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Detroit, mid-1960s · Soda

Towne Club

Towne Club started in the mid-1960s as the affordable answer to the national colas — and became a Detroit institution on the strength of one promise: whatever flavor you were after, they had it.

A blue Towne Club soda bottle
We Have Your Flavor

The story

  1. mid-1960s

    A cheaper way to buy pop

    Harold Samhat launches Towne Club in metro Detroit, positioned squarely against Coke and Pepsi as the pop a family could actually afford to keep in the house.

  2. Late 1960s

    The Pop Shops

    Towne Club opens its warehouse-style "Pop Shops." Customers grab a wooden crate at the door, walk the stacks picking 24 bottles flavor by flavor, and bring the empties back next trip. More than 50 shops operate across Michigan and Ohio.

  3. Today

    Cane sugar, glass bottles

    IDI produces Towne Club at its Detroit bottling facility — pure cane sugar, 16 oz glass, and a flavor range that still outruns anything else on the shelf.

The lineup

Towne Club flavors

The slogan was never marketing. The flavor range is the product.

  • Michigan Cherry
  • Michigan Berries
  • Orange
  • Root Beer
  • Vanilla Cream
  • Cream Soda
  • Cola
  • Strawberry
  • Grape
  • Ginger Ale
  • Category Full-line soda
  • Sweetener Pure cane sugar
  • Package 16 oz glass bottle
  • Ownership IDI house brand
On the shelf

Towne Club in the wild

Towne Club blue soda in a 16 oz glass bottle
Towne Club Pineapple Passion Fruit soda

Product photography via Open Food Facts (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Want Towne Club in your store?

We run our own trucks on our own routes across Southeast Michigan. Getting stocked is a phone call.