• by Steve Smith , Staff Writer @popeyesm, Yesterday

In mid-century America, the local soda and sweet shop was a fixture of small town life. Here is where Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica met to gossip, fall in and out of love and plan the next pep rally. The Fiiz Drinks chain is trying to modernize that tradition. Started in Utah in 2014 around the personalized “Your Drink, Your Way” soda concept, it has expanded the menu to snacks and desserts, and grown its footprint, to 70 locations. But can that local meeting-place appeal scale to the 500 locations that company President Scott Ball has planned over the next decade? You can listen to the entire podcast at this link.