Pricing of Bottled Water

One of the main reasons that people buy bottled water is that they think it's cheap. However, they are wrong...

After some research, we have come across a shocking quote from Nick Colas, a group chief market strategist. He says:

"The [bottled water] industry grossed a total of $11.8 billion on 9.7 billion gallons in 2012, making bottled water about $1.22/gallon nationwide and 300x the cost of a gallon of tap water," Colas says. "If we take into account the fact that almost 2/3 of all bottled water sales are single 16.9oz (500 mL) bottles, though, this cost is much, much higher: about $7.50 per gallon, according to the American Water Works Association. That’s almost 2,000x the cost of a gallon of tap water and twice the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline."

Waste From Bottled Water

We were amazed by this, as cheap, clean and healthy water is a human right, and we can't imagine being charged 2000x more for anything else!

Another crazy thing that you can take from this, is that consumers will continue buying expensive bottled water instead of its cheaper alternative (tap water) even during an economic downturn. Americans did slightly cut down on bottled water by about 3% during the recession, but sales went back up quickly after.

Typically 90 percent or more of the cost paid by bottled water consumers goes to things other than the water itself - bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing, other expenses and profit. This simply shows how stupid it is to buy bottled water; the water is the least important part of the product!

Sources
http://www.businessinsider.com/bottled-water-costs-2000x-more-than-tap-2013-7
http://www.nrdc.org/water/drinking/bw/chap2.asp
http://www.bottledwater.org/economics/real-cost-of-bottled-water
http://money.howstuffworks.com/bling-water1.htm