It came up again yesterday. People on airplanes like to order ginger ale. Is it the altitude? Is it a guilty pleasure? We've all been told that drinking ginger ale is a good way to soothe your through when you have a cough. Who knows what the real reason is. The fact remains, ginger ale is good, but it's not good enough to be served in fast food restaurants. I'm guessing it's not a big seller and could be cheap to buy in bulk because of that, but I guess even cheap is not cheap enough to take on ginger ale. It's clear, it's sugary, it's fizzy. What's not to like?
I got to see some sales data from an undisclosed source and it revealed that ginger ale sales make up a very very low percentage of overall beverage sales. But the question remains, why is it so popular, but not really?
I think that when looking at the airplane example, multiple factors contribute to the observed outcome. Accessibility, price, and guilty pleasure might be among the largest factors. The fact that they offer ginger ale is huge. Something you might not otherwise be able to get unless you bought it yourself. Which brings us to factor two. It's free. We're likely to try things if they are free and seem to have no consequences. Is it really a guilty pleasure? Who wants to be that guy that orders a ginger ale when everyone else is getting their coke (pepsi) and diet coke (diet pepsi)? Not me. And not him! Anyway, secretly everyone has a soft spot for Canada Dry (or Schweppes to a less extent).
Anyway, now that you've read about this, you'll begin to notice it. Notice that people on airplanes don't have inhibitions about ordering ginger ale. You'll also notice that it's not a very common offering at the fountain soda machines. Think about it.
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I always get a ginger ale on flights because I never find it offered anywhere else!! But, I never think to purchase it at the supermarket... then again, I don't buy soda at all in general at the supermarket anyway... And, for what it's worth, if it was at a soda fountain at a fast food joint I would totally choose ginger ale over sprite (my usual)
ReplyDeleteI don't how much real ginger is in gingerale nowadays (I think Canada Dry says it uses real ginger) but ginger is a natural remedy for air sickness/motion sickness, which is why I think a lot of people get it on an airplane to calm their queasiness. And maybe it has now become psychosomatic--that even if it doesn't have any real ginger that we have been told that gingerale will soothe and so we ask for it on airplanes.
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