When I go to fast food restaurants I ask for a cup of water with ice when they ask what soft drink I want. They always tell me to buy a bottled water. I don’t want to pay extra for the bottled water. Why do they try to make me pay more if they aren’t losing money whether they put a Pepsi in that cup or ice water?
This are using a common business model:
- Attract customer into store
- Try to get him to spend as much as possible
And note that both the cup and the ice cost something to provide.
I’ve never been charged for a cup of water, but if you’re ordering a value meal, then a drink is included in the price. If you want to avoid that, you have to just order a sandwich and fries individually and then ask for the water.
Their profit margin for the meals isn’t that great. It’s the drinks that are the money-makers. But if you’re buying a “meal,” including drinks, it shouldn’t matter to them what’s put in the cup.
In this state you have to provide water with a meal for nothing if requested. Hardees used to have a jug of warm water with some small paper cups. This was acceptable for the law. Nothing requires them to give you big cups, ice and straws.
They of course wanted you to buy something to drink, so they make more money.
When I worked at McDonald’s about a decade ago, the reason had to do with the way we rang up value meals. The value meal button on our touch screen charged the price of the meal minus the price of a drink. We then charged for the drink separately. The price quoted on the menu was the total – meal plus drink.
But if someone wanted just the sandwich and fries, or just water to drink (which was free), they would only be charged, say, $2.99 instead of the full $4.25 or whatever. In other words, they would be getting even more of a value than they would if they bought the whole meal. Needless to say, we were specifically prohibited from selling these half-price ‘meals’.
Some people I worked with would argue with the customer about it. Some would quietly charge them for a soda and give them their water (or no drink) instead. But I was a fairly quick-witted sort compared to your average drive-through jockey, and I tended to just ring up the sandwich and fries separately and save the folks some money.
Anyway, I’d bet that the OP is mistaken and that bottled water would be included in the price of a value meal nowadays (I don’t know – we didn’t sell bottled water when I worked there). There might be a small extra charge, simply because bottled water costs more. If bottled water is $1.50 and your average soft drink is $1.25, you’d pay a $0.25 premium for a meal with bottled water. If you want the value meal with the free water, just order the sandwich and fries separately; it’s cheaper.
PS I’m aware that store policies vary wildly around the world, but in my store, ‘make the customer spend as much as possible’ wasn’t really our thing. Our owner was enlightened enough to understand that in the long run he would make more money by giving the customer what they wanted than by extorting as much as possible from them each time they visited.
Where is this happening? You make me wonder if you live in an area where there’s some concern about the taste (and/or healthiness?) of the tap water.
I’ve never been refused a (free) cup of water when I’ve asked for one at a fast food restaurant. Sometimes the cashier even offers one if I don’t order a drink.
For inventory purposes they count cups to determine how many drinks were sold. If they give them away for water it screws up the count. It would appear there is money missing.
I’ve always been able to get a cup of water. For free. Sometimes, the cashier asks to clarify–do you want bottled water or a cup of water? But, if I say a cup of water, that’s what I get. It might not be the same kind of cup as the regular soft drink cups, but that’s OK.
If I’ve also ordered the sandwich and fries, I am charged for them at the regular price (not as a value meal; as if I’ve ordered them separately). Why wouldn’t this be standard procedure? After all, I ordered a sandwich and fries–not the value meal.
If I ever felt forced or pressured into buying a drink I didn’t want, you can believe that I would never set foot into that restaurant again, and that restaurant would lose a lot more than the $1.50 for the soft drink.
They are losing money, they are losing the money they would make if they sold you the water.
You see that is how things work.
For instance when I got to my boss and say my profit was say 1,000 this month, I also have to justify WHY I couldn’t have made more. In business today it’s not enough to make money, you have to make the MOST money for the least expedature.
It’s like if you have a test with 100 questions and I get 100 right or 97 right, either way my grade is an “A” In the old days it would be enough to say I got an “A” on the test, in today’s world one must justify why he didn’t get ALL the questions right.
