Dr. Pepper acknowledges canned soda shortage, working on solution

Instead of singing the old jingle, “I’m a Pepper, you’re a Pepper,” fans of the soda Dr. Pepper may be asking where is the Pepper?

Apparently a can of the soda may be difficult to come by in some stores, Grey News reported. But it’s not just people of Reddit and other social media outlets saying it.

The company itself has acknowledged that it may be difficult to find a can of Dr. Pepper or its variety of flavors right now.

Reaching out to Dr. Pepper connoisseurs on Twitter, company officials said they are working on the distribution to keep store shelves full of canned soda.

And the company is getting support from one unlikely source — the toilet paper company Charmin — which replied to Dr. Pepper’s post saying it feels the same pain.

The shortage is due to an aluminum can shortage that is hitting bottling companies. It’s not the aluminum that is in short supply, USA Today reported. Instead, producers that make the cans can’t keep up with demand as people stopped going to restaurants and staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Brevard Times reported. That means they stopped drinking fountain drinks and beers on tap, and instead have been drinking canned beverages at home. Cans are easier to store and stack than plastic or glass, the newspaper found.

Dr. Pepper isn’t the only company that has seen difficulty keeping its beverage products on store shelves. In June, Coca-Cola said they were trying to get more Pibb into the hands of consumers.

Cox Media Group