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Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 16 Jul 2011 00:33
by Ulver
Jeez... Sucks to be old! I recall not only returning glass bottles of Coke, but HUGE empty glass bottles of Coke! Were they 1-liters? IIRC they were in 4-packs. When full, what a load!

At my Kroger, we had to take them to the rear of the store. There was like a counter there, with someone attending it. I'm sure we didn't get the refund there. Maybe something to give the cashier at check-out.

I think aluminum cans were already getting popular, but glass was far from gone. Takin' those suckers back to the Kroger! LOL!

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 16:21
by wayne winterland jr.
I also remember returning empty glass pop bottles. My dad was the Assistant Manager of the Alpha Beta Market in downtown Orange, California and in those days the cashiers weren't careful about giving bottle refunds for empty pop bottles that the store didn't even sell the product of. After awhile there would be such a mess of empty pop bottles in the backroom that I would go down to the store and help my dad out by racking all of the empty pop bottles and then after I had cleaned up the mess and had everything straightened up then the store manager would let me have any and all of the empty pop bottles that Alpha Beta Markets didn't carry or sell the product of and then I would return the cragmont empty pop bottles to the local Safeway Store and then I would also take all of the empty Mother's Pride bottles to a liquor store that was next to the Alpha Beta Market where I used to work in the east part of Orange, California where I worked at a box boy. It was nice that it gave me a little extra money once in awhile.

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 11:32
by klkla
My first experience with bottle returns was with Mayfair Markets in San Diego. I hated doing it. The bottles had to be separated by vendor in the backroom and rats would make nests in the crates. Not a pleasant experience!

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 30 Jul 2011 21:29
by maynesG
Hey that was how I earned my allowance when I way 7 years old from my dad. He managed a Finast in New Milford NJ ( now a Shop Rte). On Saturdays I got to go to the Store with my Dad and I would sort bottles in the basement. The Check stands had dumbwaiters that would drop Parcel Pick Up Boxes to a roller in the basement, that would take the bottles to a Bottle area. I would sort them out by vendor and their were a lot of them in the early 60!s, Cott, Shasta Coke, Pepsi, Seven Up, A Treat, Ar-tic Club, Andorondack and many others.
Does Any one remember the largest soze bottles in the Summer time exploding in the aisle do the gass in the bottlehitting uneven airconditioning in some of the stores of the time. No one got hurt, that I can remember but I have to believe cans and Plastic Bottles came into use to eliviate this problem, not to mention how heavy this stuff was. Private label came from your own DC, the rest was store doored by pannel Truck. You could always tell who the Coke or Pepsi Man was by the way he walked, very painfuly.

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 03 May 2013 13:19
by GaryED44
The first time I discovered returning bottles I was about 7. we had been a soda family for a long while and my parents just put the bottles under the sink. There had to be at least 20 dollars in bottle returns under there. I took them back to Market Basket near us and had money for weeks.

Gary

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 03 May 2013 13:48
by BillyGr
Ulver wrote:Jeez... Sucks to be old! I recall not only returning glass bottles of Coke, but HUGE empty glass bottles of Coke! Were they 1-liters? IIRC they were in 4-packs. When full, what a load!
The first larger sized bottles (in the 1950's) known as King Size, were 26 oz.

They may have increased over the years but likely would have been quart (rather than liter) size at some point.

Not really sure how beverages were one of the few to grab onto the Metric System - but maybe the fact that the big companies (Coke/Pepsi) had locations in other countries earlier than many industries?

(Note - The King Size fact comes from a book, not me personally). I do remember taking the smaller glass Coke bottles back, though - even though at that time there was no deposit on most drinks (before the current deposit laws that states like NY have).

Re: Anyone Old Enough, To Remember Returning Glass Bottles>?

Posted: 04 May 2013 00:34
by tbmjdf
Any one remember the glass 2 liter bottles during the early 80's? they were such a pain stocking them and sorting them.