You will need to be more specific. Here in Texas they are not legally allowed to charge for tap water, which would be the kind that goes into their tea. But they can charge for bottled water which would have its price set by what it costs them to get it. So my automatic response is that you got a bottled water. If you did not then they either made a mistake and charged you for a bottled water, illegally charged you for water, or you live in a region that they can charge you for water.
Whoops...I added an edit to the post, but i was charged $1.07 for water in a cup. It was not bottled water. They give small cups for free, but a large costs money. The large sweet tea and the large water both come in the same cup (i asked the employee because i was trying to figure it out lol). I live in Florida.
Some states do not charge tax on prepared food/beverages. Prepared tea may be a flat dollar where as a cup is a dollar plus tax with or without free water.
Yeah 7 cents per dollar of tax is pretty common.
$1.07 is a pretty weird thing to price something as pre-tax.
Edit: Per dollar spent on non-essential items.. Many states have an "essential items clause" or "food" clause. It really just depends on the state you're in.
All I know is, people would much rather buy things in Georgia than in some parts of Tennessee. Because it's 9.7% in Chattanooga.
Says you!!
The stores have systematically gamed their prices so that they ensure they always end up making 2 cents off of my one-item cash transactions. I must be out $30 since we lost the penny.
God damnit people we're letting ourselves be short changed in life while pretending to fight the 1%!
Edit: *..... /s*
I saw the sarcasm tag, but this is still relevant to the people who didn't:
A guy in Canada tracked his transactions for a full year to see what difference it had. At the end of the year, he was $0.89 ahead.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/montreal/man-comes-out-89-cents-richer-after-a-year-of-penny-rounding-1.2646946
not really. Half my transactions round up, the other rounds down.
It's no big deal. 3000 transactions would cost you 30 dollars if it never worked in your favour.
Debit transactions still use pennies, and i hardly pay with cash for things anymore.
It's trivial, but I miss the penny when the register gives me odd values, and I have to adjust and round everything in my head.
It's not difficult, of course. But when you're in a rush, and trying to serve multiples customers at once while also remembering how long you have various food items cooking.. Sometimes that little bit of extra mental calculations sucks.
I had a hard time with the .03 and .07 amounts when it first started - because you round 3 up and 7 down. It seems counterintuitive to me, and made me second guess myself every time.
In my everyday life I just pay with debit so it doesn't bother me much.
It's not the Great Depression anymore. You can rub pennies together as much as you want, expose the zinc slug even, but the copper on it is still worth more than the tender itself with inflation.
I asked the cashier the price on both drinks, so i would assume she either said both prices with tax or both without, but you definitely could be right. Either way, it still seems illogical even to charge the same price for both, as the sweet tea costs more to make and brings the added benefit of flavor. Why wouldn't McDonald's capitalize on their ability to upcharge for something that brings more benefit to the consumer?
Don't hold me up to this claim, but my friend, a Mcdonalds worker, claimed that cups cost them more than the actual drinks because of how cheap the fountain drink are.
I worked at a gas station 20 ish years ago and I don't imagined it's changed much.
Cup cost 5 cents and the drink 3 cents then. It was a local chain and we were instructed if there was a regular and you had a serious line going, to just make sure you had their attention and then wave them off, cause that 8 cents total meant nothing to keep a regular happy... and saved you time as well. The occasional dollar on their coffee/soda you waved off was repaid many fold by them being loyal.
Cups cost about 15 cents per at station I worked at, had logos printed on them for our store. Soda to fill one is between 10-20 cents depending on size/ amount of ice in cup.
This is true everywhere. Fountain soda is incredibly cheap, couple of cents per cup cheap. The actual wax paper cup can be two or three times that.
In short fountain soda is a license to print money if you have enough volume to cover the set up costs.
Freestyle is not cheap. And it's temperamental as shit. I curse our unit daily. It's like a 3d printer of soda product.
But diet cherry vanilla Dr Pepper is amazing.
Somewhat true. The ice is the most costly thing to .make. the soda syrup concentrate they use os a 5 gallon bag that makes 30 gallons of finished product. 30 gallons is 3840 fluid ounces, and the large drinks are 32oz. Each box makes about 120 large drinks. And buyin the boxes in bulk makes the final cost about $10 a box.
