2007-09-10 16:13:14.267112+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
Howl: NPR video does an unscientific blind taste test of $55/bottle water versus New York City tap water. The MeFi thread I snitched this from points out some other idiocies:
They're like "what kind of Ph do you have, I need a 9.0 Ph."
Drink your damned milk of magnesia and shut up.
[ related topics: Humor moron Consumerism and advertising New York Video ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-11 12:29:51.134785+00 by: meuon
I like the margins. Tap water is so cheap it's sold by the HCF (Hundred Cubic Feet or 748 gallons) for what works out in most places to be less than a penny a gallon. Let's filter it a little more with some activated charcoal and a microbial filter for a cost of, way under a nickel per gallon. Let's package it (another nickel?) and transport it (another nickel? less?) for a raw cost of about a dime a gallon. Break that into 4 or 8 smaller bottles for a .50 each (wholesale). Can you spell: profit?
Yes, I bought a case of bottle water for Burning Man, handy to hand out bottles to visitors and guests. We also bought 8 gallons in 2 gallon jugs (about $1.50 each jug) just for some extra drinking reserves in a handy carrier. The truck and trailer carried 50+ gallons as well.
Normally, if taste is an issue, our $9 brita pitcher works wonders.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-13 16:57:52.053255+00 by: JT
I actually buy bottled water for the convenience. I get little 20 oz bottles of water in recyclable containers and it's as convenient as drinking a bottle of coke. When I just want to stop in a store to buy something to quick, although it's the same price for bottled water as it is for a coke, it's probably better for me to skip on the coke anyway.
Of course, most of the time I have my camelbak which I fill up using my home tap water from a 2 gallon container I keep in the refrigerator, but when it's empty and I need something, bottled water is just convenient. I either drink water from my tap, or water from the bottler's tap, the only difference is cost to me.
It wouldn't be the first time I paid for convenience and I'm quite sure it won't be the last.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-13 18:19:19.880416+00 by: Dan Lyke
Yeah, I too would rather drink water than a soda, and end up paying for the convenience. And there have been times in the midwest, where there are some really gnarly wells and local water, that I'd be happy to pay for the gallons. But I'm also under no illusions about that versus my tap water.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-09-13 20:48:22.925068+00 by: TheSHAD0W
All in all, counting cost of storage, cooling, etc... I think soda still has a higher mark-up than bottled water. Boy, it's gone up in price over the past decade.
Yeah, bottled water isn't worthwhile - if you don't mind carrying a canteen around, washing it out, etc.