The cost of a free refill is more than just the cost of the syrup that’s in it.
Seating has value in a restaurant. Any time you spend sitting there jawing with your companions while sucking back a coupla free sodas after you’ve spent all you intend to has the potential to cost the company another paid table.
I must admit that I originally parsed the thread title as NO FREE REFILLS (for you cheap barstards) – that’s the only way it makes any kind of sense.
There are different customs and standards everywhere. It pretty much falls on you to know what they are, or at least ask.
My Business Law teacher told the class the tale of trip to NYC( she’s from here in California). She sat down and read the paper over her breakfast in a coffee shop. Several times she motioned for the waiter to refill her coffee. She was suprised that she was charged for several cups of coffee when she got the bill.
But she didn’t complain. In California, bottomless coffee refills are pretty much standard. But not in NYC. She had to follow their standard, which was that you were charged for each refill.
So it appears that the rule is:
Free refills on: Any drink that has habit-forming drugs, unless
that drink also has bubbles or the habit-forming drug is alcohol.
I guess the simple solution is to ask for a cup of coffee with the cream in a creamer. Then drink all the cream instead!
A restaurant shouldn’t give free refills on soda because of labor costs incurred from having waitstaff and dishwashers? Oh, please. The waitstaff makes $2.13/hour most places, and a lot of places take your glass to the back to refill it, leaving you with the same single glass you started with. No extra work for the bussers and dishwashers, just the labor costs involved in the server bringing something extra with him/her next trip in and out of the kitchen.
Hell’s bells, even if you’re making a special trip, it takes maybe two minutes to go back there and refill a soda and return it. Let’s see, two minutes at 2.13/hour, that's...roughly .07. Yes, that’s certainly enough labor cost to justify charging another $1.25 for a small soda.
Larry does have a point with the seating thing (during the lunch and supper rushes, at least), but the majority of drink refills don’t happen after the meal. When I was waiting tables, I’d say roughly 90% of my drink refills were before or during the meal. You can’t turn your tables if they haven’t been fed yet, and people rarely sat around for more than five minutes or so after they’d finished eating. Besides, that five minutes wasn’t costing us customers; people stood and waited for tables and were all the hungrier for the wait.
Well, to be fair, it’s not only the employee payroll that’s included in costs. There are also space rent, license fees, employment insurance, employer’s insurance, facilities maintenance (which, in case y’all haven’t noticed, a tad different in a restaurant than in a convenience store), just to name a few.
Here in the Great Midwest, it’s VERY uncommon to be charged for refills. I would rather pay a little more for the soft drink and get free refills than be charged for each drink. Soft drinks are a very inexpensive commodity for the restaurant and they seem to be doing OK.
When my son’s friend from Germany came to visit a few summers ago, he dubbed the US the Land of Free Refills. 
WHAT? Some places actually CHARGE you for refills? I’ve never heard of such a thing-well, except for alcoholic drinks.
As for washing new cups, a many places will bring over a pitcher and refill the same glass.
Want to keep people from loitering? Fine, limit it to one refill. I’ve never needed any more than one.
The one and only time I ever bitched about being charged for refills was the time I never asked for a refill but the waiter filled my glass the minute it approached half full.
Don’t come fill up my glass without my asking for it and then try to make me pay for your presumption.
Most places take your drink order and bring it well before the food so by the time your food arrives you may have slurped down the soda. Then if they charge for another its $1.25 or more that can add up. Soda is cheap so they should refill it once and everyone would be happy.
That was one reason I refused to go to Wendy’s for a while was because they didn’t give you refills.
Still wasn’t as bad as a fine resturant we went to once. This place is a fine dining establishment (thousand dollar wines and all that). So we sit down for thanksgiving dinner and eat. We get refills on our pop. The service was quite good so many times we would get a refill before our other was not yet done (pretty small glasses).
…and they charged us for every damn one. So we ended up having about 10 glasses at $1.75 a pop. :mad:
As the other Aussies said, I have only been to 2 places where you can get free refills: Sizzlers and Hungry Jacks.
In cafes here, the waitresses just don’t walk around with big jugs filling up coffee cups. You have to order each new one and they bring you a new cup every time.
So, stop your whinging! 
At least you get it most of the time!
Luxury. Over here, I struggle to get restaurants to refill my glass of water.
