I've mentioned this before here but the only beverage that passes my lips these days is water. I was never a consumer of coffee or tea (never liked 'em), never touched alcohol and can't stand anything containing artificial sweeteners.There are some rather convincing studies that suggest things like Aspartame and Sucralose pose health risks but I don't have to decide if I those products are bad for me or not because I just plain don't enjoy the taste. My body also doesn't seem to like anything that's sweet these days so that lets out fruit juices.There was a time not that long ago when you told me I would subsist strictly on H2O, I would have told you you were unconnected to the real world…yet here I am, drinking only water and not missing the harder stuff at all.
Naturally, I have a preferred brand of water. It's Crystal Geyser, which I buy by the truckload. I buy 500 ml bottles to give to company and to carry with me in my car. I buy 1 liter bottles to have at my desk or elsewhere around the house for whenever I crave a swig. I buy gallon bottles which I use to fill up a crock in my kitchen. (I bought it here, by the way.) I buy a lot of Crystal Geyser.
They may not sell it where you live…or they may sell it under another name. Around these parts, the house-brand spring water they sell at Trader Joe's or at Whole Foods Market is Crystal Geyser in disguise.They call it what they call it but if you look carefully at the label, you may see it say something like "Bottled by CG Roxane."The "CG" stands for "Crystal Geyser." I'll bet they bottle water for other chains, as well. I'll also bet that in some parts of the country, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods get their water from someplace else.
This is something that I've occasionally been investigating on Ye Olde Internet. Costco's house brand is Kirkland…and that Kirkland is sure a diverse company. It makes drugs and food and wearing apparel and electronics and batteries and stationery supplies and soup spoons and you-name-it. But of course, there is no Kirkland factory anywhere making anything. A pharmaceutical company fills bottles of aspirin for Costco and slaps the Kirkland name on them. Other companies make the Whole Foods 365 products or all those Trader Joe's products or the house brands at your local markets. An article I read some time ago (this info may no longer be valid) said that a company named Johnson Controls made all the automotive batteries that were being sold by Costco, Sears, Walmart and several other nationwide brands…sold under the Kirkland logo, the Sears logo, etc.
In some cases, it's obvious. In some cases, there are clues on the label…or the packaging looks so similar you know.Trader Joe's sells a Teriyaki Sauce with its name on it that looks exactly like the Teriyaki Sauce manufactured by Soy Vay. In fact, Trader Joe's used to carry Soy Vay and now instead, they just happen to carry a sauce that comes in the same bottle with the same color label…plus the ingredients list is identical and the Trader Joe's Teriyaki is made in the same city. How difficult is that to figure out?
Then again, you don't know. Maybe they use cheaper, lower quality ingredients in one version. Or maybe they change the formula in ways that are not evident in an ingredients list…more of this, less of that. If Johnson Controls is still making batteries for both Costco and Walmart, maybe both lines are identical and maybe they aren't. I'm reasonably sure that since Crystal Geyser is just cleansing and bottling water from a stream, the water they sell under their own name is the same water that gets the 365 label. I think the Trader Joe's toothpaste is the same toothpaste that you can buy elsewhere (and sometimes, there) as Tom's but I'm not sure…and even if the same company makes 'em both, are they the same?
I dunno.The Whole Foods website addresses a question about who makes their 365 items by saying, "We source all of our products from outside manufacturers; however, the identity of these manufacturers is proprietary information." I assume that's because they're prepared to dump any of those suppliers and change in an instant if they get a better deal somewhere else. I'd still like to know, though. Maybe some investigative reporter could prowl around and see what he can dig up. Or maybe it'll all turn up some day soon on WikiLeaks. It doesn't seem possible to keep a secret from them and this is a lot more important than how we foolishly got into the last war and how we'll foolishly get into the next few.