People will buy anything! Set up a stand near Central Park in New York and offer people bags of "fresh air from the Alps" and you are sure to find suckers willing to pay you a few bucks for it.
Somehow in the last few years our family has joined the national trend of people purchasing water. Last year sales of bottled water were in excess of 2.6 billion cases costing around $15 billion. I'm sure my parents would laugh at the idea, and future generations will probably also guffaw at the stupidity of it. But today we all seem convinced that bottled water is somehow better than tap water. Evian. Perrier. Pellegrino. How ravishing it seems to be drinking water not from the good old faucet but from some Elysian spring in the French mountains or the Italian countryside, untouched by technology and grubby human hands. Of course we never think of what happens to that water as it gets bottled and stored and transported over thousands of miles. We don't think of botled water as water that someone got from some unidentified rivulet several weeks ago.
Now Aquafina has exposed our illusion that bottled water comes from a more elevated source than tap water by revealing that its bottled water is, in fact, drawn from tap water. A spokesman for the company says Aquafina botles will in future "clarify" this fact for discerning bottle readers. Yet industry observers say that the new revelation shouldn't make much of a difference. "Consumers have an affection for bottled water," writers John Sicher of Beverage Digest. "It's not an issue of taste or health, it's about convenience." I find this to be a ridiculous statement. Why on earth would people buy bottled water at the airport, for example, when there are water fountains outside every restroom? I suspect that if people know they were getting pretty much the same thing in the bottle, they would start to feel very foolish.
As for me, no more Aquafina. I'm going back to Chardonnay.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 4)
1. I work in the water and sewer business and some of the water we drink is pretty gross. The service leading to your house can made out of lead and the main line is made out of asbestos. That's not in all cases, it is being replaced by plastic PVC pipe. but i've seen some of the pipes and they are pretty gross...especially in old cities.
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wplahmghjq at 10:37AM on Jan 24th 2009
3. Aquafina has always been purified water, by reverse osmosis. Pepsico has never said any different. I guess there will always be someone that feels they have to show their ignorance by starting rumors.
Alan at 4:44PM on Mar 25th 2009
4. I rarely agree with Dinesh, but on this one he is right on the money. Bottled water is, for the most part, a rip off. Especially if the tap water in your area is just fine..and in most cities it is.
Until I see proof otherwise, I will continue to drink tap water.
David S. at 6:02PM on Jul 27th 2007
5. I don't think this will even affect sales. It's not about content, it's packaging and distribution. Look, don't we all gladly stand in line to pay 7 bucks for a quarter's worth of popcorn at the movies? Hey, maybe we like those buckets!
Yes, I think the average American will happily pay for a meaningless name. I don't know if that's dumb or not.
michael white at 6:06PM on Jul 27th 2007
6. I won't buy bottled water for the home, but using public water fountains grosses me out. Too many strange drug resistant viruses out there that seem to be breeding at a quick pace.
goike at 6:19PM on Jul 27th 2007
7. My tap water tastes better than any bottled water, hands down. I have a plastic bottle that I refill with my tap water and keep in the fridge. People that think bottled water is "healthier" are kidding themselves. IT'S WATER.
They'll bitch about spending $3.00 a gallon for gas, but they'll spend upwards of $12.00 a gallon for WATER that they could get right out of the faucet.
Kat at 6:34PM on Jul 27th 2007
8. haha, in regards to Kat, your a bit of a moron. Water is just water? Go ahead and tell that to the thousands of people that died (1 in 2) of cholera in London just 150 years ago. Or go ahead and go to Tijuana, Mexico where the water is so green you could get diarrhea from drinking a spoonful of it! Here in Orlando, i have some of the worst tasting tap water ever! I personally buy aquafina, and will continue buying aquafina no matter that they found out its tap water. ANY tap water is better than what is here in Orlando. In fact, i decided to do a blind test with ten of my friends after hearing about aquafina using tap water, and not one of them thought it tasted the same. All 10 of my friends said the orlando tap water tasted like sewer, while aquafina tasted fresh. I'm not saying the tap water has germ, or is somehow diseased... but in orlando, the city tap water tastes like a used toilet.
Dan at 6:43PM on Jul 27th 2007
9. Have to disagree. Spring water is usually labeled "spring water" and I would hope people would not think something was spring water just because it had a mountain on the label... Tap water in most municipal systems is treated to remove many things (pathogens, e-coli)but it is NOT treated to remove all possible contaminants that can be found in US water sources (pharmaceuticals, arsenic metals, PAHs. People drink purified water because they don't want all the stuff that your municipal system is not yet required to track or remove. Spring water is not guaranteed to be clean either.
meg anden at 6:46PM on Jul 27th 2007
10. It is well known that Dasani (a coke product) is tap water and now aquafina (pepsi product) admits to the same. There is a difference between these bottled waters and tap water. They are distilled and purified thus eliminating the chlorine and local water bad taste. Is it worth the money? You decide. I use filtered tap water and it does the same thing that bottled water does at a fraction of the cost.
Rohit at 6:54PM on Jul 27th 2007
11. I very seldom agree with this individual How eaver I do agree with him on this water article. But that in this whole world of all this individual's writings are so forward to the right makes Joseph Goebbels looked like a liberal.
rusty lawson at 5:09AM on Jul 29th 2007
12. It's unfortunate that Dinesh isn't required to wear a label that reads "Neocon Hack." Caveat emptor!
Amelie at 11:16PM on Jul 27th 2007
13. In most cities tap water has the same exact qualifications as filtered bottled water. My question is which is better:
Bottled water sitting for months, if not years in plastic bottles transported thousands of miles in hot conditions?
or
Tap water running through pipes up to my house, and through pipes in my house - what are they leaching into the water?
Aquafina and Dasani put Salt in their water - DUH - to make us thirstier of course! I wouldn't trust water from Coca Cola or Pepsi...I'd rather drink from a puddle.
Chef Joshua at 2:31PM on Jul 28th 2007
14. While I generally do drink tap water filtered through our fridge at home, I will buy bottled water for convenience...to include at the airport. Why? Even though there are water fountains everywhere? Because I want something to drink on the plane, and I don't want to have to wait for the flight attendants to finally get to me before quenching my thirst! It also comes in handy when traveling in the car or while at the gym. I probably buy, on average, 2 or 3 bottles of water per week, so I don't think that's too bad, and will continue to do so as it conveniences me.
Smurph2406 at 7:34PM on Jul 27th 2007
15. This is old "news". I can't believe the amount of surprise here. I've known for years that it comes from "municipal sources", and I thought I learned that from the label. I bought it from vending machines knowing this, because it tastes better than most taps I had access to. There may be nothing "wrong" with the local water, but I enjoy drinking lots of water, and if it has an off taste to it, I won't drink much of it. I've since been buying spring water in the big dispenser jugs, but I don't see the big complaint about Aquafina. In fact if Aquafina had such a jug that cost less than the spring water, I'd buy it!
Julz at 10:14PM on Jul 28th 2007