A Waste of Money and Just a Waste

I had to spend some time waiting near a CVS pharmacy pickup counter recently. While there, I saw this end cap display:


If you check the price sticker near the bottom of the photo, that's $2.49 for a 33.8-ounce bottle of.... water. Supposedly "purified" and "electrolyte-balanced." In what its makers (PepsiCo) think is a pretty plastic bottle.

The Lifewtr brand launched around the beginning of 2017, meant to compete with Coke's premium brand, Smartwater. Pepsi changes out the packaging art several times a year, so as with many products these days, the non-product costs more than the product. But, have no fear, there's still plenty of profit to be had on each bottle.

The water they're selling comes from a municipal source, as do most bottled water brands. But the average price of branded bottled water is $1.22 per gallon (crazy, I know, when the average price of municipal water is 15 cents!). Lifewtr, though, is $4.71 per gallon.

I wonder how sales have been of this worthless symbol of excess? I can only hope they are disappointing and it disappears from the marketplace some time soon.