We have a new Safeway in Seward now. It's quite a shock to walk in the door and see miles and miles of groceries. We're a small town and easily entertained! Anyway, they have a couple Safeway vending machines out front, soft drinks and water. Why would the water cost more. It always seems like it costs more to leave things out these days.
Thats pretty cheap for the water, LOL around here the vending machine water is $1.00 and the safeway brand soda is .50. Ive always wondered the same thing with the price of water or anything else thats good/better for you for that matter. You keep hearing about how important it is to eat healthier but they make it so expensive.
Weez, it's either bottled in Canada or imported from France!!!!! LOL
Yes, it costs more to leave the salt of of Campbell's soup, more to leave the dye out of cheese... it always amazes me! We have wonderful tap water in Seward. Town water is glacier fed with a bit of chlorine added, but our well water is ice cold from the tap year around. It's also chucked full of good minerals.. I never have to worry about getting my daily requirement of iron! LOL!
Because I'm not a bottled water user, I've often wondered why people buy water. I can understand it if the local water source is brackish or ill tasting in some other way, or if it is unsafe to drink, but I'm sure that isn't always the case. If you look at the information on many of the bottles of water, they come from municipality water systems. Why is that better than tap?
I think it was first touted as being better than tap water. After numerous testing, many municipal water systems were found to be as good as or better (lower bacterial count) than bottled. Some, of course, are not. By the time some of the bottled water was tested, many people were used to buying it. Also, we live in a throw-away society. It's much easier to buy a bottle of water on the go than remember to wash and fill our thermos before we leave home. That's my take on it. Laura (who rarely buys bottled water because she thinks it's a waste of money) :)
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This message was edited Feb 10, 2005 10:11 AM
I think it is the idea of it coming from a machine or other dispenser and being in a bottle or can. Americans have become addicted to the idea of buying everything. Even tap water. Which is what much of the bottled water we can buy is. You can thank media hype for much of our attitudes.
Wow, your drinks are reasonably priced! Here a can of coke or some other soft drink from a machine costs around 1,8 $. Crazy.
These are Safeway brand produces. Some of our larger grocery chains offer their brand of soft drinks at a reduced price as a sort of courtesy. I think this also occurs at Walmart, Costco, etc.
I work for a small B&B down the road in the summer. The owner rents small cabins that have their own bathrooms and cooking facilities. They have well water that is fed by glaciers and the nearby river. The water comes out ice cold from the tap and is very tasty. I have seen tourists bring in bottled water and even use it to brush their teeth. It always amazes me.
I suppose, if we're going to have fad, bottled water is certainly not a bad thing. If our kids are carrying around bottled water instead of soft drinks, it's better for them. I suppose we really don't believe the 'best things in life are free'.
Wow Evert, that IS expensive! Here colas from a machine are between US$1.14-1.37 depending on which city you're in. But US$1.80!?!?!!? WOW!
We don't have Shasta sodas here like in the States though. Our generic sodas are DISGUSTING!
-Julie
I have yet to buy a small bottle of water. I buy jugs for the hurricanes, but saved those empty for settleing tap and adding hydrogen peroxide to for my propagating. I will refill before the next anticipated Hurricane and put aside for that time.
Money is getting tight and I have a feeling a major depression is looming on the horizon.
Back to; Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
Sidney
Yes, you never know, Sidney. It's always good to have backup. I've purchased distilled water for my steam iron so I don't corrode it with minerals, but the minerals are good for me. I understand that in some areas there are vending machines where you can fill up your own containers with water... better ecologically, but still amazing to me!
We do buy bottled water but only so the kids can take them in lunches or so I can take them to the gym. Our drinking water comes from the fridge so I can pay about $30 for a special filter. LOL The last one lasted about a year. That is not so bad. Now you might wonder why I would pay for a filter to clean my water but if you saw the filter I took out, you would need NO explanation. LOL Here, bottled water is about the same as a bottled soda or slightly less.
Well Coke and stuff like that costs almost nothing there, luckily the price in big bottles has gone down a lot in the past two years here, so it isn't really expensive anymore. Too bad I just don't like it that much anymore :] I prefer Ginger Ale.
People drink less soft drinks here, and guess it is better for teeth and everything?
Until the late bottled water craze, it almost seemed like people in the U.S. didn't consider water a 'drink'. It had to be a cola or a juice or coffee or tea... anything but just plain water. On the other hand, doctors have been telling us for many years to drink several glasses of water a day. That's why I don't see buying bottled water as a bad thing... I think it is a convenience issue, and it helps that the younger gnerations think it chic!
