This is a decent enough point. If one is sipping to avoid buying the larger size, I can call that dishonest. From a revenue standpoint, though, it’s probably still peanuts, because of how the pricing works at these places.
Big Gulp = .69
Enormous Gulp = .79
Bladder Buster[sup]TM[/sup] = $.89
I think I’ve actually seen specials where the larger size is cheaper than the smaller.
Can we stop talking about me? Because I’m sure I got that phrase from someone else.
P.S.: Tasting the soda ain’t stealin’.
It’s possible that kids don’t see it as stealing, either. People have provided ample justifications for why soda-sippers may not be attempting to steal, sneak, or even take advantage. Perhaps they’re wrong, but if kids are as deluded as their parents about the severity of this offense, isn’t it possible that these children may still have decent morals, respect for property, and an affinity for living within the law?
It’s nice that you’re proud of your parents’ rigid stance on this, but frankly maybe you can be “a little bit pregnant” in matters like this. Maybe you can drive 57 in a 55 MPH zone and still not run red lights. Maybe you can gloat over a nickel found in a payphone and yet still not rob banks. Maybe you can slurp up some soda and then top off the glass and yet not shoplift, lie, or steal. Especially when you never considered that sip of soda a stolen portion.
Giraffe, you know I rarely start threads! Hopefully if someone started it I’d have the good sense not to contribute, because I’d be as frothy-mouthed as the worst loon that ever passed through the Pit.
Another example of how Absolution-ist thinking is soo sooo wrong and misguided.
…Excuse me as I go “steal” some water from the company faucet…
Actually, your bigger theft is surfing the SDMB on company time, but in absolutism, every sin in a mortal one.
I sip for one very simple reason: Very often, syrup & carbonation can be mixed incorrectly and I am tasting the soda to be sure that it’s OK. As a consumer, I feel it’s my right to do this.
If the mix is off, I pick a different soda and notify an employee while I’m paying. Because I know it will typically be a while before the problem is remedied, I don’t buy the soda before tasting because if the mix is off, not only is more soda wasted, but so is my time and the time of the employee’s (in going to the trouble of giving me a refund or fixing the problem immediately for my benefit). Purchasing a poorly-mixed soda without tasting is also going to inconvenience me more, and that negative association will likely cost that establishment my business in the future.
By my small little taste (one that is statistically insignificant in calculating the syrup yield), I am helping to create a Win-Win scenario for both me and the establishment. Without a doubt, were I ever confronted by a store employee that I should not do this, I will not hesitate in stopping such behavior at the particular store.
But that has yet to happen.
Some folks in this thread have reading comprehension issues. I never spoke to a restaurant situation in which you may refill to your heart’s content. The party offering a shared french-fry analogy is equally clueless. Fries on two plates of food will ostensibly be paid for, so if the diners share them with one another, a man in a cardboard box on the sidewalk, or shove them up their asses, having paid for them, it becomes their prerogative.
Free air pumps are put there for convenience of patrons, so this is another failed analogy.
I don’t have a big list, Dinsdale, other than the basics. BTW, still male after almost 50 years.
I don’t teach my daughter that it’s OK to steal, Uvula Donor, and if you don’t like that, too fucking bad. I do not participate in any of the other things listed in your post-I’m happy with honesty.
Nipple-licking doesn’t bother me one bit, so long as the nipples to be licked are either paid for, or offered for licking free of charge. Should the owner of the aforesaid nipples wish to offer gratis licks, as an incentive for paid licking, that is again her prerogative, based upon her business model.
Finally, to the individual who continually uses the SDMB as a forum to say things to me he’d never have the cojones to say IRL, thank you for your output. As usual, I’ll scrape it from the bottom of my shoe, having stepped in it. To everyone else, it’s fine that we disagree, and is part of what makes this a great message board.
Dude, I couldn’t give a fuck less what you teach your daughter. Like you said, kids learn from their parents’ example. Poor kid’ll be supergluing her asshole shut in no time, just like her ol’ man. Cheers.
What the hell was the justification for a comment like that? Talk about being unduely offensive.
Who are you again? Oh, yeah…you’re the monobrow from upthread who can’t tell the difference between taking a sip of soda and stealing gold coins.
:laughs: Maybe if you ask real nice, **DWC **will share the superglue with you, too, ma’am. This is the Pit. If you’re that easily offended, feel free to fuck off; I’m pretty sure somewhere out there in the vast reaches of the internet, there’s a CareBears forum where someone will actually give a shit what you think.
