Why This Fast Food Chain Sells Soda In A Bag

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KFC, which has left its eponymous Kentucky for Texas headquarters, is something of an odd duck — or is that a chicken? — among fast food chains. Not only does it have rare buffet locations so few and far between that some folks think they're 100% discontinued, but, apparently, it has been serving large portions of fountain soda in bucket-bags called Beverage Buckets since April 2021. Yes, you heard that right: bags. With spouts, like some kind of eyebrow-raising, carbonated, oversized GoGo SqueeZ applesauce pouches for drive-thru denizens instead of toddlers. 

As per a statement by KFC, the bags contain half a gallon of fluid and can be filled with anything at the restaurants' Pepsi-branded soda fountains, which includes soft drinks, lemonades, and iced teas. These appear to be confined to limited locations, as per internet reports.

Puzzled by why anyone might think it's a good idea to stow Mountain Dew Sweet Lightning in a refillable bag? A sage commenter on Reddit might have hit upon the justification: space savings. Multi-serving containers of soda to accompany KFC's family-sized chicken dinners would normally take the form of 2-liter bottles, which are potentially a storage nightmare. The soda bags, on the other hand, can be stored flat and filled up from the soda fountain when needed, making them extremely space-effective. And while pouring a perfect can of soda requires a hack, serving the whole fambam a glass of Starry with the bag's spout seems like it would be pretty easy.

Real-world customer experiences with the Beverage Buckets are all over the place. Some folks felt self-conscious carrying them, while others complained that employees were unsure if, in fact, every beverage could be used to fill them. Others have questioned why, exactly, anyone needs up to 1,000 calories (or more!) of sugary soda in a bucket. On YouTube, at least one reviewer released their inner child and chugged straight from the spout, happily proclaiming that the quality of the drink inside was satisfactory. On Rumble, an astute buyer noted that it might look like the bearer of a Beverage Bucket was "carrying a blood bag [...] because the color is red," but stated that it wasn't a compunction that personally bothered him.

The more well-traveled foodies among us may realize that distributing beverages in a bag isn't wholly without precedent. In many parts of the world, including the United States' northern neighbor of Canada, milk isn't sold in jugs or cartons, but in plastic bags that are pierced or cut at the corners and may be decanted into a dedicated pitcher for serving. Whether or not these bags are more or less environmentally friendly than U.S. gallon jugs is the subject of lively debate, but the bagged milk brigade mostly swear that they wouldn't have their moo juice any other way. One thing is for sure: the topic of beverage buckets brings all the big opinions out of the woodwork!