# Free refills? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2009, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376 "2009-04-26T03:03:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![maleinblack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@maleinblack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maleinblack)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/81 "2009-04-28T20:37:38Z")
No free refills of any kinds in India. Not for soda or coffee etc. I have eaten at several McD’s across various cities in India and they do not do the free refill thing. ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/82 "2009-04-28T21:11:45Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Free refills are relatively new in the U.S, in my experience. When I was a kid in the '80s we never got free refills anywhere, and a lot of restaurants sold pitchers of soda. In the early and mid-'90s I remember often having the exchange: > > Waitperson: Would you like a refill? > Me (out of conditioning): No > Waitperson: It’s free > Me: Oh, ok. This. I also think of free soft drink refills as a (relatively) new thing. Growing up in the South, we tended to order iced tea at restaurants (sweet tea, actually) because you DID get free refills of those, whereas there was always a charge for a Coke refill. If soft drinks are dirt cheap to restaurants, iced tea is even cheaper. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/83 "2009-04-29T10:15:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get that. Why would anyone order anything other than the smallest cup with free refills? Because the waiters/waitresses are busy, and they know if you’re the kind of guy who orders the cheapest drink to take advantage of the free refills, you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t tip. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/84 "2009-04-29T12:18:20Z")
It’s rare for there to be waitresses in a place that serves drinks by cup size. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/85 "2009-04-29T13:47:25Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > It’s rare for there to be waitresses in a place that serves drinks by cup size. :smack: good point. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/86 "2009-04-29T14:12:52Z")
The free soda refills started when fast food franchises wanted to beat the competition for your patronage. It only became common in the last few decades. Once you offer free refills how do you not offer it and then not lose business. They have done the only thing possible now. They raised their soda prices. Instead of the $1 soda they cost up to $3 in some chain restaurants. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/87 "2009-04-29T17:36:07Z")
No free refills of any kind in Spain, nor any customer-accessible fountains in fast food restaurants, even American chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King. My Spanish friends, in their endless and entertaining quest to find out if all that crazy stuff they heard about America is really true, asked me if American restaurants _really_ let customers have free access to soda. I said this was indeed true. They absolutely could not believe it. They said if restaurants let Spaniards do this, they would be bankrupt within a day from all the people taking advantage. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/88 "2009-04-29T17:41:51Z")
They obviously don’t know how cheap soda is. No way they can pound it down like the world champion United States. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/89 "2009-04-29T18:01:56Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > It’s not silent. It’s people that _think_ it’s silent that have led to such an awful prevelence of “ice tea” being written everywhere you look. ::shudder:: > > 😃 Not true! People will spell things wrong no matter HOW they’re pronounced! Seriously, around here nobody ever says “iced tea”, it’s always “ice tea”. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/90 "2009-04-29T18:18:01Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Not true! People will spell things wrong no matter HOW they’re pronounced! Seriously, around here nobody ever says “iced tea”, it’s always “ice tea”. Nobody says either in this part of the world. In Atlanta, its called “sweet tea”. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/91 "2009-04-29T18:18:02Z")
Uhghghghghgh. It makes me shudder when people pronounce the D in “ice tea”. I typically only hear it in advertising. Same with whip[ped -uhghgh] cream. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/92 "2009-04-29T18:19:22Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > Nobody says either in this part of the world. In Atlanta, its called “sweet tea”. Atlanta is father north than where I grew up, Charlotte, where it’s just “tea”. :). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/93 "2009-04-29T18:37:25Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > They said if restaurants let Spaniards do this, they would be bankrupt within a day from all the people taking advantage. I’m guessing that after the first day, they wouldn’t drink so much. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/94 "2009-04-29T18:47:37Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > It’s rare for there to be waitresses in a place that serves drinks by cup size. Hooters? ---
