Free Water Cup Abuse

Yeah,

She should have at least been smart and gotten one of the clear sodas to put in her free water cup, like I do.

Being a chef I've seen it all. I even knew of a customer in Virginia who would frequent a well known chain (I didn't work there, but had friends who did) who would ask for either water and LOTS of lemon, then make lemonade with the sugar packets at hand or a cup of HOT water and use a tea bag she had brought along for the specific purpose.

It irks me too. We figure beverages as part of our food cost. Yup, every time you get more refills it's coming out of the "kitchen's pocket." Granted, there's a formula to use, and basically each guest drinks about two to three glasses of any beverage, but nonetheless, if a customer doesn't pay, someone else does ~ one way or another.

Ciao,

I was a manager for a fast food restaurnt for 12 years and when anyone tried to get soda with the "clear" water cup I would go up to them and demand payment or get the cup back! These people were stupid! when they put Coke or other beverages! if you are going to do that at least put in Sprite it looks like water!

at least put in Sprite it looks like water!

See? Even employees who are supposed to enforce the water cup rule appreciate reasonable soda heisting. You can have it, just don't make me look stupid or unattentive!

Actually, I only did the free clear soda thing at a certain Taco Bell that probably blew down during Hurricane Katrina anyway. I don't usually drink soda anyway, so I'm not motivated to steal it. But at this Taco Bell, the water always tasted strongly of bleach. Their soda did, too, but at least the soda masked it a bit.

If they did it the bleach taste accidentally, then they owe me the soda for the undrinkable water, in my book. If they did it on purpose, so that I'd give up on the water and buy soda instead, well, screw them! But I still took Sierra Mist instead of inviting investigation by taking something colored.

Steve: I'm not sure why the hot water thing is a problem? They aren't stealing anything, they're just not ordering your tea.

For various reasons, there are often few drink choices for me at a restaurant. I've never done it, but it would be nice to have a cup of my favorite tea with dinner. Well, except that I hate tea. But you get the idea.

Cat: the problem is that profit margins on food are pretty small, but on soft drinks it is enormous. A glass of soda might cost ten cents for them to produce (including staff time), and the expectation is that some good percentage of customers will buy sodas -- just as the expectation of waiters is that there will be a tip.

Movie theatres are the same way. Some actually take a loss showing movies, because the distributors charge so much for them. But since half of the people there buy a popcorn and a soda, they can make up for it by charging extra for those.

Sorry, but I don't feel I should be obligated to buy any particular thing at a restaurant, and it absolutely irks me that a restaurateur should feel some entitlement in this matter. But then I don't buy movie food either (though I would if it weren't ridiculously priced).

See, I don't see a problem with getting hot water and BYOT (Tea, of course). Not at all. What if you only have that sugary-sweet crap being passed off as tea? What if you don't have a beverage I want? I'm not going to bring in a Pepsi if you sell Coke (as I'm sure that's not allowed, somehow) but my using your hot water is, in my opinion, no big whoop.