New Fad Puts Thirst Things First

This summer the squeeze pertains to more than baseball. This is the summer of the pacifier, the year of plastic fantastic.

In the noontime sunlight of Arco Plaza, Theresa Gilbertson, 25, and her husband Paul, 23, of Glendale, were alternating long, thirst-quenching pulls on one.

In the level below, Walter Murphy, 53, a Dallas-based construction executive working here, had just filled his with a soft drink and was on his way to his nearby office.

Brian Littlejohn, 28, of Los Angeles, was headed for his office with one he had just filled. “Additionally, I have one in the car, and one I carry while jogging.,” he said.

And in a downtown underground garage, Wade Johnson, 50, of Lynwood, had one nearby as he went about his job of parking cars. “I also keep one in my living room for when I’m watching TV, and another I take along when I’m cutting the grass.

The object of all this devotion is the squeezable “sipper.” Beachgoers, office workers, joggers and bicyclists, moviegoers, couch potatoes, all have fallen for the quart-sized squeezable plastic containers--plastic straws issuing from them like umbilical cords--in which a cold beverage of choice is discouraged from spilling by a lid.

“Some places can’t keep enough of them in stock,” said Bret Wilson, sales manager for Harmony Containers Inc. in San Bernardino, a major national supplier. “We sent 5,000 to Sea World, and those were snapped up in a day.”

Wilson said the mania started innocently enough last year on the East Coast: “People were seeing them being used by football and basketball players. Everybody likes to think of himself or herself as an athlete, so they started inquiring where they could get such containers, and it all took off from there.”

Such is the extent of the countrywide craze, Wilson added, that his firm “will probably be selling 20 million of the squeeze bottles this year.”

If you doubt that staggering projection, consider Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, where they are sold for $4 and called Super Sippers. “Our purchasing people say they constantly have to keep watching the on-hand supply,” said spokesman Bob Deuel. “At our outdoor concerts, we sell the sippers from trays, and they go fast.”

At Sea World in San Diego, spokesman Robert Baracz said they sell for $3.59 and are known as Squeeze Sports Bottles. “We have a tough time keeping them in supply. We see them being used by everybody from children in strollers to elderly couples.”

Some of the containers are used in conjunction with promotions:

* At the AM PM Mini Markets, a customer purchases a Thirsty Two (32) Ouncer for 99 cents, and thereafter brings back the empty container and gets soft drink refills for 49 cents.

* At Subway sandwich shops, a customer purchases a foot-long sandwich, then spends 90 cents for a filled Subway Sipper. Thereafater, when buying another such-sized sandwich, the refill is free.

* Movie theaters, such as the Pacific Eagle Rock 4 Cinema, have allowed patrons to purchase a filled sipper for $3, then get it refilled free every time they return for a new flick.

What does it all mean? Chaytor Mason, associate professor of human factors-psychology at USC, took a stab: “We have become a mobile society, and thus something like this which can be used in conjunction with driving, jogging, bike riding and so forth would have a good chance of becoming a fad.”

May Be Around a While

Fads, the psychologist explained, catch on because they make life easier or more fun. But, “unlike the Hula Hoop or Pet Rock, the sippers are useful, and they may be around longer.”

While on a flight from Europe about a month ago, he recalled, the flight attendants were using them for refreshment breaks, an obvious advantage being that they wouldn’t spill during turbulence.

On the ground, sippers are everywhere:

* A Protestant church in Westwood uses a sipper to neatly fill its cups for Communion.

* Exercisers, such as in aerobics classes or tennis matches and softball games, keep them on hand for quick quenching.

* On your next freeway commute, note that it isn’t necessarily a cellular phone that the adjacent driver is holding.

* Resourceful gardeners have found that sippers are great for watering difficult-to-reach areas, especially in potted plants.

* Office workers keep them at their desks: One said that not only doesn’t he trust the water out of the faucets, but having a sipper within reach makes him drink more water than he would if he had to get up and walk to a fountain.

* Mickey Gallagher, lifeguard at the beach in Santa Monica, said it seems as if everybody on the sand has one nowadays. Some people use them to squirt water on each other.