Is the LaCroix Trend Running out of Gas?

Is LaCroix turning to Lacrap?

LaCroix’s fruity and lightly-flavored bubble may have burst: Bloomberg reports that the sparkling water brand’s sales are in “free fall”. The stocks of National Beverage Corp, which owns LaCroix, also tumbled 10 percent this week, and are down 62 percent from last September.

In short, it looks like the LaCroix trend may have run out of gas — in recent years, the brand’s jazzy, colorful design and myriad flavors drew an obsessive following, with people ranking flavors and creating LaCroix bathing suits. But it’s worth noting that sparkling water sales have picked up a lot recently, so it could be that other companies trying to get in on the bubbly water buzz are simply dividing sales. After all, LaCroix has been around for decades, so it had a head start when sparkling water finally got hip. Now, it seems the brand might be headed back into the obscurity from whence it came, re-adopting its mantle as the preferred beverage of midwestern moms and Florida teens. (Sexual harassment complaints against the LaCroix CEO probably didn’t help).

And in other news...

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• NBC has cancelled sitcom Abby’s, which could loosely be described as “Cheers but with an illegal backyard bar in San Diego”. [AV Club]
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