> they should just encourage them to drink more water and less sugary drinks.
This is a US based company. The USA is a country where water is close to being unheard of as a drink. Kids in school mostly drink milk (genuine WTF moment for me as a European kid who moved to the US), most restaurants either have soda fountains or try to upsell you on other drinks, soccer moms bring Gatorade/Powerade to their kids, etc.. I've been to restaurants where the waiter seems genuinely pissed when you ask for pitchers of water for the table and nothing else.
I guess you can't make much money from water (unless you convince the average American that the water from their tap is dirty and full of germs, in which case you can sell them placebo filters that you have to renew every other month), and that doesn't fly in the country where dollar is king.
Huh? As a European living in the US, I've had the opposite impression. I've never been to another place where every restaurant will automatically give me a free glass of water (and continuously refills it) without me even asking for it. I've also never gotten a dirty look for sticking with just water.
In Europe, you generally have to pay for bottled water, unless you specifically ask for tap water (and get a dirty look in response).
To be fair in a lot of places a water filter makes sense but in most cities where I assume you're talking about the type of people who buy bottled water when their mains water is just as good (in some cases better), you have a point.
Having flashbacks to putrid dead-rat water in rural New Zealand.. shudder
This is a US based company. The USA is a country where water is close to being unheard of as a drink. Kids in school mostly drink milk (genuine WTF moment for me as a European kid who moved to the US), most restaurants either have soda fountains or try to upsell you on other drinks, soccer moms bring Gatorade/Powerade to their kids, etc.. I've been to restaurants where the waiter seems genuinely pissed when you ask for pitchers of water for the table and nothing else.
I guess you can't make much money from water (unless you convince the average American that the water from their tap is dirty and full of germs, in which case you can sell them placebo filters that you have to renew every other month), and that doesn't fly in the country where dollar is king.