High-tech fountain soda machine at Rhodes 101 sites offers scores of flavors

Fountain soda has gone Freestyle.

The Coca-Cola Freestyle is the touch-screen soda fountain recently installed at area Rhodes 101 stores, offering a long list of beverage choices. Sprite with Grape, Strawberry Lemonade, Diet Coke with Raspberry, Peach Mellow Yellow and more than 100 flavor combinations are at customers' fingertips.

A recent Forbes magazine article put the Coca-Cola Freestyle up against the iPhone, calling them the two "Coolest Products of the Decade."

"They're the coolest because they engage us personally, fully, and unconditionally as they allow us to cocreate experiences with them that we define, that we control, and that we are free to change in any way we'd like," said Forbes writer Bob Evans in December.

In the same way the iPhone isn't just another phone, the Freestyle isn't just another soda machine.

It may look like something from "2001: A Space Odyssey," but it takes up about the same amount of space as a traditional six- or eight-valve soda fountain.

Unlike a traditional fountain, the Coca-Cola Freestyle doesn't use bags of syrup. Its microdosing technology blends concentrated ingredients stored in cartridges with filtered water to create beverages. It dispenses regular and low-calorie carbonated beverages, sparkling flavored waters, sports drinks and lemonades.

Rhodes 101 is one of only about 100 convenience stores in the United States with the Coca-Cola Freestyle, said Susan Stribling, spokeswoman for Coca-Cola Refreshments. The Coca-Cola Freestyle is now in 11 Rhodes 101 locations, including its stores on Sprigg Street and Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau and its new Mercato di Rodi store on East Main Street in Jackson. Perryville, Mo., Dexter, Mo., and Sikeston, Mo., Rhodes locations also have the Coca-Cola Freestyle.

"For being in the central U.S., the volumes of fountain soda we go through has always caught Coke's attention," said Keith Boeller, president of PAJCO, which operates Rhodes 101. He declined to say just how many Styrofoam Rhodes 101 cups are filled in a typical store each day.

Boeller learned about the Freestyle two years ago and went to Atlanta where he had the opportunity to give the developers feedback on the new high-tech soda machine.

'All about the experience'

The design includes handicapped-accessible control buttons, for those who can't reach the touch screen. It also has a fan above the dispensing fountain to circulate the scent of the flavored beverage a customers selects.

"It's really all about the experience. It's truly innovative," Boeller said.

The Freestyle first appeared in restaurants and movie theaters but only recently appeared in convenience stores. Burger King just signed up to put Freestyle machines in all 850 of its company-owned stores in the next several months, Stribling said.

"It's been really neat to watch customers come in and interact with it," Boeller said. "The majority of folks are extremely enthusiastic about it. Customers are standing there with their cellphones taking their pictures with it and posting them on Facebook. The reaction from techie folks has really been amazing."

But not everyone is a fan, so some Rhodes locations will continue to have the traditional soda fountains offering other options not allowed in the Coca-Cola Freestyle. While the Coca-Cola Freestyle allowed Rhodes to offer Dr Pepper for the first time, it doesn't include Mr. Pibb.

"If they like Mr. Pibb, if they like Chewy Ice, if they like things about the old one that this one doesn't do for them, there are some opportunities there to give our customers options," Boeller said.

The Coca-Cola Freestyle is in about 2,000 outlets in more than 75 markets. The soda fountain has a Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/cocacolafreestyle.

mmiller@semissourian.com

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