Mom's kicks the bottle habit

Washington Business Journal reported today that Mom’s Organic Market, a local grocery chain with six locations in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area, will no longer sell bottled water to their customers. This is great news! The fact that a grocery company has discontinued the sale of bottled water is proof that it can be eliminated from the business model without much of a financial risk for the company.  

Mom’s Organic Market’s and CEO/Founder Scott Nash’s Battle the Bottle initiative eliminates the sale of bottled water in Mom’s stores based on the negative environmental impact caused the production of plastic bottles. The campaign is an effective way to educate people about why bottled water is so harmful, although Mom’s goal seems to focus mostly on the elimination of petroleum-based plastics. Their stores now have a water filtration system where customers can refill their reusable water containers – the first gallon is free with each visit.

In addition to the obvious negative impact bottled water has on our environment, there are other additional negative attributes associated with the product.  Bottled water is not safer than tap. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing of municipal drinking water than bottled water. At $2 for a 20–ounce container, bottled water costs thousands of times more than tap water.

This is an example of how it is possible to successfully incorporate the distribution of filtered water over bottled water into a retail business model.  Tap water is a better choice than the bottled brands, for our health, our environment, and our wallets.

-Rich Bindell