When shopping, have you ever noticed a product completely out of place?  I’m not talking about a display set up in a strange place – canned corn, now on sale in the bakery! – I’m talking about a single item, set among a whole shelf of different products.  You know, the kind of thing you’d see if someone decided they no longer want something they’d put in their cart.  Ideally, the poor item should have been reunited on with its brethren, but shoppers can be lazy.

Back in high school, when I worked in a supermarket, I hated that.  Now I amuse myself by reconstructing the thought processes of those thoughtless shoppers.

For instance, this weekend at Costco, I noticed a lone box of Zipfizz Liquid Shots sitting atop of an almost-full palette of Sunkist soda.  “What led to that decision?” I wondered.  My brain gave me back something like this:

Next time you’re shopping and you see an orphaned item, you might take a moment to think about what it was exchanged for.  For the people that are selling these things, there just might be a marketing strategy hidden away in the forensic evidence.  For you, perhaps just an entertaining yarn.

Anyone that knows me well, knows that if I’m awake, I probably have an open can of Diet Coke nearby.  It’s a vice I’ve had since high school, when my step-dad, a diabetic, kept nothing else in the ‘fridge.  When people express wonder that I drink it so early in the morning (and so often in the hours thereafter), I compare it to your typical coffee addiction.  It’s simply a caffeine carrier, one without calories.

My family knows this.  Whenever I visit, my mom grabs a case from the store before I arrive.  My friends know it, too.  They can always count on Diet Coke being stocked in our ‘fridge.  Yesterday, I reaped the first benefit of having a semi-public habit.  One friend, a friend who shall remain unnamed (just in case this could get him in trouble), stopped by my office with two bottles of Coca-Cola’s newest product, Diet Coke Plus.

I hadn’t even heard the rumors, yet, so it was a complete surprise to me.  Diet Coke Plus is “Diet Coke with Vitamins & Minerals.”  10-15% of your recommended daily allowance for Niacin, Vitamin B6 and B12, Magnesium and Zinc. 

My first taste wasn’t very revealing; I’d been chomping on Valentine’s Day Cinnamon Altoids.  A few minutes later, though, I took another swig.  To me, it tasted like Diet Coke… with just a little indefinable difference.  Kind of like drinking Coke Zero or Diet Coke with Splenda.  They’re all trying for the same taste, but they just can’t quite get there.  Later that evening, Oksana said that it “tastes like the Diet Coke in Russia.”

Anyway, I thought it was quite cool to be one of the first people (at least in Juneau) to taste Diet Coke Plus; not even my secret friend had sampled it.  The local Coca-Cola distributor hasn’t decided if they’ll carry the product or not.  They’ve got only one batch, and as far as I know, it may not even reach the shelves.  Our market is so small, they just can’t afford to carry every one of the umpteen billion varieties Coca-Cola pushes on us.  Which is sad.  I could be Niacin deficient.