TOM SCOTT: This is John Nese, and this is the Soda Pop Stop.
JOHN NESE: This is Galco's Soda Pop Stop.
Right now we have about 700 different kinds of sodas,
we have 700 different kinds of beers,
we have everything you can't find,
and some things you'll just look at and say,
"I didn't even know they were made!"
This is actually a cucumber soda.
And this one started here,
and it became soda of the year in 2010.
It's wonderful. This one right here...
it's an Ouzon. And it's a licorice-flavoured soda.
I don't like licorice, and I tasted it, and I went
"oh my goodness".
We were an Italian grocery store,
and the neighbourhood was changing,
and then at about that same time
the supermarket chains bought the distribution channels
for the little markets and closed them down.
We were being put out of business.
And it wasn't nice the way they were doing it.
And I started thinking about it, and I said,
"you know what? You should be happy
"that Pepsi-Cola doesn't own your shelf space
"and you can sell anything you want."
So I went out and found about 25 little brands of soda,
put them on the shelf, and what you find out is
that other little people in business: they're still out there.
You're in glass bottles, you're using real ingredients,
you're using cane sugar, I mean: what more can people ask for?
TS: You said cane sugar in there...
JN: Oh! You want to know about the United States
and our corn syrup?! Beware!
You go to the supermarket, you can pick up frozen foods,
you can pick up candy, it doesn't matter what it is.
You can pick up a loaf of bread and it'll have corn syrup in it.
It didn't have it in there 25 years ago.
Everything you do has corn syrup in it! Why?
This was the first soda put in a bottle.
It was actually sold as a tonic, just to calm your stomach.
If you try to drink it like most people drink a soda today,
you're going to get carbonated cough medicine.
But if you sip it, you may get a cola, root beer,
cinnamon, licorice, vanilla, black cherry flavour,
you might get one, you might get four or five different flavours.
These come from the Republic of Georgia.
This is actually made from naturally carbonated water.
They don't use a machine. It bubbles out of the ground that way.
When I graduated from college, I decided I wanted to go into the grocery business.
And my father said, "you going to go and work for a big company?"
And I said, "no, pop, I want to come in here
"because every day is different."
He just shook his head, he says,
"you know, you're going to make a living,
"that's all you're going to make, and you're a damn fool,
"go to work for the big company and get paid to do it."
And I -- "ah, I don't want to do that!"
That was important. I mean, it's important.
You've got to be happy with what you do.
If you're not happy with what you do...
we're doing it all for the wrong reason.
TS: Thank you very much to John Nese and the staff at the Soda Pop Stop!
They are on York Boulevard in Highland Park, Los Angeles,
and a link to their site is in the description.
And my apologies for the dodgy camerawork.
It was just me and my GoPro.
But there was no way I was going to pass up a visit
to something as wonderful and offbeat as this. [Translating these subtitles? Add your name here!]