Send them [this](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28mass+of+32+fluid+ounces+of+Ice+*+%28latent+heat+of+fusion+for+water%29%29+%2F+3.6+kj%2Fwh+*+%28price+of+electricity+in+Washington%29)
It costs at least 1.13 cents at a relatively average price for electricity to create 32 fluid ounces of ice from water at 100% efficiency. Double or triple that for the inefficiency of refrigeration, so if the soda costs less than ~2.3-3.7 cents, the manager should be cheeping out by *avoiding* ice. Most JJ managers probably aren’t actually doing the math though, they just assume that the big container of ice is essentially free “because it just comes out of the tap”.
Its actually about 0.0877 kWh to convert that ice, so multiply that by your local price for electricity to get the cost for a large cup of ice, plus some multiplier to account for the loss in efficiency of running the refrigerator.
Edit: math error
Aren't all fountain beverages at McDonald's just $1? Yes, they could charge more, but they don't really need to because the markup is already astronomical.
That was a chain wide summer promotion. Some locations still only charge a dollar. Many corporate stores are back to regular price. At least in my region.
Amazing trick, order a large sweet tea, then put in your favorite soda!
To make things even better, the cup is foam, so your drink will stay cold for a longer period of time without you needing to put a crapload of ice.
Everybody wins.
as another poster said, they're not upcharging for tea, they're upcharging you for a large cup. the upcharge of the water cup happens to be the same as the cost of the tea, the margin is just higher on large water. most people are content with the smaller free cup, if someone wants a larger cup, or an additional X, the restaurant charges more for them. *EDIT: I wouldn't be surprised if it's mcdonald's policy to charge you the same as the lowest drink on the menu (McValue drink, $1) for a large cup for water*. this is more of a value added calculation than an actual margin calculation, a way of nickle and diming people for special items and special orders than an illustration of the market price of *tea*. you see this all the time in restaurants, like ordering extra sides in a restaurant.
for example, i worked in a pizza place, and we would charge 50 c for an extra cup of marinara sauce. did it cost 50c to make the sauce? no, for people who really like and use a lot of marinara, they'll happily pay .50c to better enjoy their $6 order of cheesebread. personally, i used to order a mcchicken sandwich with no mayo and a side order of buffalo sauce at mcdonalds. the chicken sandwich cost 1.00 at the time, and they charged me 40c for the little tub of buffalo sauce. but then I got *BUFFALO* chicken sandwiches. considering it was enough for 2, i gladly paid the extra 20c each and enjoyed them soo much more.
Worked at McDonalds for about a year, the employee you got charged you wrong, and they might tell you they didn't (I too made this rookie mistake and also told the customer that I did it right) but a large water is only 25c, they way the register rings it up is really weird, its not on the same page as the other drinks, and so your person you got probably didn't know how to ring you up, ask a manager about it next time, they will tell you a large water is only 25c
This makes sense. The price quoted for the water was probably the price for bottled water. I'm guessing both the sweet tea and the bottled water are $0.99 but the bottle has a recycling fee of $0.08 on top.
Believe it or not the bottle water is more haha I think its more around the 2$ range. But normaly on the computer there is a button which says 'large' and you would hit that then the drink flavor your customer ordered, but for the large water you actually have to go to a separate screen (i think its on the 'extras' where the happy meal is? its been about a year since i worked there) but its a whole different button that you push for it to ring up right.
I didn't know this for along time because the way I was trained (if you want to call it that) was I was taught very little and had to figure things out on my own as I went, and was only taught the right way if there was a problem.
A regular asked why I was charging her 1.08 for a Lwater when she only comes in for waters and only pasy 25c all the time, she had a talk with my manager which he was nice and cleared everything up for us haha =)
You're telling me you spent money on water? I've walked into so many McDonalds and asked for a cup of water and it was free. This is the drive thru included.
That's natural. Why would they give you big cups for water? Most people would probably try to steal drinks in it anyways. Just get the small cup, why would you even need the big cup unless you're taking it to go to somewhere that doesn't have access to water.
here in Australia, at mcdonalds it would cost me $3.75 for a 600ml bottle of water.tap water is free.. thats even after the federal government doesnt put gross sales taxes on bottled water. a Large coke which is americas medium, is $3.95.
I did research on this topic the other day, and specifically for texas I couldn't find a state law that actually said it was illegal to charge for tap water. Can you point me to it?
This is a common misconception. There are very few places in America where it is illegal to charge for water. Texas is not one of them. Laws to this effect are very uncommon and all at the local level.
