A Novelty No Longer

It wasn’t long ago that seeing someone drinking bottled water was a novelty. Now it’s as common as boomers in bicycle shorts. And because of increasingly high demand there is competition among bottled and purified water companies and retailers looking for customers.

There is, supposedly, cleaner and better tasting alternatives to tap water just about anywhere beverages are sold. But a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council indicated that many bottled waters are not as pure as they claim to be.

Nevertheless, bottled and filtrated water can be acquired from a range of sources--from curbside kiosks to supermarkets to a delivery person dropping it at your door.

We visited some of Ventura County’s purified/distilled water locations to compare selections and prices. For a look at grocery stores, we visited Vons in Ojai and Lucky on Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks. At Vons, we found the large variety of bottled water brands typical of most supermarkets.

The generic Vons purified and distilled waters were priced at 57 cents per gallon. Other gallon-size varieties included Sparkletts for $1.08 and Arrowhead for $1.11. One-liter bottles included Palomar Spring Water for 49 cents, Vons brand for 55 cents, Dannon and Arrowhead for 59 cents, Aquafina for 79 cents and Fiji Artesian for $1.32.

The 1.5-liter bottles included the Safeway brand Select Refreshe for 59 cents, Crystal Geyser for 63 cents, Arrowhead for 67 cents, Dannon at 69 cents, Sparkletts at 77 cents, Aquafina at 83 cents, Mountain Sweet at $1.22, Evian for $1.59, Naya for $1.63 and Volvic natural spring water from France for $2.15.

At the Lucky store on Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks we found a much smaller selection.

The generic Lucky brand was selling for 65 cents per gallon. That compared with Sparkletts for 94 cents per gallon, Arrowhead for 99 cents and Purita drinking water for 89 cents. In the 1.5-liter size, house brand Lady Lee was priced at 55 cents with Crystal Geyser at 61 cents and Arrowhead, Dannon and Sparkletts at 69 cents.

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For a sampling of other retail options, we visited the Pic-N-Save store in Camarillo. Its one brand of bottled water, Niagara, was selling for 38 cents for a 1.5-liter bottle and 88 cents for a four-pack of half-liter bottles.

At Trader Joe’s in Ventura, its one brand, Crystal Geyser, was selling for 45 cents for 1.5 liters (or $5.40 per dozen), 29 cents for three-quarters of a liter (or $6.96 for two dozen) and $1.49 for a six-pack of mini 500-milliliter bottles (or $5.96 for a case of four six-packs).

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Among less commercial alternatives, the independently operated Ventura Water Store and the Camarillo Water Store offer municipal water that has been distilled (Ventura) and purified (Camarillo).

At the Ventura store, options include a half liter of water for 50 cents, one liter for 80 cents and a gallon for $1.75. There are also charges to purchase reusable containers and dispensers. The latter sell for $25 to $35 or can be rented for $2.50 to $3.50 per month.

In Camarillo the purified water comes in half-gallon to 6-gallon sizes and is priced at 45 cents per gallon. Customers may join a prepayment club that offers a 25-35% discount off the regular rate. The dispenser crocks are priced at $20 and up, stands are $10 and up and coolers start at $130.

In addition to the water stores, kiosks dispensing purified and distilled water can be found on sidewalks throughout the county. The Puretec machine on the 2100 block of Thompson Boulevard in Ventura sells a gallon of water for 10 cents. A Glacier machine next to Vons in Ojai charges 25 cents per gallon.

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Of course, one need not leave home to shop for purified water. Companies such as Arrowhead and Sparkletts are more than happy to deliver, but customers do pay more for the service.

Sparkletts sells a 5-gallon container for $1.70 per gallon and a 3-gallon container for $2.12 per gallon. Arrowhead sells a 5-gallon container of its Mountain Spring water for $1.67 per gallon and 5 gallons of purified water for $1.51 per gallon. A 3-gallon Mountain Spring Water is $2.07. The companies also rent out water dispensers. Sparkletts has an electric dispenser for cold and room temperature water for $8 per month and a room-temperature only dispenser for $3.75 per month. Prepaying for 12 months reduces the cost 20%.

For Arrowhead, the monthly rental fees are $8.95 for the electric dispenser and $3.50 for the nonelectric.