Their Cups Runneth Over

It’s wet. It’s bottled. It sort of tastes like water. And now department stores want their share of the flourishing $4-billion-a-year bottled water industry.

Nordstrom Water--sold in the stores’ cosmetics departments--is bottled by Global Water Technologies Inc. based in Burlington, Wash. The label pours out water buzz words like “oxygen-enriched,” “electrolyte fortified,” “purer taste.” Cost is $2.50 per 33.8-ounce bottle.

59th & Lex Natural Spring Water, sold at Bloomingdale’s in-store cafes, is imported from the de la Reina water source in Goazec, France. Its label features the flagship Bloomingdale’s in New York circa 1930. Cost: $1.50 per 16 ounces.

Are customers interested in buying bottled water where they buy their Gucci shoes and Calvin Klein underwear? Oh, yes. “You’d think we lived in the Gobi Desert,” remarked one astonished Nordstrom salesclerk.

Far from French, Nordstrom Water is purified Burlington city tap water.

“We strip the water to make it pure,” says Merlin Yockstick, creator and owner of the bottler, Global Water Technologies. A Japanese-patented process then puts electrolytes and increased oxygen back into the purified H2O.

Sales of Nordstrom and 59th & Lex waters have been brisk, and plans to continue are definitely a go. Neiman Marcus, which used to sell a $600 Chanel pouch for carrying designer waters, is watching.