After reading through this thread and your responses to this thread, it’s no wonder you couldn’t grasp simple things like an analogy. So I’ll spell it out for you:
The person who “stole” the french fry wasn’t stealing it from the store. He was “stealing” it from his friend who had rightfully purchased the french fries. So as the owner of said fries, having paid $1.00 for 100 fries, would you then charge your friend 1 penny for the unauthorized use of a fry? Would you call the cops with the charge of stealing? No, it’s one fucking fry. You just don’t care.
Same as the store.
Many many many many maaaaaaaaaany posters over these past three pages have not only given concrete, logical explanations as to why they sip. Others who actually work at the store, who own the store and buy the products for the store, have said they truly don’t care if someone takes a little extra soda.
If neither the “thief” nor the “victim” actually cares, indeed, if the “victim” actively encourages the “thief” to continue the practice if it ensures a quality product being dispensed, why, how, for what reason could you possibly object?
Stopped taking your medication perhaps?; your life a disappointment to you but nothing you can do about it?; no one love you?: got ‘issues’ to address?; Mummy and Daddy not give you enough hugs?
Well I’m glad you’ve managed to find somewhere to vent all that inner despair.
What should you do when you fill up ur drink, but accidently spill some from overflow? Start giving the attendant pennies?
And if there’s ice, they should have a sign that says like “minimum 5 cubes of ice” to prevent you from taking too much of their precious soda elixir.
Or maybe they could put a line on the side of the cup that says “Do not fill above this line”!
In Uvula Donor’s defense, the gold coin analogy was mind-bogglingly stupid . . .
Stealing sips of pop: Outrageously wrong. Intimidating others in real life into not expressing their opinion and making vague and indirect threats on a message board: perfectly okay.
I’ll not share your value set with my own children, thanks.
Ah, I see you’ve decided to go with the glue after all. Very good. I hope for your clients’ sake you’re a better solicitor than you are a psychologist. Ta!
You appear to be asserting as a given one debatable item: “If you’re paying for a 20oz drink.”
It can be argued that, practically speaking, what you’re paying for is a beverage container with a capacity of 20 fluid ounces, and the license to prepare a beverage to your specifications, using the equipment at hand. Also a plastic lid and a straw. In fact, it looks like that is what the folks in the “no, it ain’t” category of this argument are arguing.
No one is arguing that if you saunter into any mini-mart, drink your fill of soda from one cup, fill up a final time, and bring it to the cashier to pay for ONE drink, you aren’t stealing. But that wasn’t what DWC was pitting. He was pitting people who engage in what can be legitimately presented as a quality control behavior, and calling them thieves.
Personally, on the rare occasions that I fill up a soda at the mini-mart, my quality control consists pretty much of noticing whether the dispenser looks or sounds like it is delivering an inappropriate carbonated water/syrup mix. My method, developed over many years, now serves my needs adequately, but it’s pretty subjective, and I won’t claim that it is adequate for everybody else (or indeed, anybody else).
What bugs me is when the bratty kids in our apartment complex wander around the common areas slurping on the chocolate, or butter pecan, or irish cream, or amaretto, or cinnamon-hazelnut flavored coffee creamers that I KNOW they picked up in the mini-mart when I saw them there fifteen minutes ago. Now, THAT’S stealing.
Free refills on sodie-pop is such a norm in society for me that it takes a sign stating “no free refills” for me to notice. I went to a french restaurant on Bastille Day for lunch and ordered my food and added a Coke and smile to my request. I got the coke (but no smile, bastards) and enjoyed it as much as I would. When my food arrived, the waitress prompted me if I wanted another Coke. I eagerly said yes twice to that question (specifically: “would you like another Coke?”). When I got the bill, I was surprised to see the like Coke: 3 @ $2.00. All 6 of us at the table were a bit annoyed by the lack of notice that the other Cokes would be additional since it’s outside of the norm. It’s the exception to the rule that needs to be noted. I’ll heed a sign on a serve-yourself fountain machine that states “no refills” and wouldn’t think of drinking and topping it back off while I was there. However, if there is no sign, I wouldn’t think twice about that.
Plus, ewww.
The cost of a 12 oz. soda from a fountain is less than a nickel for the liquid so don’t worry about the convenience store owner.
Have you ever had a theatre concession stand operator ask you if you would like to upgrade from a 16 oz. soda to 32 oz. for a quarter more? Its because that extra quarter is almost pure profit.
The labor cost of pouring a soda (at minimum wage) is comparable to the cost of the soda itself. If you didn’t know this then I can see how you would think there was something wrong with sipping but now that you realize that how cheap the liquid is, do you feel any differently?
Have you seen the recent Coke commercials that condone this behaviour? Are they promoting theft of their product so that the vendors have to buy more?