Vess

Article summary

Vess Soda is a brand of soft drink manufactured and distributed primarily in the St. Louis, Missouri, United States metropolitan area and recently in Canada through Dollarama and Giant Tiger locations. The company was founded in 1916 by Sylvester "Vess" Jones. Charles Leiper Grigg, who later developed 7UP, developed and marketed his first soft drink, called "Whistle", an orange soda which is still sold by Vess. The success of Whistle led to his promotion to the position of sales and marketing manager; however, eventually he and Vess came to an unreconcilable disagreement and Grigg left the company, leaving Whistle behind. While Whistle was marketed individually, the Vess logo was used on other soda flavors. The 1929 stock market crash left the company in bad financial shape, and the business was sold to Donald Schneeberger, who was considered a genius at marketing and added several new flavors to the line, many of which are still produced today. At the height of its popularity, Vess had bottling plants in several locations, including Asheville, North Carolina; Lafayette, Indiana; Anderson, Indiana; and Cincinnati, Ohio. Vess was purchased in 1994 by Cott Beverages. In 2017, Refresco purchased Cott and the Vess label. Vess continued to be distributed primarily in the Midwestern United States with its core business centering around St.…

Key claims

1. date of foundation: 1916 — source: Wikipedia · confidence 0.95

Discussion questions

1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. The record states that the date of foundation is "1916". What evidence would count against this claim?
3. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
4. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1329254498