North Stratford Mini Mart unveils touchscreen soda fountain
Employee Jessica LeRoy, Moses Lake, demonstrates how each flavor cartridge is installed in Moses Lake's new Coca-Cola Freestyle machine at 1158 N. Stratford Road.
Rachel Williams, of Friday Harbor, and Dustin Kapalo, of Moses Lake, ponder on which of the 125-plus flavors they can choose from Wednesday afternoon from the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine recently installed at 1158 N. Stratford Road.
MOSES LAKE - Have you ever had an orange-flavored Coke? How about a diet vanilla root beer, or a peach-infused sparkling water?
Since the installation of the touchscreen Coke Freestyle machine at the North Stratford Mini Mart last week, customers can now choose between 126 different flavor combinations of popular Coke soft drinks.
"It's like having a miniature bottling plant right at your fingertips," said mini mart owner Grant Nickols.
The high-tech machine dispenses Coke brands such as Fanta, Sprite, Coke, Powerade, Dasani, Dr. Pepper, Minute Maid and Mello Yello. Customers can choose to infuse their beverage with flavors like vanilla, cherry, peach, lime, orange and other flavors.
Diet versions are also available, as well as water and sparkling water.
Nickols said the machine uses pure pour technology, meaning he no longer has to deal with heavy bags of premixed syrup. Super concentrated flavors for the new machine are stored in cartridges, similar to ink cartridges.
Store employees load the cartridges in the machine, and sweetener and carbonation is added when customers select their soda of choice.
He said this method takes up less space, and allows the store a cost-effective way to provide a variety of soda options.
"You couldn't offer this many options with the typical method without spending lots of money, and without your products going bad," said Nickols.
He previously offered Pepsi products in his store, but when he heard about the Coke Freestyle machine he decided to give it a try.
"I never really wanted to change," he said. "But the opportunity to have something this new and this cool, I hope the wow factor will help increase sales."
Nickols said the machine is only available to stores with the highest volume of soda sales.
His store is the only place in Grant County to find the touchscreen machine.
And his store is one of four in all of Eastern Washington to carry the machine so far, he said.
Nickols said he is happy with soda sales since he installed the new machine. Although it is too early to tell what flavor combinations are customer favorites, Nickols said he has already had to re-order most of the products and flavors.
Nickols said he is partial to plain Coke, but he did try some of his son's orange Coke once.
"It was pretty good I have to say," he said.
Nickols said that even if customers opt for plain soda, they are still getting an improved product over the usual fountain machines.
Each cup is mixed right when you make your selection, he said, and is fresher than soda that has already been premixed.
"It's basically brewed right here," said Nickols. "You can get flavors you never even thought were out there."
The mini mart offers 16, 32 and 44 oz. drink options and Nickols said if customers sign up for the store's Kick Back rewards program, they can get a free soda after purchasing nine.
The mini mart is located at 1158 N. Stratford Rd. across from Lake Bowl in Moses Lake.