Since last year, automatic water vending machines have been gradually appearing in medium and high-end communities in the provincial capital. These machines can "automatically process living pure water." Residents just need to swipe a dedicated IC card to get 5 liters of "living pure water."
"Since the IC card water vending machine 'entered' our community last autumn, about 40% of the residents have started using it," Mr. Wang, who was getting water near a vending machine in the Gangjingli community on April 25th, told reporters. In Mr. Wang's view, this IC card water vending machine has indeed made life more convenient for many residents in the community, "just place the card at the designated location, and you can fill up with 5 liters of pure water, which is much cheaper than bottled water." The reporter noticed that there are already at least 3 such water vending machines just in the Gangjingli community area, and among those buying water are not only middle-aged people but also quite a few young people. Ms. Zhang told reporters that her family had been drinking bottled pure water for a long time, but since the end of last year when the water vending machine appeared in their community, she switched to drinking from the vending machine. She calculated for the reporter: Her family of three generally consumes 4 barrels of 20-liter bottled water per month. Brand-name mineral water costs 15 yuan per barrel, while pure water costs 8 yuan per barrel. With this calculation, using the automatic water vending machine saves them 14 yuan per month, and swiping the IC card to retrieve water is much more convenient. "It saves half the cost of bottled water, it's economical! But the downside is that I have to carry it upstairs myself," Ms. Zhang said. Mr. Guo, who has been drinking bottled water for 10 years, said, "In the past, calling someone to deliver water wasn't tiring, but the timing wasn't flexible. Usually, no one is home during the day, so we couldn't ask for deliveries, and by the time we got home in the evening, the delivery person would already be off work." Mr. Guo also mentioned that every Spring Festival, they had to boil their own water to drink.
Although the IC card automatic water vending machine has gained popularity among many residents in the community, a small number of people still prefer drinking bottled water. A water delivery worker with many years of experience told reporters that since the advent of the automatic water vending machine, their business has become very difficult to sustain, losing many long-term customers all at once. "Previously, we couldn't keep up with demand and pure water would sell out, but that hasn't happened for a long time now."