In my last job, I was the boss of the Indian unit of an American outsourcing company. Our customers would visit from America, and it was my job to entertain them, and make sure that they were comfortable. Most of these guys liked Indian cuisine, but every once in a while, you would get a few who wanted more familiar, less spicy food. I would take them to a restaurant close to our office called Sunny's
I hate going to Sunny's.
Sunny's is not a bad restaurant. The food is good, if expensive, and the decor is not displeasing. What gets my goat is that Sunny's, like a lot of expensive restaurants in India, offers Evian water by default to its customers. Bottles of Evian are placed on your table, and should you want to drink Indian bottled water, at a tenth of the price, you have to make a special request. The waiter comes, takes the Evian away, and replaces it with the Indian water. I would have to do this each time I went there - at the risk of seeming cheap to my guests. But this was a scam that I was determined not to fall for.
HTF did water from the French Alps become the automatic choice in a restaurant in Bangalore?
Danone, the owner of the Evian brand is hard at work in India increasing sales - changing its local partner, trying to get into joint ventures with large Indian firms, identifying Indian companies for acquisition. They also have an active marketing programme that includes sponsoring parties for 'beautiful people', and working the newspapers with stories about the 'miracles of water therapy'. You absolutely must read this astonishing article in the Times of India.
Water is clearly big business.
I was reminded of this when I read this great post by Zahra at Grub Scout about how water is becoming the next wine. There are, already, 'water connoiseurs' writing books to educate people on 'the epicurean delights of water' . Companies have introduced water that costs as much as $37 for a 750 ml bottle!
While you are at Grub Scout, you can also read Zahra's earlier post about how several New York city restaurants are banning bottled water. Reason and commonsense may still win.
I hate going to Sunny's.
Sunny's is not a bad restaurant. The food is good, if expensive, and the decor is not displeasing. What gets my goat is that Sunny's, like a lot of expensive restaurants in India, offers Evian water by default to its customers. Bottles of Evian are placed on your table, and should you want to drink Indian bottled water, at a tenth of the price, you have to make a special request. The waiter comes, takes the Evian away, and replaces it with the Indian water. I would have to do this each time I went there - at the risk of seeming cheap to my guests. But this was a scam that I was determined not to fall for.
HTF did water from the French Alps become the automatic choice in a restaurant in Bangalore?
Danone, the owner of the Evian brand is hard at work in India increasing sales - changing its local partner, trying to get into joint ventures with large Indian firms, identifying Indian companies for acquisition. They also have an active marketing programme that includes sponsoring parties for 'beautiful people', and working the newspapers with stories about the 'miracles of water therapy'. You absolutely must read this astonishing article in the Times of India.
Water is clearly big business.
I was reminded of this when I read this great post by Zahra at Grub Scout about how water is becoming the next wine. There are, already, 'water connoiseurs' writing books to educate people on 'the epicurean delights of water' . Companies have introduced water that costs as much as $37 for a 750 ml bottle!
While you are at Grub Scout, you can also read Zahra's earlier post about how several New York city restaurants are banning bottled water. Reason and commonsense may still win.
3 comments:
I think mineral water has a good future. Since it falls in to the category of prestigious goods, I don’t think the price matters to its consumers. With the booming economy there will always be new customers joining in but the most interesting thing is that the elite society is using Evian water to wash their faces and also to brush their teeth. Excellent! The question is if I ever get there will I do the same? Mmmmmm…..Yes.
George,
It seems Indian servers are just as adept at the 'restaurant upsell' as their American brethren! It's an age-old trick to pour liberal amounts of expensive water and then charge the customer after the fact... A dirty, but age-old, trick to say the least!
Diners in the States have started to become much more attentive to these kinds of things. There's an interesting thread on this very topic on Chowhound.
I don't think most people mind paying for something they've requested but nobody wants to feel like they've been played. I don't know what the tipping situation is in India, but here in the States once servers start seeing negative effects of their upselling in their take-home tips they become much better at asking customers what they want rather launching ambush tactics.
George,
Thanks for the post. Here is a link to some data and initiatives around the world.
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2007/Update68_data.htm#table1
On an more ironic note, I know someone who grew up in Western Africa and now distributes bottled water for Perrier in Northern California.
This huge, wasteful industry now has private equity funds investing solely in water assets, perhaps to deliver "quality" products like Coca Cola's "Dasani" that was found to be bottled tap water.
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