system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:Why is bottled water often more expensive than Coke (or other fizzy drinks) which, as well as containing water, contain lots of ingredients which need to be bought and paid for while water is just, water?
gpt
When you buy a bottle of Coke, it comes from a local bottling plant.  Coke only has to ship a very highly concentrated syrup containing the flavor across the country & somebody adds water to it locally & then distributes it to stores.  Many bottled waters come out of the same factories - they just don't bother adding anything to the water.

If you want a 'special' bottled water those have to be bottled at a single location and then shipped all around the world.  Shipping is expensive, water is heavy & Evian has to come all the way from France.

Then there's always the idiot factor.  If you put a fancy label & a high price tag on some tap water, you can probably get people to buy it because they just assume that the more expensive product is higher quality.