My favorite weird ritual of the Quarantimes is that every few weeks we make a pilgrimage to the one nearby Target in Pennsylvania that reliably has diet cherry pepsi, which has become a Rare Drop.

Soda availability, as near as I can tell, has shifted as a consequence of an aluminum can shortage that is mostly because of a rising demand in beer cans as people drink at home more.

The major soda companies have both simplified their product lines and throttled production of remaining ancillary flavors in order to keep their core products reliably on store shelves.

We place the order for pick-up on the app so we know, before we get in the car and drive across state lines for soft drinks, that they'll actually be waiting for us.

Pepsi recommends people use their product locator but its results have not been reliable for us. Using the Target app to place an order for pickup has worked, though.

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Apepsi%20diet%20cherry%20pepsi&f=live

So in case anybody else is questing to find diet wild cherry pepsi in the mid-apocalypse, that's my hack: use the Target app to check all the stores near you, when one says it's in stock place an order for pick-up. The pick-up orders get picked and set aside for you.

So your claimed bottles of your sought-after flavor of caffeination will be reserved for you (or not, if the shelves get hit before your order is picked, but you'll know) before you get in the car.

Why go through so much trouble for a soda? I mean, if you have to ask that, then this thread isn't aimed at you. We all have the little things that are helping us get through things. For some people, it's a favorite beverage.