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Comment by kennywinker | Hacker News Reader

Oof. That’s upsetting. Shipping water has got to be one of the least efficient things imaginable. I just assumed they were lying because it’s so common to lie about the geography of your product.

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You're not really shipping water, you're shipping plastic bottles with marketing labels. Once you think of it like that it makes more sense. Anyone that is buying Fiji water could already have a reusable bottle and drink from the tap.

Well, no, because they're shipping the weight of the water as well.

They probably should dehydrate it first.

All natural spring water. From concentrate.

Just add water

You probably meant that as a joke...but suppose they made sure there was a trace of actual Fiji water in the bottle before they filled the bottle with local water could they legally get away with saying its from Fiji if they added "homeopathic" to the label?

Fiji water tastes better than tap water almost always. Yes, I've done a blind taste test in before.

No, it doesn't mean it's worth shipping water from an island across the ocean. In any case, my favorite water of all time is "El dorado springs", which happens to be sourced very close to me here in boulder, co.

Sorry, what ? Your OP literally says they're shipping water from fiji.

The value is for the label, but the logistics are still shipping the weight of a ton of water

Fiji imports more goods than it exports. As such, ships that bring goods to the islands come in full but leave without a full load. Carrying water, while it seems silly, is a use of that empty capacity.

Ships spend more fuel the more weight they ship. If you ship something unnecessary, you are wasting fuel for nothing.

The ship has to return, empty or not. If the shipping company can recoup some of those costs (labor, fuel, insurance, etc.) by selling the otherwise empty space to someone who sells bottled island water, it's a net gain for both the shipping company and the Fijian economy.

Of course it's good for the shipping company and the water sellers. Otherwise they wouldn't do it.

The point, which you seem to be purposefully missing, is it's a net loss for the world.

Unless the shipped amount is exactly the ballast... But even then the ballast and any cargo is placed differently so even that point wouldn't work.

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