WalMart has a machine that sells soft drinks for 25 cents. It is Sams club brand but perfectly good. I myself don't like cola drinks. I would rather have tea. I usually make it myself but on the occasion I buy one out they are about a $1.00.
When I bought my home in 1986, we paid to have a private well dug. Within 2 months, we were told
by the town board of health that we could not drink the water from that well. We had plumes of Jet Fuel in our groundwater from the local Air Force base. This would have been enough, but the other thing was that the town did not have a public water supply at the time. We were forced to buy gallon jugs of bottled water, and later to fill jugs at a local tap in the neighboring town that was made available for us.
I had three young children at the time and we used the water for cooking, drinking, and brushing our teeth. I could not keep up with the need for water so oftentimes the dog ended up getting water from the tap. He died of cancer when he was four years old :(
After 5 years, the town had (under emergency duress) developed a water district and had water (in an agreement of sharing with the neighboring town) pipes brought in to the area. We had to pay for the installation from the street to the house, which took us another year and a half of saving money to get. So I don't trust sources of water unless I research them a little bit. And true, many bottled water sources are no better than tap! Maybe worse!
The town water we have now is fine if you drink it right from the tap, but it tastes very metallic (not in a good way) If it sits for any lenth of time in a thermos or bottle. I now have a refrigerator with a filter, so I use that as much as I can, but I still buy botted water to take to the gym, because it takes so long to fill the size bottles I need from the fridge.
I agree Weez, that It doesn't make sense that they charge more to leave things out. I have to buy low sodium crackers and they only come in small, more expensive boxes. It doesn't make sense!
I also agree that water isn't considered a drink to a lot ot people.
This winter I'm working part time at my old job as a nutrition counsellor while people take vacations.
I see a lot of people who drink (and give their kids) outrageous amonts of soda, juice, or other flavored drinks all day long. I suggest water and they look at me like I have 3 heads.
From my perspective, water is much more valuable than soda, like you said, it's better for everyone- but financially, it makes no sense at all that they would charge more for it!
Forgive my rambling...
Geez, next thing ya know Seward will have a Wal*Mart!!!
Cindy
Here's something that you'll find interesting. The bottled water brand created in France called Evian? Most folks have heard of it. What does it spell backward? NAIVE. It was given that name and shipped to the US where it was stocked on store shelves and Americans bought it in droves.
Carol, check this thread http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/477932/ some good info to know. scroll down to the lowest part where Pennzer posted on 01/29/05 : 6:33 p.m. also 01/30/05 : 2:25 p.m.
Thanks, MaVie! Another good link. Yes, I've read more or less the same before. Bottled water must be a real money maker!
Evian (Evian-les-Bains or something actually) is a city in France. I spent two weeks there in 1996.. A nice place. That's where the water comes from ;)
Here in Arizona it is the "thing" to carry a bottle of water in the car with you. If you open my freezer you'll find about 3 bottles of frozen water....3/4 full...anytime you're going out you grab one, fill it the rest of the way with my GREAT tasting well water...and as you need it to drink...it melts and is wonderful. I seldom drink soft drinks so water is my drink of choice...and chlorine is NOT in my choice of water.
Every where I have lived in the past 40 years or so have had well water....but the well in Va. Beach was sooo bad that we welcomed City water when it became available. If I am out and about on a hot day...I will buy a bottle of water before buying a soda......but I still perfer some of my own well water. Jo
Jo, the freezer thing is an excellent idea! Thanks for the clarification, Evert.
I buy bottled water for DH and DD for on the go convenience. At home we have a Brita filter reservoir - holds maybe 2 gallons. Would love to have a filter on our fridge = maybe one day. I have yet to find a better tasting water than our filtered refrigerated county water and I think I have tried it all.
Brenda
I have to admit I've been drinking bottled water this weekend. I accompanied a friend to a Master Gardeners Conference, and she brought bottled water. It was so nice to have on hand.... but I did refill my bottle from the tap when it was empty! LOL!
WATER, a precesious natural resource, it rains, bleeds into streams, lakes, ponds & is evapororated into clouds to start the cycle again. No life would exist (plant, amimal, or human) whitout H2O. What have I done to keep some "pure" today?
Sorry about rambleing
Dyson, put some change in your pocket, go to the closest vending machine, and buy some of that wonderful natural resourse before it is all gone! LOL!
