Yesterday afternoon, I was in my friendly neighborhood Whole Foods Market and I noticed that since Amazon took over, a lot of prices have gone down…but one that I diligently track has gone up.
Whole Foods, at least around me, sells Crystal Geyser bottled water, which is my favorite brand. They also sell their house brand, 365. Four years ago when I last wrote about this, Crystal Geyser was $1.59 a gallon and 365 water was 99 cents a gallon. Based on this, you might assume that Crystal Geyser water was somehow better than 365 water…and if you assumed that, you assumed wrong. At least in my area, they're the same water.
They come from the same stream. They're bottled at the same plant in the same bottles and probably transported on the same trucks. Only two things are different about the two brands of water: Different label and different price.
As you may be able to see in the above photo, the 365 water is still 99 cents a gallon. The same water with the Crystal Geyser label is now $1.99 a gallon. This is the same water, you understand. The same water!
Some people obviously do not figure that out even though a glance at the labels would show that both are bottled at the same source and you also might notice that the bottles are identical. But this goes on because even Whole Foods customers, who are supposed to be more upscale and urban than most, don't get it. (By the way: The 99-Cent Only stores in Southern California sell a gallon of Crystal Geyser water for — and here's a surprise! — 99 cents.)
Just after I took the above photo, I saw a lady begin filling her cart with Crystal Geyser bottles @ $1.99 each. I couldn't resist going over to her and explaining that she could buy the same water for half that price. She thanked me very nicely but told me that she felt more comfortable buying the "better water" for her family.
"It's the same water," I told her.
"Well, they must do something different to it," she replied. "Because if they didn't, how could they charge more for it?"