The New Phenomenon of Water Stores

Posted by Andrew on 8 April 2010 | 1 Comments

Tags: News

Today we present an article about a new trend that is starting to spread in several different areas of the world: water stores. A water store, just as you probably suspect, is a store that specializes in selling different brands and types of bottled water, similar to what a liquor store does with alcohol. While it might sound plain, more and more people are starting to appreciate the difference between types of water. Much like wine, bottled water has different recipes that result in different tastes and qualities. These stores are making it possible for everyone to have access to regional varieties that had only been distributed locally.

 

A water store owner explains how he got started:

 

In 1995, our company introduced Kingfisher Indian beer to New Zealand. At the time, the choice of beers in Indian restaurants was effectively limited to those from the two main breweries. Over the following decade, we extended the range to include beers from China, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

We sold the business in 2005. Almost immediately, we began receiving phone calls from restaurant customers wanting to know where they could buy Kingfisher.

We had approached off-trade liquor outlets to sell Kingfisher, but at the time the major liquor chains were effectively controlled by the breweries and had no interest. We therefore set up a mail order division, and later an online store - New Zealand's first online beer store.

So, how does this relate to water? Well, by 2005, the range of waters available from restaurants was less than the range of beers available in 1995, or even 1985. Italian restaurants were serving waters such as Ferrarelle or Surgiva, and French restaurants, Puits Saint Georges or Evian. But supermarkets only sold S.Pellegrino or local waters in PET, and there was nowhere to buy the waters we were enjoying in restaurants.

And so, with a number of brands in existence, but not available, the idea of a water shop was born.

 

We encourage you to read the full article here, and consider trying for yourself some of the higher end members of the bottled water market. Perhaps it will change your ideas about how you view and use bottled water.