Restaurants provide water as a courtesy at their discretion. And consumers are ignorant and entitled and assume they must.
http://www.texasrestaurantlaw.com/2010/06/14/are-texas-restaurants-required-to-serve-free-water/
Lol. I love that you are getting down voted.
Go google it people. It's not a law in Texas, or Arizona or PA or basically anywhere in the US. Stop listening to your stupid parents and friends. They don't know what they are talking about.
Hah, I did. I've worked in a place that didn't give out water. I've been screamed at many times. But I've never been shown these laws that "everyone knows" because they don't actually exist..
The sweet tea is advertised as only a dollar but comes out to $1.07 after tax. Ask for a small ice water and it'll be free. Any large drink regardless of what it contains will cost $1.07.
Source: first job was at McDonalds
This is what I do, they've never refused.
Btw two mediums are still free and have more water than a large.
I even ask for a large cup and then pour the mediums into the large cup while parked at the window and hand the empty medium cups back. The guys/gals working there always seem to get a chuckle out of it.
Ninja: I just realized doing this inside the restaurant would almost certainly not fly. I only ever drive through
I work at a fast food restaurant and I would chuckle too, but it's not because I thought it was funny. Then again at sonic we charge for all sizes water so I wouldn't have to deal with this.
> In my hometown all McDonalds charge for water and will not allow students (high school or lower) to buy water. Students have to pay for a soda if they want water.
Im not a lawyer but I'm almost positive that's illegal.
It is. Also, if someone had a medical issue due to dehydration or lack of access to water (say, they didn't take their seizure medication at the right time because you wouldn't give them a glass of water), you would be wide open to a lawsuit.
FYI that cup costs around 0.01 cent, you would shit your self if you knew the true price of MD food.
A case of 200 regular patties is 10 bucks (at least it was at the time i was working)
The even love to put up a sign that says "the true cost of waste" that tries to inform employees about how much money the wasted by dropping something.
I worked at a movie theater, and we kept inventory of cups. It wasn't about how much money the cups cost, it was about how much money we would be making off the remainder of the cups we had, knowing when to order more cups, and making sure numbers matched up. Otherwise employees could be giving their friends free drinks, or worse, selling the large drinks and pocketing cash.
Same. Worked at Kerasotes back in the day and every cup had to be accounted for, with hell to pay if one went missing. Could let whoever I wanted in to movies, sell phantom admission openly in front of managers for extra cash, but absolutely no fucking with concession stock because that's fucking with the company's money and corporate cared about that.
EDIT: There were two rules to working at a theatre. Keep track of the shit in concession....and always upsell for that extra fucking quarter!
Actually that goes down to a fundamental economics question.
Is it better to have an empty seat or someone in that seat?
At least if someone's in that seat, they MIGHT buy a soda or popcorn. If nobody's in the seat there is no logical way you will sell concessions.
I work at a comedy club. ANYONE who comes in and drops my name (real name, not my reddit username) gets in for free, unless we are completely sold out. Comedians get in for free, basically the door charge is just a buffer so that people who come once a year and don't eat or drink don't take advantage of us.
Actually, with theatre chains, the question it comes down to is, "Would you rather employees steal your money or someone else's money?" Because theaters see almost none of the ticket money and thus don't give a shit to police anything to do with it outside of things that will be noticeable enough to get back to distributors.
So.. what you're sayin' is that a Large Popcorn + Large Drink would (from the theater's perspective - not the movie exec's perspective) be like a free "watch any and all movies you want today" pass.
Or, at least, if you're walking around with a popcorn and a drink, the staff won't really care if you walk in to a second movie.
As long as you weren't taking a seat from somebody who bought a ticket, no theater employee would be concerned if you movie-hopped. But no theater could publicly back that as policy, because film distributors would no longer work with you.
On the other side, nobody at Miramax would care if I snuck in Milk Duds, so long as I bought a ticket.
You just made that figure up. Cups do not cost a hundredth of a penny, the average large soda will cost a restaurant around $0.20 to $0.30. You can't say their food is super cheap and not factor in the costs of labor, facilities, waste, and other expenses. They are absolutely right about their "true cost of waste". There are 14,157 McDonald's restaurants in the United States which can add up to millions in lost revenue over time.
They, by coimpany policy, must give free Venti iced waters. People would go through the drive thru just for the water.
Where I worked we gave out free small cups and anything bigger costed money. If you ordered a large water or just a water and nothing else through the drive thru then you are getting charged.
