Why is it that fast food chains tend to put such absurd quantities of ice in their drinks? For example, a 32-ounce container is typically filled about 3/4 the way full with ice prior to being topped off with a relatively small amount of the beverage of your choice. All of this additional ice has little impact on maintaining the drink’s temperature, but severely limits the amount of beverage that can be held in the container. Why do they give you so much ice?
It’s tempting to say that the reason for this is to maximize profits because they are basically giving their customers tap water instead of Pepsi, but I seem to recall that the syrup that they use costs on the order of a few cents per drink, which is probably comparable to the cost of manufacturing the vast quantities of ice.
What is their reason for doing this? Do customers actually want this much ice in their drinks??
I’m not an MBA, but I’d venture to guess that it is in fact a cost saving measure. While the cost of syrup may only be a few cents per drink, the cost of the ice is no doubt a few cents less. And while a few cents doesn’t seem like a whole lot, you have to realize that an average restaurant serves several hundred to a thousand drinks a day. Over the course of a week, or a month, it ends up being alot of saved dollars.
Side anecdote: When I was a server, I got bitched at a few times for putting lemon in the water of customers when they didn’t specifically ask for lemon. Yes, they are that anal about cost-saving measures.
The purpose of adding ice is to make the drink “ice cold”. :wally
However, since most fountains now dispense cold soda instead of a warm water/syrup mix like before, not as much ice is now needed. Typically, a tall skinny glass is filled 3/4 full, while a wide one is 2/3. The amount of soda you get in a 12 ounce cup is not 8 ounces ice and 4 ounces soda but more like 6/6 since the ice ain’t one solid block.
You could always ask for more, less, or no ice at all. In my experience, the restaurants are usually happy to oblige. Personally, I like the extra ice… I finish my drinks in about two minutes and the ice gives me something to chew on for the next ten
Don’t most restaurants offer free refills, anyway?
Ice is cheaper than Coke. I always ask for ‘no ice’ and get a full cup for my money. The drink is always cold enough for me and doesn’t end up diluted. Win/win.
Could be that time is a factor too … I haven’t worked in fast food for 30 years but in my day it took alot longer to fill an empty cup with soda than to load it with ice and fill it the rest of the way.
When I was younger I worked in many bars, as a bartender, and it’s because ice is the cheapest part of a drink.
They use small glasses, stuff them w/ crushed ice, a sort shot of booze fills it more than half way, then top off w/ soda. The customer thinks they’re getting a good deal because the drink tastes strong and that encourages them to buy more. Similar principle at fast food places, few people get refills and that’s just another sales gimmick.
Think they don’t nit-pic for the bottom line? Remember how some FF places stopped putting out those little condiment pkgs., but rather made you ask for them.
Also, a lot of the time, employees are mistrained or have managers who tell them certain things to do in order to save costs. Next time you’re at a McDonald’s, look at the cup. On the side, there are 3 short horizontal lines. That first one? That’s how much ice is supposed to be in your cup.
I always ask for my beverages with no ice. I usually take a while to drink them, and by the time I’m half-way done, if there was ice in them, they’d be diluted. Also, they’re plenty cold already, and the ice hurts my teeth (which are temperature sensitive).
Most places are happy to oblige. A few get snippy because it takes a few seconds longer to fill the glass.
Also, watch for the ones that will not pay attention when filling the glass using the automated dispenser. A lot of times its’ set to dispense the amount needed when ice is used. They won’t fill it the rest of the way up, and you’re not given a full glass. I usually return it and ask them to finish filling the cup.
Another factor is that people assume almost everybody wants lots of ice. Table service restaurants typically fill soda glasses with ice even though the servers make efforts to refill them, and water is always served with ice. In the U.S., if you ask for a glass of water you get a glass of ice water. You have to specify “no ice” to get a plain glass of water. I understand it’s rather different in Europe.
In my experience, fast food places don’t give me enough ice. I like lots of ice with my soda, and some places, especially mcdonalds, only fill to the short line.
I always assumed it was like this everywhere in the world (what good is water without ice?!). When traveling recently (coming from the US), I was surprised that the ice water never came with ice. It just didn’t taste right, and in every restaurant I ate at, I had to bring the cup back to them and specifically ask for ice cubes. The waiter/waitress would always give me a strange look.
Don’t underestimate the power of incompetence rather than malevolence.
Way back in high school, I worked at a fast food place. We weren’t told how to fill cups with ice. It wasn’t something that really needed explanation (as opposed to more complicated tasks like slicing vegetables). And when you havea cup to fill and you know you need to put ice in the cup, and you don’t really know how much ice to put in, that’s not something you’re going to ask someone about.
So, you’re putting in ice, and you wonder if you’ve done it right. Well, is there room for more ice? If so, you might as well go ahead and put some more in. And more and more, until there’s no more room for ice. Only at that point do you have the satisfaction of knowing that nobody can question the fact that you have put ice in the cup to the best of your ability.
Yep. If you think that the teenagers working at a fast food place give two shits about the exact amount of ice in the cup and if it benefits the customer or the employer, you’ve never worked fast food as a teen.
It all comes down to regional tastes and expectations, I think. Most travelling Americans biggest complaint, when it came to drinks at restaurants, was that a) they never came with enough ice and b) no free refills. Also c), in some European countries when you order water, sparkling water is assumed by default. Now, I like little ice in my drink, as well as sparkling water, so no complaints from me, but it seems that Americans are peculiar with their love for copious amounts of ice in their drink.
