another honesty thread -- sharing refillable drinks

[Peek a Boo]

It is the same principle as going to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and having two people eat off one plate (only paying for one) and keep going back to the buffet and filling the plate up. I guess since the price is lower, people seem to think it is okay. :001_huh:

 

Not necessarily.

Again: house rules can vary.

 

The buffet place has a policy in place *per person.*

Other restaurants might not really care about drinks precisely because the cost for them is so low.

 

Sounds like a homeschool survey project, lol!

 

"What is your establishment's opinion of customers that use the free refill option for fountain drinks to service more than the original purchaser of the drink?"

A. don't care

B. don't like it, but don't press it either

C. will ask customer to stop if we see it.

D. we already have signs and policies in place plainly prohibiting that practice.

[KatieJ]

Other restaurants might not really care about drinks precisely because the cost for them is so low.

 

 

ACtually, they do care a great deal. They make a ton of money on those drinks. I am amazed at how carefullly they have counted and figured out what it costs them per plate to serve guests..even at a buffet. They make a ton of money on those drinks.

Our SIL currently works at a locally owned Italian restaurant. (Pray for him, he would love to get a job again as a Kindergarten teacher, but, well, Michigan is loosing people faster than you can count..no teaching jobs available.)

Anyway..he says if it weren't for the bar, the restauarnt wouldn't make it.

[Peela]

I just don't buy those drinks for my kids, now teens, at all. If I am paying, they get juice or water or nothing.

[Word Nerd]

Nope!

[lionfamily1999]

Now wait a minute- you've got me thinking. :001_huh: I see your points fivetails and lionfamily.

 

(I'm thinking out loud here)

 

-- If I buy one drink or any other food item, I can share it. No problem. :001_smile:

 

-- But if the restaurant explicity posts that sharing drinks isn't allowed, I would consider that like an all you can eat buffet- no sharing period. :blink:

 

-- Maybe the restaurant is offering free refills to the original purchaser only, like Peek said? :blink:

 

 

:willy_nilly:

 

OK, I got it! :w00t:

 

If you buy a single drink, you may share. As fivetails said, you paid for it. But since the refill is free, you didn't pay for it, we are only offering it free to the original purchaser. The department store may not care what you do with the buy 1 get1 free sweater, but we do. We're only giving it to you free under these terms. Didn't you read the contract on the greasy front door?

 

How's that? :tongue_smilie:

 

 

My brain exploded pulling that one out.

I'm impressed :)

 

Here's my follow up: If you want to share a drink, is it okay to refill it only once? That's just taking advantage of the free refill, without going back repeatedly.

 

It's almost as though the refills force you to buy more, if you want to be moral. Whereas, I would've never considered the morality of sharing a drink, now I have to wonder if the free refills are not just some way to guilt some patrons into buying more than they normally would.

 

I'm sorry, but all of these "honesty" threads have struck me with their simplified black and white answers.

[Mommyof4ks]

I don't see a problem with sharing soda refills at theme parks in the souvenir cups. There you are paying for the refills; they are not free. Now, we don't even bother with getting the souvenir cup. Dollywood, our pretty close by park, will give free cups of ice water at any location that has drinks. We just get out own free ice cold water when thirsty. Of course, this is the friendliest park on the planet.:D

 

We have free refills at the park here, but yea it just occurred to me that Sea World does not.

 

From Fivetails

 

Huh?

 

This thread is honestly (haha) puzzling me. Maybe it's because the only kinds of places with "free refills" that I've seen have been restaurants that offer you more coffee or water (not on pop or juice and such) ... but I totally don't get this. :001_huh:

 

If I pay for a Diet Pepsi, it's now MINE - I can do whatever I want with it. If that purchase includes a second cup of Diet Pepsi, that second filling is also MINE and I can do whatever I want with it. Drink it, blow bubbles in it, share it with a friend, give it to a stranger, pour it over my head if I'm so inclined. I paid for it, why should anyone have any say as to what I now do with it?

 

Ever shop at a buy1 get1free sale? You pay for one pair of flip flops and get another for free. So... I give the second pair to my friend for a present - am I now considered to have stolen from the store? Seems like the very same thing -- Buy a pop, get a refill free. Buy red flipflops, get blue flipflops for free.

 

Now, telling a cashier that you're just getting water from the fountain machine and then slyly getting pop instead, that's different. You didn't pay for the pop.

 

Now I had not thought of that. Quite true. A large cup would still only require one refill which is normally what most people would get anyway.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

A spin off from the other honesty thread: Do you order one drink for your children to share, and then take advantage of the free refills?

 

It's getting to be a problem around here. Many of the fast food places have started posting signs about prosecuting people who pay for one drink and share it among two or more people. I've also seen several people ask for a cup for water, then fill it with tea or soda.

 

If my kids are going to drink a soda, I buy one for each. They would never want to share. When they were little, I used to get one, and split it between two cups, but I never even gave them a whole cup back then, much less refills. If I don't want to pay for sodas, I get everyone waters.

Edited June 14, 2009 by Suzanne in ABQ

[mcconnellboys]

No, never! But perhaps that explains the continuing rise in drink prices at restaurants....