**Author:** ![Dahu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahu/32/3416_2.png) [@Dahu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/95 "2009-04-29T19:17:04Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > Who calculates profit like this? It’s marginal _profit_ (i.e., revenue less cost) divided by marginal _cost_. Most retailers (and every business I’ve ever worked in) calculate it like this. It’s called the profit margin. What you have described is called the mark-up. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/96 "2009-04-29T19:24:19Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > They’d be there getting wired on Mountain Dew or “suicides” (mixture of all flavors of fountain drinks) for hours. We called those “swamps”. I can think of a couple fast food restaurants in Canada where I’ve seen fountains where you can refill your soft drinks, but they are few and far between. And I could not tell you the names of the restaurants, but I could drive there. When I was a kid in Michigan, I only remember the free refills on soda at some cafeteria-like places, where you dessert included Jello. Free refills on soda was fairly new to me in the 1980s. > [@Cisco](#): > > They obviously don’t know how cheap soda is. It’s not about the cost of the soda. It’s to discourage people from staying in their dining room too long. They want to be able to seat paying customers, rather than offer a refuge for the homeless guy who buys one beverage and then sits in a booth all day. In my old neighborhood (high percentage of homeless due to a nearby shelter) a few of the diners discontinued the “bottomless cup” for coffee for that reason. If your dining room is too full for a family to come in and sit down, they may go elsewhere. If the reason your dining room is full is because a pack of teenagers has been there _four hours_ consuming free refills, you lose money. One of my first jobs in Canada was bussing tables and we had free coffee refills. It costs next to nothing and there is only so many cups one person could drink. But that particular market/bistro type place was not a place where people would not typically sit for a long time and the price point was too high for teenagers to want to come in and park it for the whole day. Oh, and the “pickle” place the OP may be referring to might be The Pickle Barrel. It’s kind of on par with TGI Fridays. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/97 "2009-04-29T20:14:02Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > The free soda refills started when fast food franchises wanted to beat the competition for your patronage. It only became common in the last few decades. Once you offer free refills how do you not offer it and then not lose business. They have done the only thing possible now. They raised their soda prices. Instead of the $1 soda they cost up to $3 in some chain restaurants. For sit down chains, I remember the free refill policy coming in at the same time as a rather hefty increase in the price of a soda. I suspect that free refills made the hike more palatable, and since many people never got a refill, they made money. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/98 "2009-04-29T23:20:16Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > It’s not about the cost of the soda. It’s to discourage people from staying in their dining room too long. They want to be able to seat paying customers, rather than offer a refuge for the homeless guy who buys one beverage and then sits in a booth all day. In my old neighborhood (high percentage of homeless due to a nearby shelter) a few of the diners discontinued the “bottomless cup” for coffee for that reason. > > If your dining room is too full for a family to come in and sit down, they may go elsewhere. If the reason your dining room is full is because a pack of teenagers has been there _four hours_ consuming free refills, you lose money. Whuh? I can assure it’s not this reason at all in Europe, because we have the custom of people sitting around for hours in a restaurant. Eating out is not about how to maximize profit for the business, but to have an experience. Being rushed out as soon as you laid down your fork to make place for somebody else would be terribly rude. As for homeless - there are other ways to deal with them in real restaurants. McD and similar don’t have real waiters, but then, would the customers be bothered by homeless people there? ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/99 "2009-04-29T23:21:03Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Yeah, I don’t get that. Why would anyone order anything other than the smallest cup with free refills? A lot of times the chain might be running a contest or promotion and you need to buy the largest size to participate/get a playing piece/code. Sneaky. And also the large size might be bundled in with a “value meal” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376/100 "2009-04-30T00:00:36Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > McD and similar don’t have real waiters, but then, would the customers be bothered by homeless people there? 😕 Perhaps European homeless people are different. American homeless people tend to reek of urine and other noxious odours and are often afflicted with alcoholism and other mental or emotional illnesses that make them behave strangely and inappropriately and sometimes aggressively. Yes, paying customers would be bothered. McDonald’s might be a cheap restaurant, but it’s not skid row with french fries and a soda fountain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-refills/494376.md?page=6)