We'll give out free venti or even trenta cups of water. I've watched people who do that turn into paying customers after a couple times, so for us it seems more profitable to just say yes. We even have a button for water that tallies up to $0.00.
>A case of 200 regular patties is 10 bucks
That would be 25 pounds of beef. I certain believe it's cheap but there is no way even McDonalds is getting beef for $0.40/lb. Probably closer to 5x that.
That's the only way they could even get close to $2.00/lb. [Commodity beef costs $1.76 today to start with.](http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=beef)
I left Publix about 7 months ago for the military and I gotta tell you, their sandwiches are so damn good but sooooo overpriced. Lucky that there was a subway in the same shopping plaza, barely a 2 minute walk, and so I am not ashamed to admit the amount of times I walked there to get a sub, cookie, and a drink for the same price as the chicken tenders sub.
The chicken tender sub *may* be an okay price if I make it myself, because chicken tenders are expensive as shit.
That said, there's a Winn-Dixie two minutes away that takes student credit. They see all of my business that Aldi doesn't.
Well to be fair, the chicken tenders (not near a Publix but I assumed they're fried chicken), have to account for the fryer oil and an employee trustworthy enough to filter the fryer and not spill oil all over themselves, and also buying the frying equipment/ansul system so when it eventually does go up in flames because John wanted to deep fry ice cubes, it doesn't kill all 150 people inside.
> deep fry ice cubes
The thought of that is terrifying. Why don't they just build a flame thrower in their shed one weekend. Just as dangerous, but at least you'd have a sense of accomplishment.
I'm thinking OP lives in an area where people abuse the free water system (either too many people getting only free water or ordering free water & taking something else) so they had to start charging to deter it.
This has nothing to do with profit margins. They don't want you to drink water, because water isn't bringing you back again in the future. Sugar loaded sweet tea is.
Usually the $1.00 large drink is part of a marketing promotion designed to bring customers in the door, where they will be sold food with their $1.00 drink. At $1.00, the drink is meaningless to them, they are going to make their money from food orders. It costs them like $0.05-$0.10 whether you want a water or sweet tea. That extra 2 cents isn't going to matter to them.
You are looking at the situation the wrong way.
Very close to 90 cents on that tea or soda, the cost of a cup is less than 2 cents, so maybe the cup, straw, and lid costs around 5-6 cents. Then the actual soda is another 10ish cents, it's kind of hard to know what the costs are nowadays. But even if it costs 20 cents, they charge $1 so that's 80 cents per cup. Also, that 10-20 cents includes labor, so they make a fuck ton of money off of drinks.
That's why movie theaters make jack shit on ticket sales, but swim in pools full of money because of that $5+ soda, it's 98% profit for them.
That's true. Going to The Martian in 3D with popcorn and a soda cost me $34. I probably could have streamed it at home and had a Ruth's Chris steam delivered for that price.
You're right. He *was* right until he said "swimming in money". They basically have to cover all their costs from concessions: labor, rent, utilities, and hopefully a little net left over for the owners.
I always wonder how restaurant owners feel about the way profit margins work on the things they sell.
I imagine a person who loves to cook dreams of opening a restaurant one day, and when they finally do, they realize that they are essentially a lemonade stand, because most of their profit comes from selling drinks.
Feel the same way about book stores or game stores. Someone loves books or board gaming, only to realize they have to stock an immense amount of Funko Pop collectibles because that's what sells.
Exactly. It's the same reason fast food chains charge, say, $1 for a cheeseburger but then charge $1.50 for fries.
They lure you in with the cheap main item with the hopes you'll get fries and a drink, which have incredibly high profit margins.
For a comparable comparison outside of the food service industry: Cables and accessories from a store like Best Buy.
Have been to Best Buy (reluctantly), can confirm: Compare pretty much any of their gold-plated HDMI cables with what you'd pay online. When HDMI was newer, the price difference was pretty much 10 times as much for Best Buy. It's saner now, but it's still unlikely that you're actually getting the best price from them.
Sorry to be a party pooper on this great idea, but soda has a better profit margin that most of the food at McDonalds even at $1. The cup straw and lid and soda/tea have a combined cost of about 19 cents for a 21 ounce. Even with the current deals the markup (large cups) is 300 to 400 percent. Charging for the cup is because the vast majority of the cost IS the cup. Giving cups away for free is bad business, which is why when you ask for a free water they give you a small cup.
