Thursday, May 16, 2013

When Good Searches Go Bad

I was intrigued by one of the coupon offers in my local paper this Sunday.  It was a coupon and ad for a soda called "Zevia".  During the warm weather, I  get an urge now and then for something fizzy, and the seltzer I usually drink doesn't quench that particular thirst.  But, I gave up sugared (or, shall we say, corn syrup sweetened) sodas years ago and I don't feel that good about drinking sodas with artificial sweeteners.

I've had mixed success with the natural sweetener Stevia.  I've tried some of the commercial brands of stevia based sweeteners and find them to have an unpleasant bitter aftertaste.  But, I was intrigued by this Zevia soda.  Although the ad didn't come out and say it was using stevia, the name of the product implied it.  So I thought "well, it's worth a try.  I used to drink TAB years ago, and that had a bitter aftertaste that I liked.  Maybe I will like Zevia."

So I went to the website.  There was a feature where you could input your zip code and the site would locate nearby retailers for you.  I looked forward to seeing if I could buy it locally.

The results were - somewhat interesting.

I live in the Binghamton, New York area.  After I input my zip, I was given various retailers - in the state of Maine, in the Bangor area, to be exact.  The last time I was in Maine (September of 2011) Maine was several hundred miles from my home. I doubt it's moved.

The website helpfully gave me the distance from my zip code to Bangor, Maine.  According to Zevia.com, my upstate New York zip code is 4,277 miles from Bangor, Maine.  According to Google Maps, my zip code is about 530 miles from Bangor.  Of course, I could be one of those folks who believe everything they read on the Internet.

So, I did what any reasonable person would do.  I reran the search, this time with my mother in law's zip code.  And the search worked!  So I reran the search with my zip, and this time it worked.

I'm wondering if the people running this website know there is some kind of glitch in their search function, though.  I may tell them about it, after I get home from my shopping trip to Bangor, Maine.

2 comments:

  1. I've had Zevia before (it's all over the place in Lincoln, NE, by the way, if you ever travel out this place) and I think the ginger one is really delightful and might satisfy your need for fizzy!

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  2. This is interesting and I'm glad I'm not alone. I often get odd results that vary the next time I try. I usually assume that I'm the one that did something wrong but maybe NOT!

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