At first I was tempted to acknowledge that what the OP described was theft, albeit on such an infinitesimal scale that it approached such characterization from little more than a metaphorical direction. Was thinking about my buddy, who owns a coffee shop, and hearing him comment on his tight profit margins he bemoaned dropping a couple of cups on the floor - saying throwing away an unused cup was like throwing away a couple of cents. Soda and coffee are INCREDIBLY marked up in all eating establishments, and the container very likely costs more than the product.
But, upon giving this matter far more thought than it merits (hell - it’s Monday a.m. and I’m not eager to get started at work here) I decided I came down on the side that the practice the OP describes is not theft. My decision comes down to my definition of theft, which implies taking something without the owner’s consent. I believe the “overfill” is entirely consistent with the manner in which the vendor expects the equipment/product to be used/purchased.
Has anyone ever encountered a convenience store owner/employee complaining of the “sip and fill”? I haven’t. I suspect that they are not at all worried about this practice. The convenience store profits from volume, making a minuscule profit from each of a multitude of transactions. The main incentive is to get folks in the store to buy something. Consider it good will, acceptable loss, or just too damned insignificant to spend the time and money worrying about, but I think the extra sip or two fits firmly in the mint/toothpick category. And would you like a Slim Jim to wash down with that Gigagulp?
Is the OP a convenience store owner? If not, who the hell is she to complain about how soda is bought and sold?
I pit you for drinking soda when really thirsty! That’s stupid and doesn’t really fight thirst the way water does! Idiots like you are clogging up our emergency rooms with their heat stroke and killing innocent Americans! Why do you hate God so much???
Having ran more than my fair share of gas station/convenience stores, let me assure you that the negatives that would result from calling a customer on this so outweigh the cost savings that in 5 years it never dawned on me to stop someone. As Mr. Enfield pointed out (in metric) a 5 gallon “bag in the box” runs $10 or so… 5:1 water/syrup (I’ll assume a typo in the 25:1)… math… 120 32 oz drinks for a profit of $98 (1994 estimate). Logo’d cups might have been 10 cents. Refills went for .39 or .49… A mad customer might have paid an extra .39 ONCE, a happy one would pay .89 over and over.
My paycheck was partially dependent on profit, but even I didn’t complain if we only got 100 fills out of a BiB. I made more money off a single fountain drink than I did a 15 gallon gas purchase.
It’s only stealing if the company says so. I imagine there are plenty of Quik-E-Marts out there that would raise a stink, and herds of kids probably get yelled at more than an adult would, and I probably would not go back to a store that made a big deal out of it, even though I only buy cans (or bottles if that’s the only choice).
Grocery stores accept the loss of an occasional grape in the interest of customer satisfaction, convenience stores usually have the same attitude.
If the OP does run a store, I’d like to know which so that I can avoid it.
It’s only theft if the owner considers it theft. Since, in my mispent youth, I worked at such stores, I have never heard of this being a point of contention. In fact, while still in the store, free re-fills aren’t unreasonable (but do ask). Thus, it’s not theft. Nor is using one more napkin than you really need to. :rolleyes: Stuffing your purse or pockets full of napkins is theft.
The Management is REALLY fucking annoyed when you let your kid do his own soda, and he ends up spilling more than he puts into his cup. :mad:
Thus, this PITing is not only lame, it’s wrong. I suspect some sort of Whoosh or Troll or something. He can’t be serious.
Same here. Even the convenience stores. Though I’ve never done this at a convenience store (I’m usually on the go), I have done it while waiting for my order to come up at a fast food restaurant. Of course, as the OP says, I don’t guzzle the whole thing, but if my caffeine supply has too much blood in it, I’ll drink a bit and then fill up before I get my order and leave.
I’m guilty of this too. When I’m at home, I fill my glass nearly to the top with ice before pouring in soda. If it’s at a self-serve soda fountain, I’ll put just a little ice in so I get more soda. I never thought of it as stealing before.
Be interested to find out what piece of hi tech application uses gold coins as a working part. Electronic banking or online Casino website servers or perhaps the dollar sign on keyboards.
Joking aside I’m not saying that taking a couple of sips of coke or a taking mouthful then refilling equates to the worst act of mankind in the last thousand years. It is however theft so the people who do it are thieves and shouldn’t be doing it. That shop keepers may have come to accept it as a cost of doing business is simply akin to shop keepers coming to accept that they will lose a percentage of their stock to shop lifters.
You either have to take the view that theft is theft no matter what the value of the goods taken or set a limit on it. Ie feel free to drink up to half a cup extra but no more. Then you have morons who will argue ‘Well I drank 1/2 a cup and then another mouthful but it wasn’t theft’
The Space Shuttle’s windows have are coated in a very thin layer of gold, and it’s very useful for blocking out cosmic radiation in things like Concorde, IIRC.
OK, they’re not glueing doubloons or pieces of eight to the Space Shuttle’s windscreen, but they are using Gold- which makes your entire argument and hypothetical not only moot, but rather silly.
Votre pointe etais?
And how many people have been prosecuted for Unlawfully Refilling A Post-Mix Soft Drink Cup in the last year?
Not so. As I and other posters have contended, the practice of “overfilling” is not done without the owner’s consent. Therefore, it is not - by definition - theft.
I just happened to be on the phone with my mom, who’s managed convenience stores for like 25 years, so I asked her what she thought. She said the cup, lid, and straw are together worth probably around 5 cents, whereas 44 ounces of soda by itself is worth maybe a penny, if that. She says technically, yeah, it’s theft to drink some and then refill your cup, but it’s just not worth caring about, it’s on the level of taking a couple extra packets of ketchup at McDonalds. And if you’re doing it to check the quality, she’s very encouraging of that, because if there’s a problem with the fountain machine (syrup’s running out, CO2’s low), she’d like to know so she can fix it for you. So I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
Do you have any idea of the profit margin on fountain soda? It’s something like 90%. Like Michell’s mom noted, the cup, straw, and lid cost more than several cups full of soda.
Know what would be a better pitting? Those bastards at Starbucks who fill up my iced tea or iced latte so full I can’t even put a straw in the cup! Seriously! The straw won’t even go in there’s so much fucking ice. Considering a tall isn’t all that big, the thing can’t have more than 3 or 4 ounces of actual liquid in it. Then they charge 3 or 4 bucks for it.
I prefer the third view that theft is in the eye of the victim. If the victim does not feel he’s been stolen from, even though he can watch the act from beginning to end, and clearly understands what has been done, then it isn’t theft.
If you accept that, then all of these value/profit/cost issues are only of interest to the store owner, and HE decides what is reasonable use and what is theft.
Hmm… whether or not you will be prosecuted is a very different argument, though, isn’t it? So far the gulpers have not answered this question, yet:
How much soda would you have to drink before it qualifies as theft? More than 10 oz.? More than 20?
And by the way, on the subject of the mendacity of fountain soda purveyors, I worked on a focus group study that demonstrated that people who serve themselves soda give themselves more than 10% less than people who are served by someone else. It’s too much trouble for most people to get the cup filled to the top, but they don’t think it’s too much trouble to insist that the employee do it. That’s why fast food restaurants are putting these in.
