Costco is slated to make a major change to its food court soda offerings next year.
The warehouse-based retailer is reportedly planning to drop Pepsi beverages from its soda fountains and replace them with Coca-Cola products.
The new drinks would include Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and Sprite, according to the Daily Meal.
The changes can be expected to be rolled out in early 2025, according to online reports.
For the last ten years Costco has only carried Pepsi drinks in its food court after it failed to negotiate lower distribution costs with Coca-Cola in 2013.
The switch over took years to fully complete, as Costco has more than 800 locations around the world.
It is also not the first time the retailer and the soda giant have been at odds with one another.
Back in 2009, when Costco still distributed Coca-Cola products, there was another pricing dispute.
Costco is said to drop its Pepsi beverages in favor of Coca-Cola products next year
Costco pulled the products from its food courts for a month, and the disagreement was eventually settled.
Retailers like Costco can only serve Pepsi or Coca-Cola products, they are not able to distribute both at the same time due to product contracts.
The beverage companies bid on contracts to supply their products to such chains, and often the lowest cost bid for the retailer will win.
Costco must keep its contract costs low in order to keep its famously low deals, particularly the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.
The price has remained the same for decades despite inflation, and it is a much-loved staple of the stores’ food courts.
Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been rivals for decades, but the last time they came close in market share was the 1980’s.
Since then Coca-Cola pulled ahead to become the undisputed king of the $97 billion US soda industry with more than double the market shares of any of its rivals at 19.18 percent.
The brand has worked hard to not only promote its original and diet products but also to appeal to new customers with novel and nostalgic flavors, such as the upcoming Coca-Cola Orange Cream.
Pepsi’s market share is 8.31 percent, and Dr Pepper now 8.34 percent.
Costco can only serve Pepsi or Coca-Cola products in its soda fountains
Costco must keep its contract costs low in order to keep its $1.50 hot dog and soda combo
But the Pepsi brand remains the overall No 2 soda – when taking into account the diet and zero sugar versions.
Despite coming first, Dr Pepper struggled against it rivals who pulled further away during the cola wars.
That bitter battle began in the 1960s when Pepsi launched its Pepsi Generation campaign – casting the drink as a hip alternative to Coke for younger people.
Pepsi, which also famously rolled out adverts with Michael Jackson in the 1984, never quite caught Coke. But it got very close in the 1980s as the war intensified.
And – apart from three years from 2010 when Diet Coke muscled in – regular Pepsi held the No 2 spot since Beverage Digest began collecting data in 1985.
Dr Pepper has been helped by the rivalry between Coke and Pepsi – which tend to have exclusive deals with national restaurant chains so they only have one type of cola.
For example, McDonald’s is Coke but KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell are Pepsi. Subway, meanwhile, is moving from Coke to Pepsi in 2025.
But Dr Pepper-owner Keurig has deals with both sides, so it is on almost all drinks fountains whether they are branded Coke or Pepsi.
Whenever a major change shifts its product offering it causes some controversy among its fans.
Earlier this year Subway announced that it would be dropping Coca-Cola products as it enters in to a ten-year deal with Pepsi.
All U.S. Subway locations will be offering drinks like Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Lipton, as per the agreement starting in January 2025.