Bottled water companies sell liquid water in plastic ice trays for you to stick in the freezer and freeze yourself.
I know this is like a sign of the consumer apocalypse, but it’s also absolutely hilarious.
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How could I possibly be expected to buy something like this?
I mean, really, who has the time to wait around for water to freeze just to get some ice? I, for one, will welcome our new corporate overlords as soon as they can fix the ice machine in my freezer.
This is incredible.
That strikes me as an eminently good idea for the narrow traveling-to-a-third-world-country-where-one-has-access-to-a-freezer-but-not-to-purified-water market. Not so much for everyone else.
I’m traveling to China, but there’s definitely purified water available there. Nonetheless, I’ve been eyeing, say, individually wrapped items with a fondness quite unlike me.
Um, actually, I can see this being really useful. (Cringes.) Not that our consumerist culture isn’t awful, and blah blah blah, but… well, my apartment has a stanky icemaker that produces chunks of frozen water tasting like old rag. Truly disgusting. I usually just forgo ice in everything, but when making drinks–especially a nice glass of bourbon or whiskey on the rocks–it’s tough to choose between warm alcohol and the slight taste of rag in your drink.
Yes, obviously, it’s more more environmentally friendly to just buy an ice tray and use filtered water to create your own cubes. Blah blah blah.
Just trying to point out that this, like bottled water, can seem ridiculous and over-the-top and status-symbol-seeking to someone with pristine tap water, but for people living in many places where the water tastes like pig crap (cough *Iowa* cough) or with ancient freezers in rental units, it might seem like a decent thing to have on hand to use for parties or what-have-you.
I am hiding my head in shame, but I would actually find this very useful. I very rarely need ice, but if I’m having people over for dinner, I usually want to make ice cubes, and it seems like such a waste of space to have to keep ice cube trays around on top of the fridge in my 400 square foot apartment for the four times a year I want to make ice. Also, since they appear to be covered, I could throw these in my very very small freezer sideways, which I can’t do with regular ice cube trays.
I realize that that probably makes me a sign of the apocalypse, but I am properly ashamed of myself. (Also, I promise that I very rarely actually consume products – witness the 400 square foot apartment.)
i’ve always wondered what it would be like to just go around wearing an adult diaper instead of going to all the trouble to go to the bathroom.
“give me convenience or give me death!” – dead kennedys
Yes, there is a point in the comments to the effect that having limited immediate resources, in our society, tends to create more consumption of environmental resources.
Like, I can put my coffee in a paper cup for free, but if I want to have a reusable covered cup, I have to buy it for a price that’s not terribly high unless one is working minimum wage — in which case it may be prohibitive.
Lot of things like that — like the thing Barbara Ehrenreich mentioned with fast food takeout vs. a rice cooker. Fast food takeout every day of the month is much more expensive in the long run than buying a rice cooker and eating rice — but a rice cooker is $30, and if you can’t afford it today, tomorrow or next week, well, so much for that idea.
Extra points for the Futurama reference, btw (if it was unintentional, then watch “The Sting”, because it’s one of the best in the series).
AB, are you saying that even filtering tap water can’t remove its bad taste, or that even if it could you still wouldn’t be interested in making your own cubes?
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