Quench your thirst with overpriced Sacramento tap water.
As California remains in an
extreme drought with no end in sight, residents are questioning why Wal-Mart is making extreme profits off the
Sacramento water supply:
According to its own labeling, the water in the gallon jugs appears to come from Sacramento’s water supply.
Sacramento sells water to a bottler, DS Services of America, at 99 cents for every 748 gallons—the same rate as other commercial and residential customers. That water is then bottled and sold at Walmart for 88 cents per gallon, meaning that $1 of water from Sacramento turns into $658.24 for Walmart and DS Services.
The news comes on the heels of an announcement last month that the city is asking residents to
cut water consumption by a whopping 36%.
California resident and public relations expert Doug Elmets sums it up:
“It’s certainly leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth when you can’t fill up a swimming pool, if you’re building a new home in West Sacramento; you can’t water your lawn if you’re living in this region. And to find out they’re making a huge profit off of this, it’s just not right,” Elmets said.
Residents want Wal-Mart to take immediate action and
follow the lead of Starbuck's:
John Kelly, Starbucks' senior vice president of Global Responsibility and Public Policy, said the company wants to "support the people of the state of California as they face this unprecedented drought."
Kelly said the decision to move the operation to the company's Pennsylvania supplier is one of multiple steps being taken "in partnership with state and local governments to accelerate water conservation."
Starbucks said it will start shifting production to Pennsylvania over the next six months, "while simultaneously exploring alternatives to transition to a new source and supplier to serve the company's West Coast distribution."
See CBS Sacramento's report
here.