Posted by Luke in 
A few years ago, during what I now refer to as my ‘dark but not as dark as DARK’ years I often found solace in the Pernod-like brown fluid Americans strangely labelled, “Doctor Pepper”. Imagine my horror one day when I traversed to my local grocer to procure said soft drink and it was gone! After a week I had withdrawals! I became so depressed about it I wrote a nice letter to the head of Schweppes in Australia asking where I could buy it… her replied left me wondering about the state of our nation.
She informed me that the company wasn’t selling enough of the “doctor” to be viable. She put me onto a local importer who charged twice as much as I used to buy three times as much for. So in this despair I went searching for the last bottles of the doctor. I had a few successes but many failures. I was preturbed! Eventually the last few bottles disappeared and that (as they say) was the end of that.
Fast forward four years and now you can buy a can of Dr Pepper from a local merchant at $2.50 a can. That’s $2.50 AUD a can!!! In desperation I have found $2.50 a can to be obscene as I used to buy 1.25 litre bottles for $1.30 or so. I could have 2.5 litres instead of .375!
Alas, living in the bottom end of the earth has it’s advantages… (whether, sporting legends etc) but I want a more plentiful supply of the doctor. This was my solace. The one bright spark in my dull life that created a sense of hope that there was something better. However, those days are gone and I must move on. I have tried, “double sars”, “vanilla coke” and the like and it’s just not the same thing I am afraid. So unless I am fortunate to get an academic posting in a foreign country I am forced to ask the question… why does Australia hate Dr Pepper?
Powered by MightyAdsense
