Last returnable 6.5 oz bottle capped today

[Roadman]

All good info guys. Was this company really running production or were they running just a few cases per year?  Wheer the heck were they being sold?

[SIGNGUY]

This bottling plant was running about 6,000 cases every couple of months I believe... earlier on they where bottling once a month... and they sold thier product around their general vicinity and then some guys like me and others would drive Hours to pick up cases of bottles every 6 months or so...
they had some stores and shops in the City they where in , still selling the bottles out of a few older machines like Cav 72 in the local barber shop, and another shop had a chest cooler with bottles in it..

was talking with my cousin last night who was also in the bottling business in Pine City MN.. and he has the very last 6.5 and 16oz bottle that came off the Pine City bottling line when they stopped in 1986 or so...

[Roadman]

Thanks for the good infor SIGN GUY.  I suppose the local shops are all sold out now.  The rel thick glass 6.5 oz bottles were always the best coke

[dr galaga]

What a sad day. I have been taking annual trips up there every summer. It looks like they ran a bunch of embossed botttles for the last run. Normally they didn't use these. The bottles that I got from Winona were from the 60's and 70's. There were some that were the transitional bottles and I even have seen some from the 90's. Looks like I am going to have to find a new owner for all of these bottles....and so I have room for more returnables from the Wisconsin bottlers.

[mygoose101]

Luckily now Coca Cola is making Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Coke and Sprite in 8oz. small "aluminum" bottles with a twist off cap. They look awesome and the bottles have great color but again cost to retailers per case is $34 which is why there is not a line to buy these things. Retail they run $1.99 to $2.49ea. Cost you an arm and a leg to fill any soda machine you might have and if you do fill it then you have to pray that nobody actually wants to drink one.

[dr galaga]

One reason I started going to Winona is because of how much the eight ounce bottles cost. The cost of a case of the returnable bottles was about eight bucks.

[SIGNGUY]

I remember the first time I went there , cost was 6.85 a case.. he gave me employee pricing as he knew my grandfather and our bottling plant we had.. that as when Clint was still running the show..
I would bring down 12-15 cases of original Embossed bottles and they would Fill those for me, when i picked those up I'd leave another 15 cases of embossed ones for them to fill for me so every trip I picked up embossed bottles...  it was very cool.. and will be missed!

back to just filling them at home with a funnel and capper.. granted don't have original caps but still fun to have in the machines..

[halehouse]

Just a few years ago I could buy returnable 6.5 oz in the Lynchburg and Roanoke, VA areas, but obviously that ended. Now I buy the Mexican Cokes at Costco, but I noticed the price on the 8 oz bottles dropped about a dollar a six pack recently.

[cohammer]

In the early 60 s we would get up 10 coke bottles and walk down to the store and get us a kite and a ball of string. That was fun just looking for bottles to return for a penny

[MoonDawg]

       Yeah. I remember finding a six pack of empty bottles. Walked half a mile to the store, the guy gave me 12 cents for them. I bought a Coke for 10 cents plus his
2 cents deposit, and I left broke again!