Coke, Pepsi still available in Chennai despite boycott
mom-and-pop stores have stopped selling them. So have other bigger chains. But a ban on aerated “foreign” cola drinks clamped by Tamil Nadu’s traders have not stopped many stores from selling the preferred brands of a large section of the people – Coke and Pepsi.
In Beasant Nagar, an upmarket sea-side residential colony in south Chennai, Adyar Bakery is a popular and busy confectionary, coffee and soft drink shop – and always bustling with customers. The shop also stocks Pepsi and Coke in company-provided refrigerators.
Responding to a call by the Federation of Tamil Nadu Traders’ Associations, thousands of commercial outlets across the state are boycotting cola products of Pepsico and Coca Cola since Wednesday in a move that could cost the soft drink giants an estimated ₹1,400 crore in losses.
Late on Thursday evening, a senior worker said “the boycott was 50-50”. But he was a trifle nervous and wanted no pictures taken of his shop or himself. He would not even reveal his name.
Across the city, at the all-thetime-busy T Nagar, a commercial area, many shops are still stocking the “offending drinks” which are accused of depleting water from the state’s rivers and reservoirs.
A roadside storekeeper said he was having no problem in getting supplies of Coke. “As long as people want and we are able to sell, we will continue,” he said.