Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It
by: Elizabeth Royte
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Product Description:
An incisive, intrepid, and habit-changing narrative investigation into the commercialization of our most basic human need: drinking water.
Having already surpassed milk and beer, and second now only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become so ubiquitous that we’re hardly conscious that Poland Spring and Evian were once real springs, bubbling in remote corners of Maine and France. Only now, with the water industry trading in the billions of dollars, have we begun to question what it is we’re drinking and why.
In this intelligent, eye-opening work of narrative journalism, Elizabeth Royte does for water what Eric Schlosser did for fast food: she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that bring it from nature to our supermarkets. Along the way, she investigates the questions we must inevitably answer. Who owns our water? What happens when a bottled-water company stakes a claim on your town’s source? Should we have to pay for water? Is the stuff coming from the tap completely safe? And if so, how many chemicals are dumped in to make it potable? What’s the environmental footprint of making, transporting, and disposing of all those plastic bottles?
A riveting chronicle of one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century as well as a powerful environmental wake-up call, Bottlemania is essential reading for anyone who shells out two dollars to quench their daily thirst.
Having already surpassed milk and beer, and second now only to soda, bottled water is on the verge of becoming the most popular beverage in the country. The brands have become so ubiquitous that we’re hardly conscious that Poland Spring and Evian were once real springs, bubbling in remote corners of Maine and France. Only now, with the water industry trading in the billions of dollars, have we begun to question what it is we’re drinking and why.
In this intelligent, eye-opening work of narrative journalism, Elizabeth Royte does for water what Eric Schlosser did for fast food: she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that bring it from nature to our supermarkets. Along the way, she investigates the questions we must inevitably answer. Who owns our water? What happens when a bottled-water company stakes a claim on your town’s source? Should we have to pay for water? Is the stuff coming from the tap completely safe? And if so, how many chemicals are dumped in to make it potable? What’s the environmental footprint of making, transporting, and disposing of all those plastic bottles?
A riveting chronicle of one of the greatest marketing coups of the twentieth century as well as a powerful environmental wake-up call, Bottlemania is essential reading for anyone who shells out two dollars to quench their daily thirst.
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- bottlemania
An entertaining, informative, and insightful read.Elizabeth Royte's curiosity and sense of humor make the book extra engaging, and sheds some light on one of the greatest luxuries of our civilization, we know little about, and take for granted everyday.This book made me very thirsty as I read it.
Rating: 
- A Disappointment
With a BS and MS in natural resources and a PhD in marketing, I was extremely interested in reading Ms. Royte's book Bottlemania. I teach marketing courses at a university and have used bottled water as a semester-long case study for well over a decade. By reading Ms. Royte's book, I believed that I could add to the base knowledge for my case study teaching approach. Unfortunately, I came away rather disappointed with Bottlemania. "Why?," you may ask. The reasons are many, which I will briefly describe: ... Read More
Rating: - Water, Water, Everywhere? Well, Perhaps If It's Bottled
There are some who predict that water will be the next oil. The world has not quite reached that point yet, but the early signs are painfully evident for those who care to look. Oddly, millions of Americans are already willingly and unnecessarily paying more per gallon for bottled water than they pay for gasoline, even though they can get nearly the same water from the taps for pennies.
Elizabeth Royte attempts to address the bizarre cult and psychology of bottled water in her entertaining ... Read More
Rating: - To Bottle or NOT to Bottle, That IS the Question
Though Royte purports this to be about bottled water producers, it's mostly a polemic against Nestle (our beloved friends from Switzerland) and it's predatory machinations on behalf of "Poland Springs".The bottom line questions is: who owns the nations natural resources?Unlike Pepsi (Aquafina) and Coke (Dasani) who sell filtered municipal tapwater, Nestle pumps millions of gallons out of the aquifers in Maine and Pennsylvania.What is the effect downstream of all these millions of gallons that no longer ... Read More
Rating: - I suppose I knew better . . .
I read three reviews of this book, all of them good.Sadly a 500 word review is all that is necessary to convey all of the information in this book. Distilled (sorry) this book could have been 35 pages.The whole 'town versus Nestle' storyline is overblown and seemed to me actually comfusing and tough to follow.Plus, the story line of the Corporation as all-crushing monolith always strikes me as a crutch given what we know about how singularly inept virtually all corporations prove to be. Anyhoo, beyond ... Read More
- bottlemaniaAn entertaining, informative, and insightful read.Elizabeth Royte's curiosity and sense of humor make the book extra engaging, and sheds some light on one of the greatest luxuries of our civilization, we know little about, and take for granted everyday.This book made me very thirsty as I read it.
- A DisappointmentWith a BS and MS in natural resources and a PhD in marketing, I was extremely interested in reading Ms. Royte's book Bottlemania. I teach marketing courses at a university and have used bottled water as a semester-long case study for well over a decade. By reading Ms. Royte's book, I believed that I could add to the base knowledge for my case study teaching approach. Unfortunately, I came away rather disappointed with Bottlemania. "Why?," you may ask. The reasons are many, which I will briefly describe: ... Read More
- Water, Water, Everywhere? Well, Perhaps If It's Bottled There are some who predict that water will be the next oil. The world has not quite reached that point yet, but the early signs are painfully evident for those who care to look. Oddly, millions of Americans are already willingly and unnecessarily paying more per gallon for bottled water than they pay for gasoline, even though they can get nearly the same water from the taps for pennies.
Elizabeth Royte attempts to address the bizarre cult and psychology of bottled water in her entertaining ... Read More
- To Bottle or NOT to Bottle, That IS the QuestionThough Royte purports this to be about bottled water producers, it's mostly a polemic against Nestle (our beloved friends from Switzerland) and it's predatory machinations on behalf of "Poland Springs".The bottom line questions is: who owns the nations natural resources?Unlike Pepsi (Aquafina) and Coke (Dasani) who sell filtered municipal tapwater, Nestle pumps millions of gallons out of the aquifers in Maine and Pennsylvania.What is the effect downstream of all these millions of gallons that no longer ... Read More
- I suppose I knew better . . .I read three reviews of this book, all of them good.Sadly a 500 word review is all that is necessary to convey all of the information in this book. Distilled (sorry) this book could have been 35 pages.The whole 'town versus Nestle' storyline is overblown and seemed to me actually comfusing and tough to follow.Plus, the story line of the Corporation as all-crushing monolith always strikes me as a crutch given what we know about how singularly inept virtually all corporations prove to be. Anyhoo, beyond ... Read More
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