The 1.25-litre soft drink has been an Australian institution for decades. Order a pizza, grab a bottle of Pepsi, Coke or Fanta to match that large Hawaiian. Hit the supermarket, stock up on lemonade, tonic water and ginger ale for the long weekend. Sadly, much like the elves of Middle-Earth, the 1.25-litre is, gradually, departing these lands, at least in the case of Schweppes.
Perhaps you blamed it on madness, or a misremembrance. I’m here to tell you that you weren’t mistaken. A huge chunk of the Schweppes range has shrunk from the venerable 1.25-litre, to the more petite 1.1-litre. Adding insult to injury, the latter is a little taller than its predecessor, much to the chagrin of fridges everywhere.
Sure, it’s a measly 150mL, but that’s not the point. The point is you can no longer say “can you get me a 1.25 of [insert beverage here]”. It’s a relic now, an expression deader than “…said the actress to the bishop”.
Simply put, it just feels wrong.
Going by comments online, the switch to 1.1-litre bottles started over a year ago, but was limited to mixers, such as tonic water and ginger ale. It’s only in the last few months that the likes of creaming soda and lemonade were affected.
The good news is you’re not being charged the same for less. In fact, prices went down about 20c.
Yay, I guess?
On another positive note, Schweppes looks to be the only company that’s cut its bottle sizes. Soft drink stalwarts Coke and Pepsi are still available in 1.25-litre sizing (there’s even 1.5-litre, for the indecisive masses), and I don’t think they’ll try anything soon, if only because of the backlash. The Pizza Shapes saga would look like a mild disagreement in comparison.
But I do think this is the start of the end. Over the years, we’ve seen chocolate blocks go down in size and Pringles essentially kill its business.
They had to come for soft drinks sooner or later.
Schweppes 1.25L bottle varieties have quietly shrunk down to 1.1L and price has stayed the same. [Reddit]
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