Minnesota Childhood Flashback: Who Remembers the Pop Shoppe?

Here in Minnesota we call it pop. Other parts of our fine country refer to it as soda. Even stranger, in some places people refer to any pop as a Coke.

• Customer: Hi, I'd like to order a Coke.
• Server: Great, what kind?
• Customer: Mountain Dew would be great, thanks.

Weird, right? I guess in some places Coke has become synonymous with soft drink. Think Kleenex for tissues or Band Aids for self-adhesive bandages.

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Now to put things in perspective, as children we never really got much pop in my family. Maybe on a camping trip, a weekend at the cabin, or visiting with friends (they probably had Legos too) we might get a can of the forbidden fruit. 🙂

My mom was more into growing organic alfalfa sprouts in a jar, and making homemade granola out of nuts, grains, and twigs. (That's what it seemed like.) Who would have thought my mom would be the only hippie from Cloquet, Minnesota -- ever. Go Lumberjacks!

To put things in perspective, my dad played A LOT of racquetball when we were kids and he'd frequently drag us along, and we'd try to kill time while he's play his match. He'd give my brother and I each fifty cents to get a can of pop out of the vending machine in the locker room. On one occasion we were thinking 'Cream Soda,' when we pushed 'Club Soda' on the machine. Imagine our shock when we ripped those cans open and started chugging. One big guy in a jock strap felt so bad for us he walked up and gave us another buck for a do-over.

OK, now to the PoP Shoppe.

As a trio of Hanson kids, my parents would occasionally bring us to the PoP Shoppe, where we would grab a red plastic 24-pack tray, and walk around and stock it with any flavors we could imagine. Back in the day, the POP Shoppe had a whopping 26 flavors.

Cola, orange, blue raspberry, pineapple, cotton candy, lemon-line, grape, fruit punch, root beer, cherry, strawberry, cream soda, ginger ale, bubble gum, grapefruit -- you name it the had it. Short, stocky, returnable, glass bottles that fit like a glove into the red plastic tray.

The PoP Shoppe was a soft drink retailer that sold pop in refillable bottles in 24-cartons. The PoP Shoppe sold its products through franchised outlets and its own stores, and was based in Ontario, Canada.

Despite shutting down, being sold, reopening, closing, another sale, another reopening -- I lose track, but you get the idea, the Pop Shoppe is alive today, and you place orders for pop and merch here.