Another Story of Bottled Water - What really matters

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Another Story of Bottled Water

 
Yesterday I happened to visit a newly opened restaurant in the locality. Apart from a new look and feel that comes by default with such new entity, I also noticed something quite unique with the place. First, let me tell you that the prices are not set up high here and a cup of filter coffee was priced at Rs.18 inclusive of all taxes. What was unique is that they were giving a sealed bottle of mineral water to every set of customers instead of offering water in the glasses and that too at no additional charges. You can see it like if you walk into that restaurant to just have a cup of coffee, you can very well get a 500 ml bottle of mineral water absolutely free.

Well, that does sound good and doing something unique might be the motivation behind such move but to me and hopefully to most of us, it is a hard slap on the face of the people like who you see in the below video. Watch the video and you'll know why!

  


Having watched this video earlier and otherwise too, I was a bit taken aback by the idea. This is an unnecessary use of plastic which can be easily avoided. Also, at the times when the world is debating about environmental causes and even the most careless city administrations like ours are putting bans on plastic bags, this kind of move by a business entity is a strong step in the entirely wrong direction.

On my way out of the restaurant, I had a chat with the franchisee owner. He himself actually saw me searching for someone and asked "Any problem, Sir?". I just confirmed whether he is the owner and he told me that he is the franchisee owner. He initially thought I have some complaint or issue when I started telling him that I have a suggestion to share. I told him that it's good that you are giving a mineral water bottle for almost all the customers, but taken the number of customers coming per day, it is actually lots and lots of unnecessary plastic. To make my point stronger, I told him that environmental groups are actually telling people not to buy bottled water in the first place by making them understand the harms of it.

At the end of our chat, he looked a bit in agreement by what I told him and he assured me that he will think about it. But I know that these are the business decisions which are not changed so easily like that considering just the environmental factors unless there is a strong motivation or pressure attached to it. But I also believe that if more people take such small initiative to go and raise their concerns, difference can surely be made.

6 comments:

  1. There was a time when people ate on banana leaves or plates of other leaves and drank tea in terracotta mugs, all natural and disposable, that also gave work to lot of small artisans. Today plastic is cheap and can be just thrown away, but in the long run, it will come back to haunt us.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Absolutely. And those terracotta cups were used for tea till not very long ago in small towns, at least. But these too are now replaced by small plastic cups. This certainly isn't progress!

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  4. hhmm....nice initiative...be attached to it..visit the same restro after a month...may be,u notice some change..! achchha ek baat bata...how are they able to provide a 500ml mineral water bottle with a Rs18 coffee..? is it the good quality mineral water bottle or substandard ? After all,profit is the only target of any business .

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  5. Yes, it seemed to be good quality mineral water and I took the Rs.18 coffee as an example of the lowest item in the menu. Surely the customers are not coming there just for coffee and that's how he must be managing to give such an offer.
    Also, the restaurant is new so this might also be an investment to promote the business!

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