Soda sales lose their fizz in US

Global Business

Soda sales lose their fizz in US

Pop, soda, fizz, or a soft drink, call it what you like, people are drinking less of it. Especially in the U.S. where soda sales have declined for ten consecutive years. The drop in soda consumption has been the single largest change in the American diet in a decade.

Over the last 20 years, sales of regular soda in the U.S. have dropped by more than 25 percent.

Soda is slowly becoming a bad four-letter word these years. Health advocates have campaigned hard against big soda companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi, accusing their sugary beverages of causing a spike in obesity and diabetes.

Cities like New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco have all tried implementing a soda tax.

“They succeed in getting the word out that soda is bad for you. So it’s sort of fuels that negative image even if the taxes don’t ultimately pass,” said Candice Choi, a food and beverage reporter from the Associated Press.

The decline has forced the big beverage companies to expand their product lines to include teas and bottled water, but also deploy aggressive marketing tactics. Pushing products into developing economies is one strategy. Making existing products appear as premium is another.

Shraysi Tandon reports. 

Soda sales lose their fizz in US

Pop, soda, fizz, or a soft drink, call it what you like, people are drinking less of it. Especially in the U.S. where soda sales have declined for ten consecutive years. The drop in soda consumption has been the single largest change in the American diet in a decade. Shraysi Tandon reports.

 

Per capita consumption of soft drinks in the United States from 2000 to 2014 (in gallons)

This statistic depicts the per capita consumption of soft drinks in the United States from 2000 to 2014. In 2014, some 43.8 gallons of soft drinks were consumed per capita, down from 53 gallons per capita in 2000.