Can or Cannot, There Is No Pop

Last week, I had to pick up a new carton of pop.  I would be drinking my last can that afternoon, so it was time to pick up some new.  However, I was expecting problems.  You see, for the last few weeks, if not longer, I had been noticing a distinctive lack of variety in most brands.  So, instead of picking up a carton of Cherry Dr Pepper or the new Cream Soda flavor, I had to go with the regular.  I was fortunate enough to find one bottle of Cherry hiding in one of the coolers in the checkout aisle.  Supposedly, the reason for this lack of variety is a shortage, not of ingredients, but in aluminum cans.  Not the aluminum, just the cans.  Because of all the restrictions on restaurants and other food places, people have been buying more pop to drink at home.  I honestly didn't think that most people drank pop while eating out.  Admittedly, until the shutdowns, I only ate out two or three days a month, max. Well, since people having been eating out, there's more of a market for buying for home use.  The majority of this has been in cans, as they are supposedly more environmentally sound, over plastic bottles.  [As an aside, I have always found it strange that the materials that are the most likely to be recycled are the ones least likely to be used up.  Aluminum is the most common metal found in the earth's crust.  It will take a long time for al resources to run out.  The only elements more common are silicon and oxygen, pretty much found in every rock on earth. They are also the major components of glass, another commonly recycled material.  Sorry about the rant, but I had to mention it.]  While there is no shortage of aluminum, the plants that manufacture the cans are running behind in making them.  In an effort to keep up, most beverage companies are shifting plants away from many of the niche flavors to focus only on the tip sellers.  Apparently, the smaller plants, like my local one, starting changing over much earlier than the larger ones, who only began shifting a week or two ago.   I kind of expected this, as I had known that my local bottling plant didn't produce all flavors.  A few years ago, when I still drank diet pop regularly, I had a hard time finding my favorite, Diet Cherry Dr Pepper.  I was only able to get it when I went to Lexington, once or twice a year.  Then, one year, I finally started going back to Virginia, after a long time from traveling there.  Starting just one county over, I was finding it everywhere.  Even the smaller stores carried it.  I had never known that a different bottling plant took over just one county away.  Of course, I no longer drink diet pop on a regular basis.  I still only average one can every two days, like I have for decades now.  This still doesn't explain why plants aren't making more flavors available in bottles though.  It probably has something to do with keeping large amounts of ingredients around.  Still, I like flavors and variety.  I will be on the lookout for bottles, if nothing else, until this shortage has ended.  Who knows?  This might finally allow the return of one of my most favorite flavors of all time to be made again locally, Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper.  The only thing I like better is Crystal Pepsi, but at least I can hope for a comeback.