I was at a restaurant with my brother the other day where the soda machine is in the dining area and customers get their own drinks. After finishing my drink, I went back for a refill (actually just a few swigs, not a full glass, which is what I usually do). My brother was somewhat shocked and said it wasn’t right to get another drink without paying. I was taken aback because I always figured that going back for more was okay. I reasoned that the purpose of putting the soda machine in the dining area was to free up the workers from the task of getting drinks, thereby cutting down on personnel needed and saving the restaurant some money, which would more than make up for the cost of soda refills. Further, and correct me if I’m wrong, but from my days working in fast food many years ago, I believe the profit margin on a soda is huge for the restaurant, because you’re paying a few dollars for what is essentially water and bit of high fructose corn syrup, so even if every customer got a full refill (which of course they don’t), the restaurant would come out ahead anyway. And finally, if free refills weren’t allowed, I would think that there would be a sign to that effect, which I have never, ever seen.
So, what say you? Are refills okay or not? Also, if you thought before reading this that getting a refill was unethical, but my reasoning has changed your mind, please let me know. And finally, if you have never stopped to consider the ethics of the refill, let me know that too. For some reason, I think that will be the case for most of you normal people.
I read some post where the poster admitted to asking for an empty water cup and then filling up at the fountain area. I’m not sure who it was…but that would probably really freak out your brother.
If a restaurant makes the soda machine publicly available to me, I’m going to assume they don’t care if I get a refill. If they don’t want me to, they should post a sign.
It’s just like with salad bars. Some places limit you to one trip through, but they make a point of telling you.
And it’s not that my brother is especially uptight, in fact he’s just the opposite, except for a few weird things like this. When applying to a job while in college, he took one of those personality profile tests, and when asked if he ever stole anything at another job, he admitted to taking french fries on occasion without paying for them, especially if they were past their prime, so to speak. He didn’t get the job.
I also assume that if the soda machine is in the dining area, free refills are allowed. I probably wouldn’t bring in my own Culligan water bottle and hold it under the spigot, but I’ve never been squeamish about topping off the cup before I leave. Maybe I’ve been violating the rules all along, though.
Weird. Just refill it, nobody cares. (if you want an actual number by the way, at the restaurant I worked at the profit margin was about 2000% on a soft drink - we sold them for $2.49 with a cost to us of $0.12-0.13)
It’s about double that where I work (my manager said it costs us almost $0.25 a glass.) I don’t work in fast-food, though, it’s a “sit-down and wait” type of restaurant, so there’s a higher overhead for everything. But still, even in our case, a customer would have to have about nine refills before they started costing us money…and that’s assuming they didn’t order any food.
There is no ethical dilemma here, in the United States unless otherwise posted refills are free. It is a part of the local social contract: the restaurant is selling you as much soda as you want to drink while you are in the store. They understand this, you understand this, everything is good.
There are of course limitations to this: you can’t ask for a water cup and then fill it with soda. Nor should you leave the store and keep coming back for “free” refills.
This is not necessarily true in other countries, although typically you can’t make this mistake because the soda machine is not publicly accessible.
In Canada, if it’s a fast food place where the soda fountains are in the dining room and accessible to everyone, refills are free (I’ve seen very few of these in Ontario). In such cases, the soda cups are distinguishable from water cups (usually enormous with colorful graphics), so if you just get a cup of water (plain white styrofoam) then try to cheat and fill it at the soda fountain, they will get mad.
In the fast food places where the soda fountains are behind the counter and accessible only by staff, refills are usually not free.
If you’re in a moderately priced place (say, on par with TGI Fridays) where they serve you at the table, you should check the menu carefully or ask the wait staff because YMMV in those establishments.
If the soda machine is accessible, the place expects you to get your own refills. I’ve never seen this in a full-service restaurant, just in fast food places.
When I worked in a movie theater, soda was incredibly cheap, so cheap that we were generally allowed to bring in our own cups and fill them up. This place didn’t like to give us more than a handful of free popcorn at a time, too, so soda MUST have been cheap then.
Each person has to purchase one bottomless cup, of course, no sharing. And asking for a water cup and filling it with soda is right out. It’s OK to fill up the disposable cup and take it with you as you leave. In fact, in some regular restaurants they ask me if I want a cup of tea or whatever to take with me, no extra charge. It’s a cheap way of getting some goodwill.
~Twenty years ago that was the norm; free refills were unusual. Nowadays, it’s the other way 'round - free soda refills are the norm, even where they must be brought by the server.
Your brother’s ethics are a few decades out of date.
Your brother is completely insane and needs to be locked up before he attempts to assassinate Mayor McCheese for conspiring with the Hamburglar to embezzle a 55-gallon drum of Dr. Pepper syrup.
The places I’ve seen that had the fountains accessible in the dining room, as far as I remember, had only one size of soda cup: pee-your-pants-ginormous!
But I haven’t seen a free refill soda fountain in years and years (don’t go to fast food places) so I can’t tell you what it may be like now.