So in a sense by you not ordering a drink to pay for, the company is losing. If you don’t order anything to drink they’re not out, but if they give you something to drink BUT you would’ve bought a drink if forced to, they have lost that sale.
/slight hijack
Damn, if my local McDonald’s kept inventory like this, I’d hate to imagine the headaches my friend caused his local manager during one of the “Monopoly” games, he must’ve stole about 40 sleeves of cups trying to win prizes.
Never won a big big prize, but he gave away tons of free fry/drink coupons to our little circle of friends.
/hijack off
No, the cups used for free water are different from the ones used for the soft drinks they sell. The free water ones are small, translucent whitish plastic ones, while the drink cups are larger paper cups, printed with promo stuff, and have covers that fit the various sizes.
This is the case at all the McDonalds, Burger King, & Arby’s that I have been at in the upper midwest area.
I’ve always heard this and never understood it. Why wouldn’t drinks be counted the same way as every other item sold by using the cash register (actually a computer terminal nowdays)? Counting the cups seems like a big waste of time to me.
Did you hear about the girl who did a science project on that and found that the ice had more germs than a toilet? Go for the bottled water…
Back in the old days when I worked in McDonald’s, cups were counted only during “inventory time,” and then everything was counted. The purpose wasn’t to track shrinkage exactly, but to catch massive, massive theft. All of the employees were permitted to drink anything they wanted out of any cup, and this wasn’t tracked or counted. Counting cups for the purpose of looking at a little shrinkage wouldn’t have been useful in the slightest.
When I decided to order water instead of tea*, every place I go to will give me the cup size I ask for. Oh, and when I ask for “water” it’s “soda water,” and they don’t even charge me for it. It also seems I can’t get soda water if I eat in – the self serve drink islands don’t have the little button to dispense without syrup. Oh, and maybe eating in is when they give you the “different cup” so that people don’t cheat on the self-serve.
*Is anyone else having a problem getting tea now that McDonald’s has rolled out “sweet tea” nationally? In my part of the country (Michigan) “iced tea != sweet tea” but now unless I’m explicit and over-explain what I want, I end up getting sugary goop.
Because if an employee is giving away free stuff, you have no way of knowing unless you count the cups. Burgers going missing will show up in a count, drops from the Coke reservoir won’t.
-Joe
Because Inventory isn’t taken to see what was rung up, but what has walked out the door. Then you compare that number to what was rung up, and discover how much has walked out the door without being rung up.
Inventory of Medium Cups - Medium drinks rung at the register = Stolen cups.
To really find out how much Coke has been stolen, you would have to compare what you have + what was purchased to how many tanks of Coke you’ve brought in since the last inventory - but that’s always a suspect number since people fill-and-sip or dump out cups and refill cups. Counting cups can get you closer to finding out what your employees are stealing or giving away for free.
Inventory in fast food isn’t so much about finding customer theft (since they’re not the ones with access to the goods) but “internal shrink” (ie. employee theft)
I think most people in this thread aren’t answering the OP’s question (which perhaps could have been more clearly worded). The OP isn’t trying to get a free cup of water (or bottled water) instead of paying for a soft drink. He’s wondering why, when he buys a drink (or it comes with a meal package) they won’t put water in the soft drink cup. Instead, they tell him to buy a bottled water, which is more expensive. He’s paying full price for a soft drink, so he’s wondering why they won’t put water in it for him, which must be cheaper than the drink mix.
Why would the OP buy a drink and then ask for water–which you can get for free? If that’s what the OP is asking, I think the answer is that the cashier is probably as confused as I would be. If you paid for a drink, then the assumption is that you want a drink that is not already free.
Also, since most fast food drinks are now self-serve, you are free to put water in the soft drink cup if you really want to.
For example, if you’re going through the drive-thru, and you want a big cup of water with a top and straw (e.g. a full soft-drink cup), instead of a small, open water cup with your meal. If I wanted water, I’d pay full price for the cup if that were still cheaper than a bottled water, especially if it held more water.