But that could just be that the service is crap.
I’m inclined to agree with the folks who say this is an implausable reason for the recurring charge. However, coming from my experience in the Funeral Industry, I can say that there is such a thing as a misdirected charge for an item.
The waitress may only require $.07 to refill the drink, but they also have to cover the cost of keeping the lights and AC on, which you can’t very well be charged for. Also, let’s not forget that most restaurants are open between the mealtimes they serve. I’m sure the labor and operational costs for a 3000 square foot Denny’s at 2 PM when the place is emtpy is quite staggering.
The profit from the avereage entree with the cost of labor and the operational costs figured in as well is probably very slim, unless you eat at ritzy places(Which I don’t). So the insanely high profit from charging for drink refills can be applied to the gap in such a way that the owner still makes money off of the operation.
5-10 years ago sit down restaurants charged reasonable rates for soda and they offered different sizes - .75 for a small; .85 for a medium, etc. A few years back most of them did away with the sizes, doubled the price, and offered free refills. Now you routinely pay $1.50-$2 for a soda, which makes them a HUGE profit, but people paid it because they know they won’t be nickled and dimed for refills. In addition to forcing people who would have otherwise only ordered one soda to pay for two, a free refill policy also keeps complaints about the pop/ice ratio to a minimum. (If I’m paying $1.50 for a 32 oz. cup filled to the top with ice and containing roughly 8 oz. of actual pop, I have a complaint. If I’m paying $1.50 for the same, with free refills, I’m happy.
In other words, you’re paying for two whether you drink one or four.
Boy, those sound like nice places. I can’t wait to make a trip to NY to visit them.
I won’t go to any place that charges for refills unless I’m getting my food to go. Then I call ahead and have the food ready for me when I get there. I HATE paying 1.25 for a 16 ounce pop when the gas station across the street charges 1.10 for a 2 liter.
I think I can explain why Lola in NYC thinks that free refills are rare, while the rest of you out in the hinterlands think they’re common.
If I’m not mistaken, the concept of free refills in sit-down restaurants started in chain restaurants. I actually remember the first time I experienced it–Chili’s in Philadelphia in 1986. (Maybe chain restaurants had them earlier, but I had never been to a chain restaurant other than fast food prior to that.)
In most parts of the country, as chain restaurants became more and more common, local places were forced to compete. And if if they found that free refills on soda was something that made people more likely to go to the chain place, then giving free refills was a relatively cheap concession to make. Eventually, it became commonplace for all restaurants.
In NYC, on the other hand, chain restaurants aren’t especially common. There are some, of course, but they’re more for the tourists (like the Hard Rock Cafe). The average New Yorker eats out an awful lot, and most of the places that they eat are local. (There are a few local chains, like Ollie’s, but since they’re primarily in NYC, they follow NYC customs.) Therefore, the NYC restaurants haven’t had to change their customs to compete with the chains. So, free refills are the exception, not the rule.
If you look at the surrounding metro area, you’ll find that there are many more chain restaurants than in NYC itself. And you’ll find that the chain restaurants are quite popular. But there are also many very popular local places. Here in New Jersey, there’s also a huge diner culture. Instead of going to a place like Friendly’s or Applebee’s, many (most?) people in Jersey will go to a diner. So, there is kind of a combination culture here. You have to check whether there are free refills where you are eating.
I’m with CrazyCatLady, in my mind, there’s really no justification for not offering free soda and coffee refills in restaurants. I think it would actually create more work for the server to have to remember each time they refilled a glass and charge it! I used to walk around my section when I had a lot of soda drinkers and like Guin described, bring a pitcher of diet and regular with me and refill that way. Saved me some trips. And charging for coffee refills? That’s just insane. I’ve never in my life been to any place that did that.
I honestly thought no one still charged for coffee and soda refills. I’m glad I live in California.
And Lola, hot damn! $8 for a diet coke?? With no refills?? I don’t consider myself the least bit cheap but that’s just insane. I can’t believe people pay that. I can get a grande vanilla soy lattee for half that.
Thanks for clarifying, Green Bean.
And Lezlers - Scores is probably the nation’s hottest strip club (don’t ask what I was doing there :p), so I guess you’re paying for the…um, entertainment? 
I’m sure they’d be happy to give you a “free refill” in one of the back rooms. Heh.