Water is Cheap in Thailand!

Regarding the drinking water in Thailand, it is always highly emphasized to never drink the tap water and to always drink and cook with bottled water. Even the Thai people don't drink the tap water. Easy enough. This hasn't been a problem so far. What has surprised me is the abundance of bottled drinking water and the ridiculous price.

I thought that constantly buying bottled water would become a hassle. To some degree this is true. Yes, it is a hassle to buy water every week, but fortunately bottled water is just as easily available to buy in Thailand than in America or any other country I have visited. I can walk into any corner store, 7-eleven, or gas station and find plenty of bottled water.

I also thought that constantly buying bottled water would become an expensive, yet necessary, habit to incorporate into everyday life. To my surprise water is extremely cheap in Thailand. The picture below is a six pack of 1.5 liter bottles of drinking water. This six pack of water cost me 59 baht at the Shell gas station next door. At the current exchange rate of $1.00 = 35 baht, this comes out to only $1.68!

What an awesome deal! If my memory serves me correct, the cost of one of these 1.5 liter bottles in the U.S. would cost about $1.50 depending on the brand name and where you purchased it. I knew bottled water in general was a rip off, but seeing these low prices in a country like Thailand really drives the point that U.S. consumers are being screwed with bottled water prices. The cost of producing water can't differ that much from country to country, I'm sure the methods are very similar. The only other reasons I can think of for this price discrepancy is that perhaps the labor wages at the bottling facilities are so cheap in Thailand that they can afford to sell at a much lower price, or it is a simple function of supply and demand. The supply of bottled water seems to be about the same in both countries, but the demand is greater in the U.S. Everybody in the U.S. seems to be addicted to bottled water, almost as much as coffee or fast-food. Another idea is that since most Thai people buy bottled drinking water, the price had to be lowered (possibly forced by the government?) so that it would be affordable to all Thai people.

I'd like to believe that at least one of these theories are true, but I'm too lazy to do the research. Otherwise, the U.S. bottled water companies are basically getting away with robbery, making a crap load of money hand over fist just because they can (and we let them). It's no secret that convenient products will sell well to the typical lazy U.S. consumer, and evidently tap water wasn't convenient enough! I could go into tree hugging arguments about the quality of tap water versus bottled water (federal standard for tap water is higher) or excessive build-up of plastic bottles in landfills due to bottled water demand, but I won't bother. It's really the price difference that amazes me. If shipping costs weren't so expensive I'd make a killing exporting this water to America. Maybe if I said the water was blessed by a Thai Buddhist Monk I could make some money...hmmm...oh damn, this idea has already been taken!

http://www.holyspringwater.com/

Oh well, I can't complain. I'm happy that I can easily get water for these many hot days in Thailand.