So why are Muskoka retailers today making big profits selling water?
In 1880 a book was published entitled The Art of Money-Getting. Its author, P.T. Barnum, ran circuses and relieved rubes of their coins. He’d discovered “A fool and his money are soon separated.” The famous American promoter of hoaxes refined his maxim: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Anyone reading this knows well the current omnipresence of bottled water, but what about the economics, trade-offs, and environmental dimensions of this sucker phenomenon?
Marcus Firman, Muskoka District’s director of water services, informs me that in 2018 total volume produced by Muskoka’s nine drinking-water treatment plants was 4,090.171 Ml or 4,090,171 m3, which generated total water revenues of $8,352,378. In individual terms, that meant a litre of Muskoka tap-water last year cost you 0.2 cents. That’s why savvy individuals, doing double-duty for the environment and their bank account, fill reusable water bottles at home.
But what of Barnum’s suckers? Today millions of Canadians rely on store-bought bottled water, citing convenience, emergencies, hygiene, and improved health. A future column will examine those health claims.
And Muskokans have tapped this rather artificial market, not just retailing bottled water but manufacturing and distributing it. So a coming column will also spotlight the interesting participation of Muskoka Springs, Wahta Springs, and Springhill Waters in this great game.
However these local worthies are to water what Muskoka’s craft micro-breweries are to beer. Foreign-owned conglomerates Anheauser-Busch, Coors-Molsons, and Supporo-Sleeman control 90 percent of the Canadian market. Likewise, bottled waters sold in Muskoka today are overwhelming products of foreign multinationals. Swiss-based Nestlé, with $137 billion in world-wide assets and annual revenues topping $90 billion, counts among its ten water brands Perrier, Pure Life, San Pellegrino, Ice Mountain, Arrowhead, and Zephyrhills. American Pepsi-Cola, earning some $65 billion yearly, concentrates its water sales on through Aquafina, diversifying that brand through flavouring. Dasani brand is American Coca-Cola’s main entry; Evian, that of France’s Danone Corporation.
This multi-billion dollar business recycles profits into costly marketing to drive sales even higher: people pay 300 times more for bottled than tap-water; consumption has tripled in the last decade; high sodium content of some brands is harmful to one’s health.
