Conversion of stores to supercenters affects mass merchandise statistics.  Once featuring large stores selling primarily hardlines with a dash of grocery, leading mass merchandise retailers, including Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart, have converted so many stores to supercenters that the traditional mass merchandise channel fell more than 5 percent...

Beverage companies have committed to bringing better-for-you beverages to schools, which might have inspired consumers to make a few behavior changes.

Decreased traffic in travel and leisure venues, which usually are big business for beverage distributors, leads to weaker beverage sales in the channel.