Page 1 of 2

Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 15th, 2022, 11:47 pm
by storewanderer
Nothing has changed here except they used to sell it in a 12pk (was 3.99 in NorCal) and now they sell it in an 8pk (now 3.49 in NorCal).

The package redesign they talk about was already used last year with the beat campaign they were running on Soleil (I still have some left from when they had the 12pk for .99 last year; this year their best promotion so far is 8pk for 1.77).

https://progressivegrocer.com/albertson ... ater-brand

Seems like the only thing "launching" here is their profit margin from downsizing the package by 33% but decreasing the price by about 12.5%.

Supposed excuse is brands like La Croix are also not a 12 pack. Okay.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 16th, 2022, 1:35 pm
by Alpha8472
La Croix tastes terrible. These water brands can be anywhere from awful to decent. I doubt it is a must have item. I tried the Sprouts sparkling water when they marked it down to 99 cents. I loved the raspberry and orange. Now I never see those flavors and the price has gone way up.

I have tried Bubly at Panera Bread, and that was nothing special. It was so bitter and bland. Dasani flavored water tasted like corrosive acid.

I am shocked Cirque Du Soleil is not suing for copyright infringement. It seems like something they would sell there. Something overpriced and French sounding.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 16th, 2022, 4:03 pm
by jamcool
Polar seems to be the best of the seltzers/sparkling waters taste wise. It probably depends on the water quality used to make the seltzer

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 16th, 2022, 6:08 pm
by marketreportblog
jamcool wrote: June 16th, 2022, 4:03 pm Polar seems to be the best of the seltzers/sparkling waters taste wise. It probably depends on the water quality used to make the seltzer
Polar is the best! As a current resident of Worcester, MA, home of Polar Seltzer (and its Orson the Polar Bear, on the roof of the factory), I like Soleil enough but am VERY loyal to Polar.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 16th, 2022, 7:03 pm
by Alpha8472
I tried Polar seltzer and it was good. However, the water from Sprouts tasted better.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 16th, 2022, 9:07 pm
by storewanderer
Polar has had a successful run at becoming what seems to be a national brand. It is the best of the seltzer brands and has the best variety of flavors. I think some regions have had rather spotty uptake of the product (I notice a lot of close dated 1 L bottles and a lot of stores out west quit offering the 1 L bottles and only offer 12 pack cans) but over time as people discover the product it seems to increase sales.

I also think many of the private labels including the Soleil are quite good (but certainly not worth a higher price than Polar when it goes on sale, which is the current state).

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 17th, 2022, 11:29 am
by Brian Lutz
I never could develop a taste for sparkling water, for me I can't taste anything but strong carbonation. That said, I did like the uncarbonated Hint water for a while (particularly the pineapple flavor) but would not go out of my way for it over plain water.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 17th, 2022, 11:45 am
by BillyGr
marketreportblog wrote: June 16th, 2022, 6:08 pm
jamcool wrote: June 16th, 2022, 4:03 pm Polar seems to be the best of the seltzers/sparkling waters taste wise. It probably depends on the water quality used to make the seltzer
Polar is the best! As a current resident of Worcester, MA, home of Polar Seltzer (and its Orson the Polar Bear, on the roof of the factory), I like Soleil enough but am VERY loyal to Polar.
Do they still make all of their items only there, or have they set up additional facilities?

Only since that was something that other companies had issues with, given that using water from various sources could change the product as well. Might not be an issue if they were moving into a new area (as customers there wouldn't likely know what it had previously tasted like), but it might make it less popular if the flavor was different?

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 17th, 2022, 4:49 pm
by jamcool
Kalil Bottling of Tucson is the Polar distributor in Arizona…I don’t know if they are packaging it in the Tucson plant (which they do for a lot of private label sodas)or if it comes from somewhere else.

Re: Albertsons relaunches Sparkling Water Brand

Posted: June 17th, 2022, 11:05 pm
by storewanderer
BillyGr wrote: June 17th, 2022, 11:45 am
Do they still make all of their items only there, or have they set up additional facilities?

Only since that was something that other companies had issues with, given that using water from various sources could change the product as well. Might not be an issue if they were moving into a new area (as customers there wouldn't likely know what it had previously tasted like), but it might make it less popular if the flavor was different?
Polar is a large 7-Up Bottler so a lot of Polar items in other regions are made by other 7-Up Bottlers.

The way the date codes flow on the packages will lead to if it is made by Polar or made by a different bottler.
Polar has at least a couple plants of its own also.
The date codes on packages that say "WV2" or "P" appear to be made by Polar itself.
The ones made in AZ have "KDV" in the date code.
I've seen some other codes on other cans I am not so familiar with. At one point I was getting 1 Liter Bottles that did not have the Polar Bear embedded in the top part of the plastic bottle and appeared to have been bottled by a Pepsi facility (can't see how that is possible) but that stopped a while ago.

I have found the product to be consistent regardless of who makes it.