Bottle of Ethos Water (23.6 fl. oz.)
Item Purchased: Bottle of Ethos Water (23.6 fl. oz.)
Location Purchased: Starbucks Coffee / 1018 Lake St. / Oak Park, IL
Price: $1.80 + tax
Purchased on: 10/02/07
Review: What a modern western conundrum! One doesn’t want to pay a lot for bottled water when there are hundreds of free-flowing faucets around that we already paid for. Yet, one is thirsty and somewhat confined by circumstance. One doesn’t want to waste plastic and anger Al Gore either.
But, wait! Ethos water proudly and prominently states on its label that it helps children in developing countries get clean drinking water. A noble goal, to be sure. Gosh, one won’t feel so bad about waste if one can give a thirsty child in a developing country a cool drink of clean water without having to do much more than break a twenty.
I’m seriously torn on things like this. On one hand, large companies are creating waste and producing huge profits with overpriced bottled water. On the other hand, they are contributing a significant amount of money to a worthy cause ($.05 for every $1.80 bottle sold). The story behind Ethos is much like any other company with a micro-finance attitude toward social good: Owner travels to Africa. Owner sees first-hand how bad the water crisis is in certain parts of Africa. Owner decides to set up a company that helps this crisis and creates a lot of profit by both selling something people want and something that will make people feel good after minimal effort.
I’m not adverse to people making a profit off of a good service/product, but I am adverse to drastically raising the price of something that I can get for an average of $0.50 cheaper just so you can pull $0.05 out of that price increase for your noble cause. How about raising the average price by… say… $0.10 and donating a nickel to your cause? That way you’re 50/50, you help your cause by selling more water and your profit margin will reflect the amount of social good you’re doing.
Of course, then you’d have to subtract about $0.10 due to all of the plastic waste you are creating and realize that all of your efforts are part of a zero-sum game because your business model isn’t really different in the first place.
Me, I just needed a water bottle to refill while I am working out in Oak Park.
Rating: 2.5 / 5
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