San Diegans Can Drink Their Tap Water. Many Pay More at the Vending Machine Anyway.

On a May afternoon, customers fill empty five-gallon jugs at vending machines beside the front door of the Aqua Bar water store in Escondido. Inside, the store’s owner chats with regulars turning the faucets at two large metal sinks. Customers come and go, wheeling carts full of newly-filled containers out to the trunks or flat-beds of waiting cars.

Aqua Bar is roughly in the middle of a neighborhood that could be the water vending machine capital of San Diego County.