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Australians’ obsession with increasing the capacity of our cars’ cupholders has reached fever pitch, with a new product from a designer drink bottle brand selling out in less than an hour.
A product designed to expand the size of your car’s cupholder has sold out in minutes, as part of rising demand for cupholders that can accommodate large ‘designer’ drink bottles.
A so-called ‘Car Cup Holder Expander’ released online by Frank Green – a popular Melbourne-based company specialising in reusable bottles and cups – sold out within minutes of going on sale on Thursday, 23 February.
Priced at $19.95, the product comes in six colours and is designed to accommodate Frank Green’s 34-ounce ceramic drink bottles – which are too big to fit in the standard cup holders and door bins of many cars.
“I was checking out and literally about to hit okay and it said my order couldn’t be fulfilled cause it was out of stock,” one shopper complained on the brand’s Instagram page.
“Sold out in minutes – pretty disappointing that the demand wasn’t anticipated,” another added.
If you were one of the customers that missed out, one social media user has devised a cheaper – if less visually appealing – alternative for increasing the size of your car’s cupholder.
In December 2022, a video posted to social media platform TikTok by user Maddy Ryan showed how a piece of PVC plumbing pipe from Bunnings Warehouse could be inserted into a car’s cupholders to fit one of the trendy oversized drink bottles.
After many of Ryan’s followers turned up at hardware stores in search of PVC pipe after watching the viral video – and wanting to recreate it in their own car – one Bunnings location even rebranded its display for the pipes with a sign reading “cupholder”.
Frank Green even gave a cheeky nod to the Bunnings hysteria in its product release announcement, joking: “It’s made for drinks, not sinks (we’re looking at you, TikTok pipe hacks).”
For shoppers still desperate to get their hands on the product, Frank Green says it is due to be restocked in a matter of weeks.
Susannah’s background is news journalism, followed by several years spent in celebrity journalism, entertainment journalism and fashion magazines and a brief stint hosting a travel TV show for Channel Ten. She joined Drive in 2020 after spending a year and a half at the helm of Harper’s BAZAAR and ELLE’s online platforms.
Susannah holds a Bachelor in Media and Communications from the University of Melbourne and cut her teeth as an intern for Time Inc in New York City. She has also completed a television presenting course with the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and her one-year-old son who, despite her best efforts, does not yet enjoy a good road trip.
Read more about Susannah Guthrie
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