A couple of weeks ago the coconut water finally hit the shelves here in Portland Or. at the local Albertsons. At about the same time the marketing "Experts" moved the Cabana lemonades and coconut water from the "Health Beverage" (Read "Flavor Free") aisle in front of the pharmacy at the back of the store to the front of the store, and top shelf of the standard beverage aisle. I bought the last of several badly dented cans left on the shelves for my friends to try, and since then the store has been sold out of the standard coconut water and several flavors of the lemonades.
The "Test pilots" loved the stuff as they had with the the lemonade samples I gave them a year ago. I am convinced that the market share of this product will continue to grow as more customers become exposed to the products and become repeat buyers.
Sales seem to be doing fairly well considering the fact that at least locally, the product has been religated to the back of the store. I for one, as stated before, were I looking for a cool and refreshing bottle of lemonade, would not immediatly head for the hardware section in my quest. What were they thinking?
Still nothing at Safeway or Fred Meyers.
Let's hope for a long, hot, and dry summer.
GLTA,
D Cash
AI
