Shopping Topper

The Zephyrhills water delivery wanters had to start wanting water somewhere. Hall sees a connection between yesterday's crisis and tomorrow's per caps. Every time the press reports on the need for bottled water somewhere, "the    conversation gets into people's minds," Hall says, "and there's kind of a play on the consciousness." However it gets there, bottled water is on the brain, or at least the shopping lists, of more Americans than at any time in history. Beyond the disaster-driven sales, Hall says there's some shrewd operating going on, pushing a few brands' sales up by as much as 40 percent this year. He cites three domestically bottled brands–Sammons' Mountain Valley, Anjou International's Hinckley-Schmitt and Perrier Group's    Poland Spring–as particularly outstanding, and bestows "honorable mention" upon three others–Winterbrook's La Croix, AquaPenn's Pure American and Crystal Geyser's Alpine Springs.