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In the midst of China's smog-ridden Beijing lies a breath of fresh air -- and it comes in the form of a bottle. Vitality Air is selling bottled air to Chinese consumers, and the Canadian company is making a killing.
Beijing's recent red alert for smog has left its residents desperate for fresh air, and with sales being brisk company execs say they are running out of the product week after week.
Bottled from the fresh air taken from the mountains of Alberta, the Canadian oxygen is the hottest commodity (or necessity as of late) in Beijing, and it's hardly free. After selling for a mere 99 cents per bag on eBay, the company is now marketing the bottles at 400 Yuan ($46) per bottle.
Supply and demand, people.
Founded in 2014 with the intent to provide consumer's the "necessity of life" whenever they need it, Vitality Air wasn't geared toward Beijing, until recently. According to its website, officials hope the product to become the so-called new water bottle you can take anywhere you go.
But as Beijing experiences oxygen deprivation, sales have skyrocketed. Here's what China Representative Harrison Wang had to say:
"It's been a pretty wild ride for us as we only started to market the product a month and a half ago. Consumer spending power is like something we have never seen before and we are pleasantly surprised. We know the demand is big so we are being reactive instead of proactive, and doing our best to accommodate for the market needs and demands. The pollution is certainly a problem and the government is taking aim to sort it, we see it has an issue and we want to give people the opportunity to inject a little bit of fresh into their daily lives."
Of course, not everyone is pleased with officials from Vitality Air. Angry consumers have taken to Twitter to express their distaste for the company's attempt at capitalizing off a serious pollution problem in China.
Twitter Snapshot
