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Purple straws, foam cups, and creative soda flavor combinations have joined forces to create the ultimate money spender for high schoolers: Fizz Soda Shack.
Soda shacks, tiny businesses that sell soda mixed with flavor shots, have been booming in popularity in the last decade. Fizz claimed its place as Mount Pleasant’s soda shack in 2012, and has taken control of many lives and wallets.
An NS Times poll reveals that over 50 percent of students buy one or more Fizz drinks per week. But they have got nothing on Mckenna Nielson, a junior at NS. Nielson is an employee at Fizz, and her soda consumption shows it.
Only 2.5 percent of students say they get seven or more drinks a week, so 10 drinks a week is definitely an anomaly.
“I only really started drinking soda once I started working at Fizz,” Nielson said. “I usually have like two a day.”
Nielson began working at Fizz shortly after it opened, but she didn’t join for the soda.
“I needed the cash. I clock in, I clock out,” said Nielson.
Fizz has served as a steady income for Nielson, but for others, it’s a steady money drain. Results from the survey show that about 38 percent of students spend 2 to 5 dollars at Fizz each week, but nearly 10 percent spend $6 or more, and 2.5 percent spend over $10.
According to the survey the most popular drinks at Fizz include “Blue my mind,” “Brown Cow,” “Tropical Sunset,” “Frozen Hot Chocolate,” and water.
This Fizz drink epidemic may be caused by the short distance between the high school and the shack, the low prices, and the quality drinks. But NS junior Kory Olsen has some alternate reasons for his Fizz addiction.
“They’ve always got some cute girls working there, especially Pam,” said Olsen. “It’s also a good excuse to sluff school with your friends. Just a good place all around.”
Olsen has been going to Fizz since it first opened, and he’s become a regular over the years. He blames his frequent visits on his love for local businesses.
“I love to support local businesses,” said Olsen. “You know, I think it’s all locally grown Mountain Dew and coconut and vanilla and stuff like that. It’s all grown right here in Sanpete County.”
Although Olsen may be a little confused on where the Mountain Dew and coconuts come from, his respect for the business comes from the right mindset.
Matt Syme, a new math teacher at NS, gives the scoop on Fizz from an educator’s perspective.
“I feel like we’ve got a couple students that have an addiction to Fizz perhaps, and it’s starting to affect their academic progress,” said Syme. “You can definitely tell based on their behavior.”
While Syme may have been joking about the severity of the effects of Fizz on students, there is some real concern with the amount of sugar intake some of these students are getting.
According to the American Heart Association, we should only be getting around 25-35 grams of sugar a day. On average a 32 ounce soda, which is the most ordered drink size at fizz, has around 93 grams of sugar.
Getting a little extra sugar here and there is all right, but what’s concerning is that it’s happening multiple times a week; in some cases every day.
