Entrepreneur sells bottled New York City tap water

[cellis]

At 16, Zucker started a business enticing people to pay $1 to take a swing at a golf ball. The prize for a hole in one from 150 yards: $1 million. He rented space from a driving range and persuaded an insurance company to allow him to pay a premium for a million-dollar policy. No one made it, but Zucker made some extra cash.

This is one of the best ideas i've ever heard.

[nebula]

From the insurance company's perspective, it's a $1 million bet they are taking that no one will be able to achieve it. From the participant's perspective it's a $1 ticket to a $1 million lottery. From Zucker's perspective a business (I would call it a scheme) for making money. Quite interesting.

On a related note, Ansari X PRIZE (for the first private space flight) was partly funded through a similar deal with an insurance company.

[mynameishere]

Clearly it hedged on finding a stupid-enough insurance company.

[I then go to google up some statistics...]

http://www.golftournamenthio.com/

Yep. AIG.

[DannoHung]

I'm gonna start selling sealed, empty plastic bottles!

I'll call it: "Make your own bottled water"

[alecco]

There are sports water bottles, even with filters, at discount prices. Less waste.

What a bizarre situation caused by consumerism.

[ibsulon]

If you can figure out a better filtration system than your competitors here: http://coffeetea.about.com/od/water/tp/waterbottles.htm -- you may have a more viable idea than you think.

Tucson's tap water is pretty bad. It's chlorinated mineral water combined with a highly mineral ground water. I drink brita at home, but it's a pain on the road. However, I drink the tap here. When I go to Phoenix, I have trouble even drinking the tap, it tastes so bad in areas.

[Hexstream]

"Bonus: Comes with FREE fresh air inside!"

[psyklic]

These already exist! I was looking in the cleaning supplies the other day, and they sell empty normal-sized Windex-like bottles, along with a very small bottle of concentrate!

[apsec112]

I'd buy them for, say, five cents each. Bottles are useful.

[abstractbill]

It is, after all, one of the nation's healthiest water supplies -- so fresh that in 2007 the Environmental Protection Agency said it did not need filtration.

Shouldn't all tap water not need filtration? Have I been assuming too much?

[barryfandango]

I think the implication was that the water didn't need treatment at the municipal level because it comes so clean from the source. Once any city water reaches your tap, it is potable and does not require extra filtration except to improve flavour. Unless you're one of those fluoride conspiracy nuts.

[ibsulon]

Go to Phoenix. It may or may not be safe, but it tastes quite foul.

[wallflower]

> Shouldn't all tap water not need filtration? Have I been assuming too much?

"If you don't use a water filter, your body is the water filter"

[barryfandango]

Aquafina and Dasani, bottled water from the Coke and Pepsi companies, are made with municipal source water that is filtered to improve the taste. Dasani here in the Toronto area comes from Brampton, Ontario tap water, and there is nothing special about Brampton tap water.

[wallflower]

Then there is Fiji water... Probably the most egregious bottled water (in terms of energy costs to transport)

http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/askpablo-exotic-1.php

[mark_h]

Try this one, from even further afield (not to mention the hype around how it is collected!): http://tasmanianrain.com/

(I'm from Tasmania, and I've never seen it -- I suspect you can only buy it in L.A.)

[gsiener]

Little known fact -- Fiji bottled water mostly comes as a byproduct of downtown Honolulu's cooling system. They use a process called OTEC: http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/info/energy/renewable/otec

[RK]

I've also seen a brand in the US from New Zealand...

[lacker]

Someone should start doing this in San Francisco.

People shouldn't be surprised by the bottled water phenomenon. You are buying the bottle, not the water, and a bottle is often worth $1.

[Ras_]

You're buying easy access to the water.

[jjs]

The reason this works in NYC is that their tap water is basically mountain spring water, piped in from the Catskills.

[djahng]

I thought the reason Chez Panisse, Seattle, and SF stopped buying bottled water was not because of the quality of the water, but rather the wastefulness of the bottles themselves...

[gsiener]

This really bothers me. California banned bottles for a reason, and now he's introducing more in NYC. If people want tap water on the go, buy a reusable bottle!

[anamax]

> California banned bottles for a reason

When did CA ban bottles?

[releasedatez]

I remember when I was very young, I was able to drink off of tap water in CA.

[partoa]

It's bottled water!

[chiffonade]

He'd make a killing in LA selling NY water.

[owkaye]

But since he won't a competitor could make that killing.

[stuntgoat]