Grapette facts for kids
Five different styles of the Grapette bottle
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| Type | Soft drink |
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| Manufacturer | Grapette (1939-1970) Flavette (USA 1970-1975) Grapette International (Latin America 1942-2000; 2000-) |
| Country of origin | Camden, Arkansas, United States |
| Introduced | 1939, 2000 |
| Discontinued | 1975-2000 |
| Color | Purple |
| Flavor | Grape |
| Related products | NuGrape |
| Website | grapette.com |
Grapette is a popular grape-flavored soft drink. It was first made and sold in 1939 by a man named Benjamin "Tyndle" Fooks. Today, Grapette is produced by a company called Grapette International. In the United States, you can find it at Walmart stores. It's sold as part of their Sam's Choice brand of drinks.
Contents
How Grapette Was Created
Grapette was invented by Benjamin "Tyndle" Fooks (1901-1981). He used to be a traveling salesman, selling different flavors. He noticed that his grape flavor was very popular. Mr. Fooks wasn't happy with the grape sodas already available. He wanted to create a grape soda that tasted exactly how he thought it should.
He spent two years working on his recipe. He did tens of thousands of taste tests! By 1939, he had created a flavor he believed was better than any other grape soda.
To choose a name for his new drink, Fooks asked Hubert Owen for help. Owen and his assistant held a local contest, but they didn't find a good name. So, Owen traveled to Washington, D.C. in 1939. He looked through the trademark files at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
There, Owen learned about Rube Goldstein. Goldstein owned trademarks for the names "Grapette," "Orangette," and "Lemonette." Further research showed that Goldstein had a small bottling company. This company made a drink called "Tiny" using one of Fooks' grape flavors. "Tiny" was sold in a small six-ounce bottle in Virginia and North Carolina. However, Goldstein had never used the Grapette, Orangette, or Lemonette names. By March 1940, Fooks and Owen met Goldstein in Chicago, Illinois. They bought the Grapette, Orangette, and Lemonette names for $500.
Early Days and Growth
In the spring of 1940, Fooks started selling his soda in Camden, Arkansas. He called it "Grapette." Grapette sold very well in its first year. This was because of its great flavor and its special packaging. Most soft drinks back then came in twelve-ounce bottles. Grapette was sold in a six-ounce clear glass bottle. This bottle showed off the drink's bright purple color.
Because it was so successful, Grapette was sold in many parts of the United States. The company created the slogan "Thirsty or Not" for its ads. They also developed other flavors. These included Orangette, an orange-flavored soda with lots of real orange juice. Another was Lemonette, which had a lot of real lemon juice.
When World War II started, Fooks stopped making many of his other brands. He wanted to focus only on Grapette. Grapette sales kept growing during the war, even with limits and shortages. Sugar was rationed during the war. But Fooks found a way around this. He added water to granulated sugar, making it liquid. Liquid syrup was not rationed, so he could still get sugar for Grapette.
In 1942, R. Paul May, an oil businessman from Arkansas, convinced Fooks to let him sell Grapette in Latin America. May said there weren't many soft drink choices there. May built a strong reputation for Grapette in Guatemala. He sold Grapette, Orangette, and Lemonette. These drinks quickly became the most popular in the market. In 1962, the part of Grapette that handled exports became its own company, called Grapette International.
In 1962, Grapette also launched a line of cola drinks. These were called "Mr. Cola" and were meant to compete with Coca-Cola. Mr. Cola was popular partly because it came in a sixteen-ounce bottle. It was also sold in ten and twelve-ounce sizes. In 1963, "Lymette" was added to Grapette's family of drinks. However, Lymette never became as successful as the other brands.
Changes and a Break
By the 1960s, Fooks felt he had done all he could with Grapette. He was ready to move on. By the end of the decade, Fooks started talking to groups interested in buying Grapette. In 1970, Fooks sold Grapette to the Rheingold Corporation. This company sold different beers and some regional soft drinks.
Rheingold changed the company's name from Grapette to Flavette. They also moved the company's main office to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Grapette's bottle was changed to a new design with smooth sides and colored dots. The new slogan became "The Juicy Soda." Grapette's advertising plan also changed. Before, advertising money came from a small extra charge on sugar. This money was only for distributors to use for ads. Rheingold stopped this plan. Now, distributors had to pay for their own ads. This caused Grapette's sales to drop right away. During this time, Flavette bought the Dr. Wells soda brand and Mason & Mason, Inc., which made Mason's Root Beer.
In 1975, PepsiCo, Inc. bought Rheingold. However, the Federal Trade Commission decided that PepsiCo owned too many soft drink companies. So, they ordered PepsiCo to sell off several brands. When this was done in 1977, Grapette ended up with the Monarch Beverage Company. Monarch already made a grape soda called NuGrape. They decided they didn't need another grape soda. Representatives from Monarch went to Grapette's office and basically let the Grapette team go. So, the Grapette name was put away, and the flavor was no longer sold in the United States.
Even though Grapette was no longer sold in the U.S., R. Paul May's family still owned Grapette International. Grapette continued to be made and sold in other countries, where it remained very popular. When May passed away in the early 1970s, his son-in-law, Brooks Rice, took over Grapette International.
In the United States, Grapette might have been gone, but people certainly remembered it. Brooks Rice tried many times to buy the American rights to Grapette back from Monarch. But no matter how much money he offered, Monarch refused to sell the name. Despite this, Rice kept growing Grapette's sales in other parts of the world. Sales reached tens of millions in countries in South America and the Pacific Rim.
The Walmart Connection
Brooks Rice had invested early in a company called Walmart, started by Sam Walton. As Walmart grew into a famous name, Rice started thinking about ways to work with them. In 1986, Rice met with Sam Walton. They talked about creating a line of private label soft drinks for Walmart. Rice was especially interested in making a grape soda for them.
Walton was very direct. He told Rice, "I want Grapette in my stores." Rice didn't own the American rights to the Grapette name. But he could offer Grapette's special flavor. He also promised that if he ever got the rights back, Walmart would get them.
Ozark Farms
In 1989, almost three years after their first meeting, Grapette International started making soft drinks for Walmart. These were sold under the Ozark Farms name. The flavors available were cola, lemon-lime, grape, and orange. Each flavor used Fooks' original recipes. So, Grapette's flavor returned to American shelves, but with a new name. However, sales were not as good as hoped, and the Ozark Farms line of soft drinks was stopped.
Sam's Choice
When Sam Walton passed away in 1992, Walmart CEO David Glass felt it would be a good way to honor Walton. He decided to rename Walmart's private label brand "Sam's Choice." In 1993, Rice began making soft drinks for Walmart again, this time under the Sam's Choice brand. Walmart was given the special right to sell these flavors only in the United States. Grapette was brought back at this time as "Sam's Choice Grape." Sam's Choice Grape quickly became one of the best-selling grape sodas in the country. This seemed to prove Rice's idea that the flavor, not just the famous name, made Grapette so popular.
Grapette Name Returns
In 2000, Rice went to the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas. He wanted to personally tell David Glass the big news: Monarch was finally selling the Grapette name! Rice told Glass, "This is a tribute to you and Sam for having the vision on this product."
By late 2004, the Grapette and Orangette names (and their original logos) were added to the Sam's Choice line of soft drinks. They completely replaced the "Sam's Choice Grape" and "Sam's Choice Orange" brands in Walmart stores.
See also
- List of Walmart brands
- Sam's Choice
