In 1976 a combination retail store and soda bottling factory opened in Casselberry. It was called The PoP Shoppe and located in front of the Semoran Skateway at 1101 Semoran Blvd.
The Casselberry factory made 16 regular and 8 diet flavors, including “Lime Rickey,” Grapefruit, and Fruit Punch. In addition to its own retail store, the bottles were distributed at a dozen regional retail-only PoP Shoppes from Sanford to Merritt Island.
Customers of the factory store could watch the bottling process through large windows. They bragged about the tremendous price breaks they could offer by cutting out the middleman. The PoP Shoppe started in Canada in 1969 and expanded into the United States in 1972.
The Casselberry store was one of 12 in the United States that served as a regional hub with the factory-store combination. The store manager was Lee Mennzes, who came from Canada to oversee the Casselberry outfit.
The company was a publicly-traded stock in Canada, but the concept cratered in 1983 thanks to the fading of its fad and with more affordable plastic bottles replacing the glass ones of PoP Shoppe.
The company was reborn in Ontario in 2004 with a new investor who loved the brand as a kid. It is again sold by many retailers in Canada (https://www.thepopshoppe.com/).