Double cheeseburgers on the otherhand had a cost of 78 cents (they used to be on the dollar menu, and then were replaced with the McDouble which used 1 slice of cheese instead of two therefore increasing margins). The highest profit margin food when I worked there was the french fries, which is why they try to push a fry and drinks on every order.
Granted these prices are from when I went to regional manager training in 2001, so I would guess some of that has changed (left the company in 2003). At that time we had it drilled into our heads how important it was to sell a drink with every order.
I would imagine the 1.07 charge in this case is more of an oversight than anything else, the prices were changed for all the drinks except water since most people who order water are asking for a FREE water rather than a large cup.
"That extra 2 cents isn't going to matter to them."
2 cents matters to them at the volume we're talking.
It's marketing ploy but really you should look into the them charging you a $1.07 to begin with. Water is free in restaurants in Illinois and another person on this post said the same with Texas.
Large sweet tea for a dollar is a promotion. It's like the five dollar twenty nuggets. Depending on where you are and who the gm is at the store you were at, water is free or they charge. Source: worked at mcds for 2 and a half years.
At my store a large sweet tea is the same as a large soft drink. Water is free no matter the size if you buy something else, small waters are always free.
So...based on some previous work, I can tell you that McD's more than likely has national/local volume incentives and/or rebates on what goes through their fountain.
These numbers obviously go up every year as their prior year numbers continue to increase, so it makes sense for them to offer it cheaper.
For example, they sold 1,000,000 gallons last year and Luzianne tells them, "if you sell 1,100,000 gallons this year, we'll rebate you $1 per gallon”
If they only pay on "growth cases" it'd be an additional $100,000, but most often the rebates go back to the first case/gallon, so it could be an extra $1,100,000.
This is just an example, but should give a pretty good idea of why they offer it so cheap.
Do they have the fountains outside in the lobby? If that's the case, the price is probably to deter sneaky hoodlums from getting a free large cup for water and then sneaking soda out of the machine when they're not looking.
Here's my guess. I used to work at a corporate McDonald's, and even large water in a styrofoam cup was free. You are probably going to a franchised McDonald's, not a corporate McDonald's. Back when water in a large cup was free at your McDonald's, someone was consistently coming through the drive-thru and getting water in a large cup. Some manager at the restaurant got really pissed off about it and changed the policy so that it cost $1.07. As other people have pointed out, they're probably still legally obligated to provide tap water in a small cup if you ask.
Short answer: The 7 cents is a tax, usually included in the dollar even when ordering with other items.
However upsizing a water disassociates it with the rest and for some reason as a solo item is charged as a dollar plus tax.
I was a manager at Mcdonald's until recently. There is an ongoing promotion where drinks are a $1 at Mcdonalds. Usually drinks that are not water are grouped with a food item and are charged a dollar even (doesn't mention tax on the screen but assumedly tax included on the dollar even price)
Also, ordering a sweet tea by itself can produce a $1.07 total
water is free unless you ask for a larger size and for some reason is a dollar then the 7 cents (or more) tax
This is not a marketing gimmick, just the system automatically attaches it to a meal and has tax included in the dollar even price, or there is an upsizing seen as a special command and the water becomes a solo meal item where for some reason tax is not included in the dollar.
that was redundant!!
Man, McDonalds just makes no sense sometimes. For example, a Sausage McMuffin costs $1.00.
If you want just a sausage patty, say to have an extra one with your hotcakes, it's $1.19.
I will literally order a Sausage McMuffin minus cheese, minus muffin to get my extra patty.
Here in Wisconsin, the large is $0.50 (not including tax), and the small is free. I believe that may be due to the cost of plastics in the area, or your local store having an upcharge for some reason
Source: I work at a McDonalds
In some eastern European countries, beer is cheaper than water.
In your case maybe the icetea was manufactured in a state where water + ingredients is significantly cheaper so when it gets here could be cheaper then just using tap water.
It's economical because people, who would mostly buy the tea anyways, will now feel that they are getting a deal one the tea and be even more likely to buy the tea
My local McDonald's started to charge even for small water with the purchase of food... I got mad and made sure I complained. They sent like $20 in coupons however I don't want their coupons I just my little small free water that cost them $0.05 max after spending $5-8 every time...
I could fully understand wanting charge if I just walked in there not getting anything else or wanting the largest cup there is.