[Impish]

I agree with fivetails.

 

Honestly, the only way I can see it being a blatant dishonest rip off by the customer is if you order a small drink, refill it 8 times and share it with a bunch of people. Then you're planning to rip off the place. But sharing a big drink, refilling it once? Please. They're counting on at least one refill, if not two.

[lynn]

My dd sometimes asks for lemonade and I go back and tell the cashier I need to pay for a childrens drink for my dd decided to get lemonade and most times they tell me just to get what she would like and not charge for it. So is it stealing if I offer to pay and the cashier tells me to go one and get whatever.

[cin]

It is the same principle as going to an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant and having two people eat off one plate (only paying for one) and keep going back to the buffet and filling the plate up. I guess since the price is lower, people seem to think it is okay. :001_huh:

 

On the flip side, you have some restaurants that would allow a person who has had weigt loss surgery to pay the kids price. THOSE restaurants I will not return too. I canNOT eat the same as an average adult. I can't even do a full 1-trip, let alone the 3-4 trips the average person there eats. Even with a card from the Dr. office stating that I've had the surgery and whatnot, there are some places that will NOT let me eat off the kids menu. I do not raise a stink, I just pay the adult price and never go back.

[Pretty in Pink]

Nope. Nine times out of ten I just order water. If I do let the boys get a soda I let them get one soda and share it three ways, no refills. I still order them each a water to drink after the soda.

[Robin Hood]

Other restaurants might not really care about drinks precisely because the cost for them is so low.

 

 

ACtually, they do care a great deal. They make a ton of money on those drinks. I am amazed at how carefullly they have counted and figured out what it costs them per plate to serve guests..even at a buffet. They make a ton of money on those drinks.

Our SIL currently works at a locally owned Italian restaurant. (Pray for him, he would love to get a job again as a Kindergarten teacher, but, well, Michigan is loosing people faster than you can count..no teaching jobs available.)

Anyway..he says if it weren't for the bar, the restauarnt wouldn't make it.

 

 

The money made on drinks is good, and often it makes up for the hits of loss in other offerings to lure customers in and keep them from the competition.

 

When we owned our deli, we quickly posted a sign saying the customer could have all the refills they wanted if they bought their own personal drink when we saw right away all the sharing going on. We never said "no sharing allowed", but it corrected the problem proving that everybody understands exactly what they are doing. Some call it stealing and some probably just think they are outsmarting the system but most know they are on questionable ground. Some patrons would ask to share and we said "Share all you want and you can pay 50c for each refill", still making it a bargain. It was never a problem.

 

Being a deli, we had refrigerators and dry goods out where you can grab and bring your goods to the counter. Interestingly, by posting the sign about the refills, it kept honesty in check with less theft in all than before the sign went up.

 

Small businesses might be a little less forgiving than huge chains and there is generally less outside the counter to steal where the larger businesses offer free refills and allow sharing.

[3lilreds in NC]

I am a "rule follower," so I don't do this. I will share a pop with Isaac when we go to the coffee shop, because he likes to drink from my straw, but I've started getting him his own water with a straw because I don't want him to drink the pop. The girls get their own drinks. I feel like a schmuck most of the time when I go there anyway, because I get a refillable pop and the girls get a Gatorade and then we hang out and let Isaac play in the kids' area. We are not big ticket coffee shop folks, LOL!

 

However, anywhere we go, out to lunch and what have you, everyone gets their own drink.

[Joanne]

We all get our own cups. It it is a free refill place, we will buy the smallest cup available - one for each person.

 

Except when we are running the fireworks stand. We get the largest and take them with us and refill them as needed.

[Peek a Boo]

Other restaurants might not really care about drinks precisely because the cost for them is so low.

 

 

ACtually, they do care a great deal. They make a ton of money on those drinks. I am amazed at how carefullly they have counted and figured out what it costs them per plate to serve guests..even at a buffet. They make a ton of money on those drinks.

 

but my point is that some restaurants might not care because they count it as cheap marketing to make sure customers come BACK. Return business is a huge part of restaurant marketing.

[scrappyhappymama]

I often buy my young children food and drink to share. It's just more economical that way- to buy a large pack of nuggets to share or a large fries. So yes, they'll usually share a medium soda. They are young and don't drink much and it just doesn't make sense to buy everyone their own set of everything and then throw half of it away when they are "full" and ready to go play on the playground. Occasionally, I will refill their cup halfway, but I don't feel the least bit disturbed by this. If free refills are included, they're included. That's already taken into consideration in the cost of the drink, so I do not see it as any different than allowing them to share their fries. I paid for it, and we are not using more than a standard customer buying a medium drink would. I have also sometimes poured a little of my drink into a sippy cup for a small child. No different than allowing them a few sips from my straw, but without the annoying backwash. :D

 

So no, I do not consider this to be stealing. IF we asked for water cups and then filled them with soda, yes. IF we bought one drink and all five of us shared it with repeated refills, yes. IF there were signs posted prohibiting sharing (like at a buffet), then yes.

[DebonLI]

backwash is an issue with us...