New York — Two teachers on their lunch break scanned a refrigerated shelf inside a Manhattan coffee shop lined with drink bottles: Naked Juice, Perrier, Smartwater, New York City tap water.
“Tap water?” said Alison Szeli, 26, picking up the clear plastic bottle with orange letters: “Tap’d NY. Purified New York City tap water.” She studied the description: “No glaciers were harmed in making this water.” She compared prices: Smartwater cost $1.85. Tap’d NY was 35 cents less. Szeli and her co-worker went for tap, carrying the bottles to the cash register. “It’s cheaper,” Szeli said. “Water is all the same anyway. I just prefer to buy my own water in bottles.” A few feet away, a scruffy-haired 29-year-old in jeans and a striped shirt delivered a shipment of Tap’d NY out of a rented Scion. Craig Zucker, founder of Tap’d NY, stopped unloading long enough to notice the two customers buying his brand. He smiled.
In the five months since he started the company, he has proved his hunch: People are willing to pay for New York City tap water, and not just in monthly utility bills.
“It doesn’t require energy or pumping,” Zucker said, “and it’s so pure and clean.”
To bottle the stuff, Zucker and his business partner, Jon Flax, 26, who was recruited from Craigslist, pump the water together from a main in a Brooklyn warehouse they rent. Their water bill costs about $2 for every 748 gallons. They fill up a 5,300-gallon leased tanker truck, hiring a driver to transport the water 12 miles across the river to New Jersey to be bottled.
P.T. Barnum was correct.
S. Pellegrino saved my life. That’s all I look forward to.
Capitalism has jumped the shark.
For those who don’t know I Believe P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Shoot #2 this is the definition of Capitalism! 🙂 Selling IceCream, and refridgerators to Eskimos. As long as they’re happy.
Bottled water in America is the biggest scam on the planet.
Americans enjoy the purist water on the planet, and yet we pollute unknown amounts to create containers we then throw away.
Actually, Barnum never really did say that…
Who Would Have Thunked It Dept.
“More than 120 water sources competed in the 18th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting, held Saturday in West Virginia.
“The title of best municipal water was shared by the former town of Clearbrook, B.C. and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles won a gold medal in 1998 and has been in the top five in four other competitions since then, according to the competition organizers.”
http://tinyurl.com/cgd4on
RBG
#7. Damn, and I pee in the Colorado River at least once a day, just to stick it to California.
“Los Angeles won a gold medal in 1998 and has been in the top five in four other competitions since then, according to the competition organizers.”
Well, SOME Los Angeles tap water is great. The part that comes from the Sierra Nevada via Owens Valley, which I am fortunate enough the have at my tap is really good tasting water, if your pipes are good.
BUT, Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District also gets water from the Colorado River, which is so full of salts that it is nearly a solid. Many local cities that are not part of Los Angeles proper buy water from the MWD. Santa Monica, where I used to live, gets something like 85% from MWD. The water is so nasty that when I was out of town for a week the sprinkler water that got on my car actually ruined that paint. Not just hard water spots sitting on top of the paint, these went right through the primer, and could not be buffed, polished, disolved or rubbed off. As a last resort, I tried sandpaper on one area, and the “water” spots went right down to the bare metal!
sits next to one fifth of the world’s fresh water….
hhmmmm lake effect snow…… it makes the best and sweetest maple syrup in the country…
hey wait a minute… i’m buying recycled lake water at $150 gal!! :O
http://www.maplefestival.com/homerescheduled.html
9 Dave W. That’s kind of how I remember things from my ancient Westwood days. Thought maybe somehing had changed.
RBG
NYC water comes from springs and reservoirs from the Catskill Mountain in upstate NY. The water is quite good. If people in the city want to pay for what come free from the tap. I say let them.
Many people who buy bottled water in New York City are paying for the convenience. There aren’t a lot of public drinking fountains in Manhattan.
Attach swarovsky crystals and they can sell them for a much, much higher price.
I think Dasani is just filtered tap water, also.
I think Dasani is just filtered tap water, also. At least “Tap’d NY” is upfront about what it is, not like Coca-Cola giving Dasani some vaguely French sounding name.
You know what “Evian” spelled backwards is?
It is one of the biggest marketing miracles that with the best water around Americans have been conned to buy bottled water
What about all the plastics leaching into the water and all the resulting health concerns
#18. Har! Good One.
If it is generally good water as many here attest, further purification and bottling may make it a reasonable product. Plastic bottles however are dodgy (glass is better as far as I know).
I used to drink 1.5 LT of Evian-naivE every day and after a period of not consuming it, when I tried it again it tasted strongly of chlorine.
#13, Wouldn’t you buy just one bottle for the convenience, then fill it up from the tap and put it in the fridge?
Good to go on the next trip!
New York is largely a pedestrian city. You’re not going to want to carry a re-filled water bottle with you every time you go for a long walk or go on the subway. It’s easier to pack light and buy a new bottle of water when you get thirsty.
There are plenty of environmental problems with all the plastics, but I would hazard a guess that when comparing the cons of plastic bottles with the benefits of a dense population that overwhelmingly uses mass transit, New York is more environmentally friendly than most cities in America.
NYC apparently has the best tap water in the country, which means it probably has the best tap water in the world.
People buying bottled water are paying for the convenience, and for a clean plastic container – and I doubt anyone buying water would disagree with this. No one is such an idiot that they are ignorant of the real price of water.
#24 you do realize that ‘the world’ you speak of actually extends further than the US border right?
Typical NYers…ignorant in their purchases as they are in life, overspending for every name brand they can find. And they call themselves ‘refined’, I call them ‘gullible’ and ‘idiotic’.
26,
trust me, not every New Yorker is a spoiled yuppie asshole.
#26, Brian,
And I wonder what they think of you?
I’ve stayed in NYC apartments numerous times. In some the tap water was good, in others it was brown tinged (I don’t know how it tasted). It depends on your pipes.
On those rare occasions we buy bottled water, it is for the convenience. We usually save the bottles to refill.
In the summer I fill them half way and prop them on an angle in the freezer. When we go out I’ll fill them up with water. The ice keeps them cold longer and the extra surface contact helps cool any additional water faster.
It seems more and more people are reusing water bottles.
This is not new… about 30 years ago, Macy’s bottled NYC water and sold it. Some people bought it, but it was a flop.