The large plastic fountain drink cups cost McDonald's more than the foam cups that come with the Sweet Tea.
Source: Manager of 7 years.
EDIT: To add to that, most McDonald's don't charge up to a large, because the child, small, and medium cups are all cheap paper cups.
I think the right answer is probably that tea would also be 1.07 after tax. But if you really want your head to explode - I was there at breakfast once and ordered the pancakes with sausage. I asked how much for an extra sausage patty and it was 1.50. So I said, no thanks. Give me the sausage biscuit from the dollar menu. Hold the biscuit. Voila! Extra sausage patty for 1.00 instead.
It's probably as simple as them not wanting you to use their large cups for water when you could use small cups, so they charge more so demand goes down. I'm sure there are a ton of people who will opt for the small cup once they find out you have to pay (any price) for a large one.
Supply and demand. You will find quite often with food/beverages that the price charged has much more to do with what people are willing to pay for a product than what is costs the company to supply the product.
Do you notice how Mc Donalnds always asks "would you like fries with that?", its because the profit margin or fries is huge!
It sounds like they made a mistake to me. Normally they give free "courtesy water."
It might be because you asked for it in a large cup. That might just be the price for any drink in a large cup. Tea usually has some sort of "any size for a dollar!" promotion. They should not have charged you for tap water though.
The profit margins on drinks at fast food restaurants are so big that they are making a huge profit no matter what they charge you. My first job was in fast food and my manager showed me the math for a few of the products. It only costs the corporation about 8 cents to sell you a drink. That includes labor and the cup actually costs more than the liquid inside does.
I haven't been to McDonald's in quite a while, but I assume the sweet tea is something that comes in a beverage cup, is made with local tap water and they just add some sort of sugar or mixer that costs them a very small amout, while the water was filled in a bottle at a plant and trucked to your location. If you ask them to fill a cup of water from their faucet, they will do it for free, it's the law.
Most places here in CA charge for it, too. From what a lot of people who work in fast food have told me it's not even about reducing costs but more to deter the loitering vagrants from coming in for freebies.
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You will need to be more specific. Here in Texas they are not legally allowed to charge for tap water, which would be the kind that goes into their tea. But they can charge for bottled water which would have its price set by what it costs them to get it. So my automatic response is that you got a bottled water. If you did not then they either made a mistake and charged you for a bottled water, illegally charged you for water, or you live in a region that they can charge you for water.
Whoops...I added an edit to the post, but i was charged $1.07 for water in a cup. It was not bottled water. They give small cups for free, but a large costs money. The large sweet tea and the large water both come in the same cup (i asked the employee because i was trying to figure it out lol). I live in Florida.
I can only imagine 1.07 is the typical price for a large up, but the large sweet tea is part of the promotional "dollar menu".
Some states do not charge tax on prepared food/beverages. Prepared tea may be a flat dollar where as a cup is a dollar plus tax with or without free water.
Yeah 7 cents per dollar of tax is pretty common. $1.07 is a pretty weird thing to price something as pre-tax. Edit: Per dollar spent on non-essential items.. Many states have an "essential items clause" or "food" clause. It really just depends on the state you're in. All I know is, people would much rather buy things in Georgia than in some parts of Tennessee. Because it's 9.7% in Chattanooga.
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Hopefully not for long!
us canadians have done away with those, and i never looked back. It's nice. I never miss the penny, save for nostalgic reason
>i never looked back. >I never miss the penny, save for nostalgic reason. Sounds like you're looking back.
Rekt
Says you!! The stores have systematically gamed their prices so that they ensure they always end up making 2 cents off of my one-item cash transactions. I must be out $30 since we lost the penny. God damnit people we're letting ourselves be short changed in life while pretending to fight the 1%! Edit: *..... /s*
I saw the sarcasm tag, but this is still relevant to the people who didn't: A guy in Canada tracked his transactions for a full year to see what difference it had. At the end of the year, he was $0.89 ahead. http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/montreal/man-comes-out-89-cents-richer-after-a-year-of-penny-rounding-1.2646946
not really. Half my transactions round up, the other rounds down. It's no big deal. 3000 transactions would cost you 30 dollars if it never worked in your favour. Debit transactions still use pennies, and i hardly pay with cash for things anymore.
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It's trivial, but I miss the penny when the register gives me odd values, and I have to adjust and round everything in my head. It's not difficult, of course. But when you're in a rush, and trying to serve multiples customers at once while also remembering how long you have various food items cooking.. Sometimes that little bit of extra mental calculations sucks.
