When I was a kid there was a Pop Shoppe store by my house that sold different flavors of soda pop in thick little glass bottles. You'd grab a crate, fill it up with whatever mix of flavors struck your fancy, and pay a deposit for the bottles. When you'd drank them all you brought your crate of empty bottles back for a refill.

Seemed like a pretty good idea to me. It went out of business, though, I think because people wanted Pepsi and Coke brands.

> It went out of business, though, I think because people wanted Pepsi and Coke brands.

Nothing stops the Pop Shoppe from dispensing Pepsi and Coke brands any more than it stops the local pizza place from dispensing Coke brand Coke from the soda fountain.

There probably IS some sort of licensing agreement preventing that, else they would have.

Restaurants and clubs have soda fountains letting customers fill themselves unlimited soda.

Surely, the license is not an obstacle since it's already being done.

The parent company of the Pop Shoppe made soda. I would be surprised if they allowed franchisees to use other suppliers.

When I was a kid (in the 1960's), milk bottles were re-used. We left the empty bottles on the front porch. The milkman (from Alexandria Dairy, if you lived in NoVa like me) came around very early in the morning and exchanged the empty bottles for filled ones. There was a little ice box (literally) by the front door that kept the milk cold. This service stopped in the mid 70s.