It seems to be more foreigners, yesterday I see 2 people with a total of 15 litres of water, just walked past a bun with 2 empty 5 litre bottles… I get tap water maybe not great but why not buy a water filter jug? Or 3! Surely it’s a cheaper option with the same result?


38 comments

  1. It’s really not that hard to understand. They don’t want to drink tap and don’t feel like the quality of water using a filter is good enough.

  5. I live in a hard water area and it gives my cats cystitis. So I buy the 5l bottles of soft spring water for approximately 0.01% of the cost of the vet bills if they drink tap. I’m not foreign either 

  6. My dad buys bottled water. But he also shops at Waitrose, so maybe he just thinks he’s posh.

  9. It is definitely more often foreigners. In a lot of countries drinking tap water is not at all the norm, and that behaviour becomes quite ingrained.

    I have known a lot of immigrants who have been here ages and still buy bottled drinking water out of habit.

  10. Here come the tap water propagandists ‘we have some of the safest water in the world’ as if that makes the water taste any better. In the south the tap water tastes and smells like pool water

  11. It’s more normal for tap water to be unpotable in the rest of the world so it’s probably people who are accustomed to buying bottled water for this reason.

  12. “I get tap water maybe not great” might wanna ask those foreigners for some english lessons there pal!

  13. I lived in London for a couple of years and often bought bottled water. It wasn’t expensive and worth the cost not to have to drink the tap water.

  14. You can argue what difference it makes or whether it tastes the same or not all day, but filtered water and natural mineral water are not the same.

    For the majority I expect it comes down to either taste, or habit from being in locations where tap water is not safe to drink

  17. I buy bottled water every week due to the fact we have regular water shortages where i am due to how shit Thames Water and the infrastructure are. Water pick up points are no good for those of us who cannot drive, and Thames Water ALWAYS fail to drop ff bottles to those registered as needing priority.
    Im 8th generation born and bred in the same village too, so definitely not foreign.

  19. Tap water, even through a water filter jug tastes awful where I live in Kent. I can only drink it if I put it with squash.

    Bottled water is the only option for me.

    Understand there are loads of places further north that have excellent tap water, here isn’t that.

  21. I had no water in my flat for a weekend and the building management couldn’t have given a fuck.

    I bought those 5lt bottles then, super useful!

    I suspect it’s mostly people from other countries though who aren’t sure about the water. First thing we do when we go to Spain is buy those so makes sense that people might do that here even though they dont have to.

  22. It is generally a bad idea, when visiting a place, to drink their tap water. It could give you the shits.

  23. The water at my old house was tasted terrible. Brita water filter didn’t help. I used to refill multiple 5 litre bottles from my parent’s house each week for my drinking water. Fortunately the water at my new house is ok (it’s only a few miles from the previous house).

  24. I do because flat water gives me indigestion. I know it’s backwards and it’s meant to be fizzy that does that, but I can only drink water if it comes with a decent burp after, otherwise I feel like I have stone in my stomach.

    The fizz makers whatever they’re called never get it fizzy enough, I like it when it’s so fizzy it’s almost painful to drink. If I can get a fizz maker that makes it adequately fizzy I’d stop. Until then, this is my vice.

    But I don’t drive, don’t have kids, and don’t take long haul flights so I figure my environmental footprint balances out.

  26. Well I’m British born but I have had a few “he’s from somewhere” comments over the years until I’ve opened my mouth and spoken broad Lancashire… 

    I drink bottled water because I don’t like drinking tapped water… That’s about as deep as it goes for me… 

    I do believe some people are so used to bottled water in their countries of origin, though, that it is essentially second nature to them to continue with this… This could also explain the larger bottle sizes very easily… 

    I mean, I am as irritated with my water bill as the next person and nobody is buying the bottles of water for me/I’m paying for them myself, so what else can I say really? That’s about the lot… 

  27. We buy bottled water because the water locally is disgusting, even in tea and we have tried to get used to it but cant. This is Kent by the way.

  28. I get recurrent UTIs. Nothing is worth the risk of those, bottled water all the way for me.

    And before anyone suggests it, yes i’ve tried a water filter jug / dispenser / etc.

  29. Lets see, in the last fortnight

    2 customers who don’t let people use their facilities – not angry about it, they were vulnerable and had a bad experience with someone else, I have loved ones in same boat so I have empathy
    1 property where utilities were being installed still, 1 simply shut off

    Plus if you are having to move around in this heat, your a fool for not keeping spare water in your vehicle

    As for general people, I wouldn’t just say tourists plenty of locals have reason to not trust tap water after some of the outbreaks we’ve had the last year (cryptosporidium etc) depending where you live as someone else mentioned with one of the providers

  30. I like the flavour of coke zero – so I regularly buy coke zero

    I like the flavour of Evian – so I regularly buy Evian

    I like the flavour of San Pellegrino – but that’s quite expensive so I only occasionally buy that

    Of all the people who bring up the deficiency in water quality it does seem to get overlooked that different water has different flavours and you might just like the flavour of one over the other

  31. Low TDS for my espresso machine. Reduces lime scale issues

    .. and I am mixed Scottish and French parents, that make me foreign ?

  32. We buy 5 litres every few weeks to fill up our espresso machine. Portsmouth tap water is very hard, and despite regular descaling the last machine died due to limescale buildup. The supermarket water is much softer.

    We use tap water for everything else.

  33. In a good chunk of the world, even parts of Europe, tap water is either unsafe or disgusting.

  34. German here. I just don’t like the taste of tap water in the UK (or England more specifically) so I buy bottled water whenever I’m there. At home I drink tap water only.

  35. I have to drink appropriately mineralised water lest it cause my electrolytes to get out of whack, given my particular health issues I am very sensitive to it.

    My landlord has insisted on water filtration and softening at the intake for the building so everything that comes out of the tap has a complete lack of sodium, magnesium and calcium etc. When I am hypovolemic, which is a near daily occurrence, if I drink our tap water I start getting more and more unwell. Before I figured out what was going on and how to compensate for it I ended up in hospital twice, now I drink the cheapest bottled water available from the spar across the street.

  37. I live in rural Scotland and always have a couple of big bottles of water in the house. Our water is pumped in and taps run dry whenever there is a power cut (pretty common up here) so need an emergency supply. But when the power is on we drink the tap water

  38. Honestly when I’m stuck in a hotel room I don’t trust the tap, so I’ll go to a local market and buy water for the week or however long I’m there. Probably not most of what you’re witnessing but it is some of it

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