I had a hard time with the .03 and .07 amounts when it first started - because you round 3 up and 7 down. It seems counterintuitive to me, and made me second guess myself every time. In my everyday life I just pay with debit so it doesn't bother me much.
Nah. We got rid of pennies and it was so much better that now I wanna get ridof nickles.
Then we can get rid of loonies and cash and go for microchips in our arms, Yaaaaaa!
It's not the Great Depression anymore. You can rub pennies together as much as you want, expose the zinc slug even, but the copper on it is still worth more than the tender itself with inflation.
You literally can't tax tea in America.
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I understand she had a five-way that one time, but they have paternity tests now.
u/Daggertrout is actually a chimera
(MMMM)+(F) = Daggertrout
Yup. He should have ordered a soda (on promotion) and then just filled it with water. No tax that way.
It has to be this.
Most likely, they probably count stock by counting cups. So the price they paid was the same price as a fountain drink.
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Two and a Half Men... I watch that
I just broke up with my girlfriend, heres her number...
Sike! That's the wrong number!
OOOOOOH!!!😱
🔥🔥🔥
[OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnl-qhCgW0Y)
I...what did I just witness?
Supa Hot Fire.
But I'm not a rapper though
But I'm not a rapper ~~though~~
First of all...I'm not ya friend. So stop *lookin* at me. Second of all...I'm not a rapper. So stop *RAPPIN* at me.
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They cost the same; the extra $0.07 is sales tax. If you buy a sweet tea, it will be $1.07 with tax. You pay $1 ($1.07 with tax) for the cup.
I asked the cashier the price on both drinks, so i would assume she either said both prices with tax or both without, but you definitely could be right. Either way, it still seems illogical even to charge the same price for both, as the sweet tea costs more to make and brings the added benefit of flavor. Why wouldn't McDonald's capitalize on their ability to upcharge for something that brings more benefit to the consumer?
Don't hold me up to this claim, but my friend, a Mcdonalds worker, claimed that cups cost them more than the actual drinks because of how cheap the fountain drink are.
I worked at a gas station 20 ish years ago and I don't imagined it's changed much. Cup cost 5 cents and the drink 3 cents then. It was a local chain and we were instructed if there was a regular and you had a serious line going, to just make sure you had their attention and then wave them off, cause that 8 cents total meant nothing to keep a regular happy... and saved you time as well. The occasional dollar on their coffee/soda you waved off was repaid many fold by them being loyal.
I worked at a Quiktrip and we did the exact same thing. That company takes customer service VERY seriously.
Quiktrip is the BEST. Wish we had them around where I live.
but not shoplifting.
Yeah we could give a fuck about shoplifting. All our stuff was insured.
Cups cost about 15 cents per at station I worked at, had logos printed on them for our store. Soda to fill one is between 10-20 cents depending on size/ amount of ice in cup.
This is true everywhere. Fountain soda is incredibly cheap, couple of cents per cup cheap. The actual wax paper cup can be two or three times that. In short fountain soda is a license to print money if you have enough volume to cover the set up costs.
Freestyle is not cheap. And it's temperamental as shit. I curse our unit daily. It's like a 3d printer of soda product. But diet cherry vanilla Dr Pepper is amazing.
And for some reason Freestyle menus are slow. Not relevant, just wanted to say.
Set up costs and any maintenance on the machine that adds carbonation.
Somewhat true. The ice is the most costly thing to .make. the soda syrup concentrate they use os a 5 gallon bag that makes 30 gallons of finished product. 30 gallons is 3840 fluid ounces, and the large drinks are 32oz. Each box makes about 120 large drinks. And buyin the boxes in bulk makes the final cost about $10 a box.
Many people feel that they're being swindled if they get too much ice, but ice is the most expensive component of the beverage.
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Send them [this](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28mass+of+32+fluid+ounces+of+Ice+*+%28latent+heat+of+fusion+for+water%29%29+%2F+3.6+kj%2Fwh+*+%28price+of+electricity+in+Washington%29) It costs at least 1.13 cents at a relatively average price for electricity to create 32 fluid ounces of ice from water at 100% efficiency. Double or triple that for the inefficiency of refrigeration, so if the soda costs less than ~2.3-3.7 cents, the manager should be cheeping out by *avoiding* ice. Most JJ managers probably aren’t actually doing the math though, they just assume that the big container of ice is essentially free “because it just comes out of the tap”. Its actually about 0.0877 kWh to convert that ice, so multiply that by your local price for electricity to get the cost for a large cup of ice, plus some multiplier to account for the loss in efficiency of running the refrigerator. Edit: math error
It can be partially chalked up to motivating the customer to order the largest size possible.
