In Ontario, Nestle, the giant Swiss food company pays 0.00000371 cents per litre for water and expects the customer to pay more than $3.71 per litre bottle at non discounting retailers.Nestle has been getting its 1.13 million litres of water a day from Guelph in Wellington County but they want to increase it to 3.6 million litres a day at a time the area is subject to water restrictions due to drought.
As you'd expect the local residents, conservationists and environmentalists are up in arms and seeking a review to the situation.
There's more to know here.
But back to the million percent profit margin. Sure there are costs involved in getting that litre of water to the marketplace including the bottle, labeling, packaging, shipping and handling but that's an amazing potential mark up at the point of purchase isn't it...
Just about anywhere in North America, in supermarkets, you can buy a case of 500ml bottles of this water comprising 12 to 16 liters for less than $4.00.
ReplyDeleteHeadline is a little exaggerated.
Bob
Thanks Bob. You are right of course, a customer will only pay that high top-end price at non discount retailers like gas stations...
DeleteGreedy bottom dwellers and their disgusting bottom lines!!
ReplyDeleteI've heard before that Nestlé is quite an evil corporation, for various reasons. This seems to clinch it. A couple of decimal points one way or the other hardly seem to matter, so outrageous is the ripoff. l'll make a point of trying to avoid their products.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that privatization of water resources is a very bad idea indeed. They'll put a meter on oxygen too if they can get away with it. Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if wars are fought over water before the century's out.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Nestle are evil but I do know that greed is evil and you may be correct, blood could well be spilled over water...
DeleteI have a spring that will fill up a gallon jug in a few seconds, I am letting a fortune flow away down the creek. But then I keep an old dipper hanging there and can get free cold spring water anytime and don't have to throw away a bottle every time. I still can't believe people buy water and throw away billions of bottles. People would have laugh you out of the building 40 years ago if someone said that people would be buying water in little plastic bottles. What happpened?
ReplyDeleteThere have been plenty of marketers who knew how to create a demand for a product and plenty of companies more than willing to fill it. They only have consideration for their bottom lines.
DeleteAnd these days the consumer wants and demands instant gratification.
Then there's the fact that it's hard physical work turning a tap on by yourself to get water to drink...
A spring is better than a gold mine. For one thing, you don't have to dig for the stuff, and there's none of that tiresome turning on the tap.
ReplyDeleteI always avoid nestle products, but I don't know what all their products are.
ReplyDelete