Hires to Canada!

[Canadacan]

I finally added a quart to my Hires line up! I don't think they are exceeding rare or anything like that, but just a little elusive!
My example is from 1962 made by Consumers glass, it has the short ingredients list on the back.
I'm also going to show @Moosecop 's example from Consumers, but his is dated 1961 and has the long ingredients list.
Both example are 26oz in size.

This is the long ingredients list version.

 

[iggyworf]

Nice one. Congrats! I like the larger size bottles. Although they take up more space. lol

 

[RCO]

i don't think that I've seen that size before , you see the smaller sized bottles around Ontario a fair bit . that size is definitely unusual , hires seemed to have pretty widespread distribution , not exactly sure why they got rid of it in the 90's

one odd hires bottle I saw online a few weeks back was a small stubby bottle that someone in southern Ontario had posted online , hadn't seen one before but not surprised there was one

 

[CanadianBottles]

I don't think I've ever seen a large version of that one before either. Certainly can't be that common. Nice find!
Also RCO did they get stop selling Hires that early in Ontario? I'm almost certain I remember it well into the 2000s in BC.

 

[RCO]

I don't think I've ever seen a large version of that one before either. Certainly can't be that common. Nice find!
Also RCO did they get stop selling Hires that early in Ontario? I'm almost certain I remember it well into the 2000s in BC.

I'm not sure of the exact year they stopped selling it here ( I checked Wikipedia page for hires and its says 90's ) , they switched to " Mug " root beer at some point , I don't like that one at all and never buy it , hires was definitely better .

they still sell it in the states so maybe there were some convenience stores selling US canned pop back then ? a lot of smaller stores in Ontario do that and have odd flavours you don't normally see

also have a couple hires cans in the garage , 2 are aluminum , likely from early to mid 90's and one metal one likely a bit older

 

[RCO]

Hires availability in the US seems to be extremely limited and its not produced by many bottlers anymore , according to what I saw online

you can buy 2 - 12 packs or 24 cans on amazon from $30 - $50 , I'm assuming that price includes shipping which might explain why it cost so much to get them shipped to Canada

 

[Canadacan]

So I figured I may as well post up all my stuff! Starting with my oldest item, a 1920's Hires label from Chippewa Water co., Estevan Saskatchewan.
And my 12" Hires tin tacker, you can tell these are the earlier 1930's because the 'Hires' is kept within the circle...,later advertising expanded the 'Hires' to extend outside of the circle.

 

[Canadacan]

Unfortunately I'm lacking in bottle examples from the 20's to the mid 40's . But at least I have one example of an RJ bottle from 1948....it's also a 12oz size! That seems to correspond with the standard 1930's-40's of having three sizes available.
As you can see they also introduced an 8oz size, this example has the check mark in a circle, I'm not certain what year that changed from RJ to check mark due to lack of examples...it's even possible there is an 8oz RJ.
Then there is a bit of a gap from 1950 to 57....so I can't narrow down the exact year that it went from check mark to the 1876 in a circle.
The carton is probably late 50's.

Almost forgot this unrolled sheet from the early 60's...I like how the tone matches the carton, this would have been a flat top can.
From about 1963

And here is an ad from Hires Root Beer- The Vancouver Sun, 16 May 1949, Mon, Page 7
It depicts the RJ bottle still at that time.

And this ad is from Nanaimo Bottling- Nanaimo Daily News, 31 May 1961 it has my 1964 bottle style. The carton pictured has stripes, hard to see, and is from just before the Hires-Crush merger.

Next up is my 1973 10oz. I'm not sure what year that bottle came in, again lack of examples and I've never really researched it, but my hunch says maybe about 1965.
One thing for sure is the NDNR label matched up with the can graphics, interesting bottle as is has a triple date code embossed!
The carton now has the Crush logo on it, the Crush/Hires merger happened in June of 1962. Interestingly most if not all Crush bottlers were the bottlers for Hires.
The paper label bottle design again shared the same graphic as the cans. And it would appear it was right around the early 80's when this graphic had changed.

So here we have two early 1980's aluminum cans, probably 1983-86. But not so ordinary because they are American made cans for Canadian market, the are marked 'Printed in the USA' but also have French print for the mandatory. This was the beginning of our transition back to 12oz cans!!!...sadly it spelt the end of the line for Canadian made cans. I consider them scarce.
The 300ml is interesting, the graphic puts it at early 80's and the glass confirms that with a date code of May/June 1982 from Domglass. Crazy part is the label states 'Printed in USA' in English and French.
Then the successor to Hires in Canada...., Mug Root Beer. This can is interesting because it was again a USA made can but complete with French print for Canada, probably from about 1983-86, the bottle I think is closer to the late 80's and its all USA markings.
So is it possible PepsiCo was importing it at the time? I say that because according to an article Jim Pattison sold Crush to Proctor and Gamble in 1984, later in 1989 it was sold to Cadbury Schweppes. I believe somewhere between 1985 to 1990 Hires was phased out in Canada.

 

[Canadacan]

Almost forgot, more Hires cans! The first six are the sugar free from the mid 70's through to the mid 80's.
The regular cans are missing 3 early variations form the start of the 60's, so it picks up at the fourth generation from about 1965-66 and go to again the mid 1980's.

 

[RCO]

i used to find those clear no deposit bottles all the time at one of my swim locations , never though they might of been Hires bottles at some point but now missing the paper label .


feel like I have one of those older 20's-30's hires bottles somewhere , believe they have hires embossed on the bottom but nothing on rest of the bottle , could be in a box in the very cold garage