Grapette

Development

Benjamin "Tyndle" Fooks, while working as a traveling salesman for a product called "Fooks Flavors," observed that his grape flavor was especially popular. Dissatisfied with existing grape sodas, he set out to create a grape soda that matched his own taste preferences. Over two years and tens of thousands of taste tests, by 1939 he had developed a flavor he considered superior to all other grape sodas then available. To name the drink, Fooks enlisted Hubert Owen.

Owen ran a local contest with an assistant, but it yielded no suitable names. He then traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1939 to search trademark files at the United States Patent Office. There he learned of Rube Goldstein, who held trademarks for "Grapette," "Orangette," and "Lemonette." Goldstein owned a small bottling firm that produced a drink called "Tiny," which used one of Fooks' grape flavors and was sold in six-ounce bottles in Virginia and North Carolina.

Goldstein had never used the Grapette, Orangette, or Lemonette names. By March 1940, Fooks and Owen met Goldstein in Chicago, Illinois, and purchased the three names for $500.

Early marketing

In the spring of 1940, Fooks started selling his soda in Camden, Arkansas, calling it Grapette. Its first year saw strong sales, helped by the taste and a distinctive look. While most sodas of the era came in twelve-ounce bottles, Grapette used a six-ounce clear glass bottle that showed off its purple color. As sales took off, the drink was marketed across much of the United States, using the slogan "Thirsty or Not."

New flavors followed, including Orangette, an orange soda made with a good amount of real orange juice, and Lemonette, which had plenty of real lemon juice. When World War II broke out, Fooks set aside other brands like Botl-O and Sunburst to concentrate on Grapette. Sales kept climbing despite wartime shortages and limits. Sugar was rationed, but Fooks got around this by adding water to granulated sugar to turn it into syrup, which wasn't rationed.

In 1942, Arkansas oilman R. Paul May convinced Fooks to let him sell Grapette in Latin America, pointing out the region's lack of soft drinks. May built a solid reputation for the brand in Guatemala, offering Grapette, Orangette, and Lemonette, which soon became top sellers. In 1962, the export side was spun off into its own company, Grapette International. That same year, Grapette launched a cola line called Mr. Cola to take on Coca-Cola, popular mainly for its sixteen-ounce bottle, though it also came in ten- and twelve-ounce sizes. In 1963, Lymette joined the family, but it never matched the success of the other drinks.

Decline and retirement

By the 1960s, Fooks was done with Grapette and ready for a change. He started talking to potential buyers later that decade, and in 1970 sold the company to Rheingold Corporation, a beer maker that also handled some regional soft drinks out west and in Puerto Rico. Rheingold changed the company’s name to Flavette and moved its base to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The bottle got a new look with smooth sides and colored dots, and the slogan became "The Juicy Soda."

The old advertising system, where a sugar surcharge paid for distributor-led ads, was scrapped by Rheingold. That put all ad responsibility on the distributors, and sales took an immediate hit. Around this time, Flavette bought the Dr. Wells soda brand and Mason & Mason, the folks behind Mason's Root Beer. In 1975, PepsiCo grabbed 80% of Rheingold in a hostile takeover, but the Federal Trade Commission said PepsiCo had too many soft drink brands and forced it to sell off several.

By 1977, Grapette ended up with Monarch Beverage Company, which already made NuGrape. Monarch didn’t want two grape sodas, so its reps flew to Grapette’s office and let the whole team go. The Grapette name was put on ice in the U.S., and the flavor was retired. Still, May kept the rights to Grapette International, and the drink stayed popular abroad.

When May died in the early 1970s, his son-in-law Brooks Rice took over. Rice tried again and again to buy back the American rights from Monarch, but Monarch wouldn’t sell, no matter the price. So Rice kept building Grapette’s international business, racking up tens of millions in sales across South America and the Pacific Rim.

Walmart

Rice had profited as an early investor in Walmart, founded by Sam Walton. As Walmart grew, Rice sought ways to partner with the retailer. In 1986, he met with Sam Walton to discuss creating a private label line of soft drinks for Walmart, specifically a grape soda. Walton told Rice he wanted Grapette in his stores.

Rice did not hold the American rights to the Grapette name but could offer the flavor, and promised that if he reacquired the rights, Walmart could have the name. In 1989, nearly three years after the meeting, Grapette International began producing soft drinks for Walmart under the Ozark Farms name, with cola, lemon-lime, grape, and orange flavors using Fooks' original formulas. Grapette thus returned to American shelves under a different name, but sales were disappointing and the line was discontinued.

In 1993, Rice again manufactured soft drinks for Walmart under the Sam's Choice brand, with Walmart receiving exclusive U.S. rights to the flavors. Grapette was relaunched as "Sam's Choice Grape" and soon became one of the best-selling grape sodas in the nation. In 2000, Rice walked into the Walmart Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas, to personally tell David Glass that Monarch was finally selling the Grapette name. Rice called it a tribute to Glass and Sam Walton for their vision.

By late 2004, the Grapette and Orangette names and original logotypes had been incorporated into the Sam's Choice line, fully replacing the Sam's Choice Grape and Sam's Choice Orange brands in Walmart stores.