Selling bottled fresh air to China
independent.co.uk
independent.co.uk
>The company started marketing the product in China less than two months ago, but now that the first shipment of 500 bottles is sold out, another of 700 bottles is on its way.
500 bottles, at less than $30 bottle, in two months, in China. Thats not impressive in the least. Proportionally we are talking about a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the urban Chinese population, for a good sold online that is far from "luxury" pricing.
Jesus, there are probably self-published Kindle eBooks about Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic that have sold quicker than that.
When legitimate websites give attention to insignificant products such as this, they are creating the trend, not reporting on it.
Inquiring minds want to know, and it appears this "journalist" isn't the least bit concerned in what could be very strange details.
Actually, a Chinese entrepreneur started doing this in 2012: http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2012/09/18/china-is-now-selling-c...
And anyhow, to have a health impact, we're talking about large quantity concentrators for those lug-around supplemental oxygen machines. These look awfully small to have any impact long term:
http://vitalityair.com/products/bottled-goodness.html
Anecdotal: I once tried purchasing a similar Oxygen can at a high-altitude ski resort as a sort of "stamina inhaler" on a heavy powder day. A good puff would return one's breath to normal pretty quickly, but the can ran out after a few hours of occasional use. So, at best these can be used as an ersatz, non-medical inhaler.
On the other hand, the market for air filters is still booming.
Having lived in Mumbai for 2 and a half years, this to me actually kind of makes sense.
Surcharging people will probably vanish once air filtration becomes more common, or ubiquitous (I've never been, so wouldn't know).
But in Mumbai, there's really nothing like stepping off the hot and polluted streets, into an air conditioned place with clear air.
Of course, the issue needs to be fixed at source, and this is so obvious it's hardly worth stating. But somehow, having lived in a polluted asian city, none of this surprises me, unfortunately.
Hilarious!
I guess it is. This is the kind of outcome that, if you read about it in a science-fiction story, it'd break your immersion. Absolutely ridiculous, though the company seems to have struck gold of some sort.
The notion that anyone is selling an actual air supply here to any substantial portion of the population is sensationalist in a fairly racist manner; Like http://gizmodo.com/5897678/chinas-urine-boiled-eggs-are-a-cu... , a "hot commodity" consumed by a few hundred elderly people in one neighborhood of one city. Or the show at Wangfujing market in Beijing of skewered, roasted scorpions & seahorses, consumed exclusively by tourists. "Fast Food Beijing Style" - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041266/Scorpion-keb...
Generalizing an extremely rare cultural or entrepreneurial novelty over 1.36 billion people is somehow okay when the generalization level is "China". Not enough people know enough about China to understand that these exoticist stereotypes are not founded in statistics, but in a freak show / link bait mentality.
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Take a statement which is more true than "Chinese people buy canned air":
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"Crazy Americans Run Out Of Vomit, Have To Purchase Fake Vomit For Social Purposes"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_vomit
Has sold tens of thousands of units. Surprisingly, not a cultural touchstone.
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"Americans So Oversexed They Require Penis Cage To Prevent Erections"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chastity_belt_(BDSM)#Chastity_...
Big deal in BDSM subculture. Not an "American" thing, though.
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"Americans Are Now Buying Dedicated Cars To Use From Their Superyachts"
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/marine-mono-supercar-superyacht...
Technically true. But what does the headline imply?
The factory mass producing fear, bottled capped Distributed near and far sold for a reasonable price The people, they love it, they feed it Brush with it, bathe with it, breathe it Inject it direct to the blood It seems to be replacing love
That and when a business has running costs they pass that onto customers.
Strange article.