isn’t food and shouldn’t be handed out at food banks.
Possibly the bottling plant that does these is in Alabama?
And food banks probably don’t want to use storage space on such nutritionally empty items
My guess is the bottling plant is near there, and this is as local as they could be conveyed. I could be wrong, but that seems like Occam’s razor to me.
Coca-Cola is local to Alabama.
Aren’t they in Georgia?
Don’t know that they’re local to Alabama, but I want to say I think they have a fairly large facility there for bottling.
Coca-Cola is a GA company. Even I know that and I live in Anaheim lol
All food manufacturers sell near-expired goods on the secondary market at cost. It’s a means of breaking even rather than getting hit with a loss. There are wholesalers and small-town stores that buy this stuff up. You never know where your product will end up! Larger chains like Big Lots and Aldi will buy discontinued and overrun items as long as the quantity is large enough and the expiration date is far out enough.
Coca-Cola corporate is out of Atlanta but they have bottling plants all over the country. Definitely a possibility that an Alabama plant needed to push a pallet or two of SW bottles and found a local store to buy them.
I’ll answer Phil’s questions. Because of the random Alabama location, SW bottles likely get bottled somewhere near that grocery store. It costs companies to ship product from warehouse to warehouse to storage, etc. That’s why they stayed local to Alabama and not sold or shipped to Florida. There’s also a possibility that Disney returned aging product back to Coke, whom might have a warehouse in Alabama. Coke found a local store/wholesaler to buy the product on the cheap.
In response to donations – Coca Cola rarely ever donates bottled product, unless it’s a Public Relations campaign. Coke’s supply chain and brand awareness is so extensive that it can sell product at any outlet at any price and consumers will buy it. Their profit margins are so high that they can go deep on sale prices.
It’s really crazy to think that if Coke made and/or didn’t lose money on a case of bottles at $6.99….think about how much money is made on a 12-ct case!
How sad..
All the scalpers in Alabama are laughing maniacally right now
They sell these at Galaxy Edge in Disney World. I’m sure they’re selling off their product they can’t sell at the amusement part now.
Wow, great insight.
Update, Tuesday the 28th, called the store was told the following; Someone came in and “wheeled and dealed” and bought them all.
How is going to a store and buying all of a palate of soda “wheeling and dealing”? You snooze you lose.
Such fragile cargo. Is anyone else nervous these don’t seem accounted for? Or is this some sort of Star Wars canon for the next movie/tv series/cartoon/book/theme park land? Suspicious.
Important distinction: This is the ‘sell-by’ date, not an expiration date. The ‘sell-by’ date is determined by the FDA. Pretty sure those sodas are still fine (as in, not flat), and will be for months, as long as they are kept at room temperature until ready for consumption. Even if they go flat, it’s not like they become poison, unless you hate flavor :D