http://www.fortune.com/fortune/thisjustin/0,15704,428850,00.html
Excerpt:
THIS JUST IN
Eau, Neau!
Ever wonder what's in those little bottles of water you pick up at the health club or those gallon jugs you lug home from the supermarket?
FORTUNE
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
By Lawrence A. Armour
Poland Spring did. Back in the early 1900s every bottle of the natural spring water from Maine contained an offer: "$500 reward for evidence which secures conviction of any person for refilling bottles bearing our trademark or for selling as Poland water any water not from Poland Spring." That was long ago, of course ... but hold on. The labels on every bottle of today's Evian water contain a line that reads, "Do not refill."
It makes you think. Do the people at Evian (which is "naive" spelled backward) know something we don't? And while we're on the subject, what the hell is the guy in the photo at the right doing?
Of course, lots of people believe the bottled-water business is a scam to begin with. The naysayers can't figure out why otherwise normal people would pay good money for something they can get for nothing, and they might be onto something. Despite the pretty pictures on the labels that would lead us to believe that the water inside comes from towering glaciers or crystal-clear springs, 25% or more of the bottled water we buy is drawn from municipal sources--filtered to remove minerals and things that might be bad for us, but from the very same reservoirs that supply our homes and apartments. We're not, by the way, talking fly-by-nights. Pepsi's Aquafina and Coke's Dasani, the country's top-selling brands of bottled water, come from municipal sources.
So why do we plunk down 89 cents for a one-liter (33.8-ounce) bottle of Aquafina or Dasani, 99 cents for a liter of Poland Spring, $1.49 for a liter of Evian or Volvic spring water from France, or $2.79 for a 28-ounce bottle of Voss well water from Norway? Mike Bellas, chairman and CEO of Beverage Marketing Corp., has one answer: "Bottled water is affordable, portable, all natural, dietetic, noncarbonated, doesn't have to be refrigerated, and has more consumption occasions than any of the beverages we follow."
It's also still cool. When was the last time you saw a Major League ballplayer or a TV star without a bottle close at hand? It's not a big-ticket item, which makes it a hit with people of any income level. And while we can all recall stories of contaminated municipal water and guck in the pipes that carry city water into our homes, bottled water is pure as the driven snow.
Most of the time. In 1996 the state of Massachusetts uncovered an industrial solvent and possible carcinogen called tricholoroethylene in a well that was providing raw material for a local brand of bottled water. In 1997 the state shut down a gentleman from Dorchester who was allegedly pumping water from a grungy basement into bottles labeled Youth Fountain and selling them at a storefront down the street. "I'd put that stuff in my gas tank before I'd drink it," a Boston official said at the time.
_________________________________________________________________
Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail
_______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