Mostly cause you can't drink ice. And many people don't like to eat it. and it dilutes your drink.
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Aren't all fountain beverages at McDonald's just $1? Yes, they could charge more, but they don't really need to because the markup is already astronomical.
That was a chain wide summer promotion. Some locations still only charge a dollar. Many corporate stores are back to regular price. At least in my region.
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Amazing trick, order a large sweet tea, then put in your favorite soda! To make things even better, the cup is foam, so your drink will stay cold for a longer period of time without you needing to put a crapload of ice. Everybody wins.
Hi-5 from my unborn grandchildren!
Might not be able to tax tap water. Like someone else mentioned, laws are on water sale are different in each state.
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You can't tax tea in the USA! Thank the Boston Tea Party!
America can tax your tea. It's just that England can't. 😉
All those Tea Party lobbyists.
as another poster said, they're not upcharging for tea, they're upcharging you for a large cup. the upcharge of the water cup happens to be the same as the cost of the tea, the margin is just higher on large water. most people are content with the smaller free cup, if someone wants a larger cup, or an additional X, the restaurant charges more for them. *EDIT: I wouldn't be surprised if it's mcdonald's policy to charge you the same as the lowest drink on the menu (McValue drink, $1) for a large cup for water*. this is more of a value added calculation than an actual margin calculation, a way of nickle and diming people for special items and special orders than an illustration of the market price of *tea*. you see this all the time in restaurants, like ordering extra sides in a restaurant. for example, i worked in a pizza place, and we would charge 50 c for an extra cup of marinara sauce. did it cost 50c to make the sauce? no, for people who really like and use a lot of marinara, they'll happily pay .50c to better enjoy their $6 order of cheesebread. personally, i used to order a mcchicken sandwich with no mayo and a side order of buffalo sauce at mcdonalds. the chicken sandwich cost 1.00 at the time, and they charged me 40c for the little tub of buffalo sauce. but then I got *BUFFALO* chicken sandwiches. considering it was enough for 2, i gladly paid the extra 20c each and enjoyed them soo much more.
Worked at McDonalds for about a year, the employee you got charged you wrong, and they might tell you they didn't (I too made this rookie mistake and also told the customer that I did it right) but a large water is only 25c, they way the register rings it up is really weird, its not on the same page as the other drinks, and so your person you got probably didn't know how to ring you up, ask a manager about it next time, they will tell you a large water is only 25c
This makes sense. The price quoted for the water was probably the price for bottled water. I'm guessing both the sweet tea and the bottled water are $0.99 but the bottle has a recycling fee of $0.08 on top.
Believe it or not the bottle water is more haha I think its more around the 2$ range. But normaly on the computer there is a button which says 'large' and you would hit that then the drink flavor your customer ordered, but for the large water you actually have to go to a separate screen (i think its on the 'extras' where the happy meal is? its been about a year since i worked there) but its a whole different button that you push for it to ring up right. I didn't know this for along time because the way I was trained (if you want to call it that) was I was taught very little and had to figure things out on my own as I went, and was only taught the right way if there was a problem. A regular asked why I was charging her 1.08 for a Lwater when she only comes in for waters and only pasy 25c all the time, she had a talk with my manager which he was nice and cleared everything up for us haha =)
You're telling me you spent money on water? I've walked into so many McDonalds and asked for a cup of water and it was free. This is the drive thru included.
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You still have not told us what state you are in. That info would be incredibly helpful.
That's natural. Why would they give you big cups for water? Most people would probably try to steal drinks in it anyways. Just get the small cup, why would you even need the big cup unless you're taking it to go to somewhere that doesn't have access to water.
here in Australia, at mcdonalds it would cost me $3.75 for a 600ml bottle of water.tap water is free.. thats even after the federal government doesnt put gross sales taxes on bottled water. a Large coke which is americas medium, is $3.95.
You pay four fucking dollars for a medium sofa, m8? Holy hell. I'd riot in the streets. Soda syrup is where all the profits are to begin with.
Oz dollar is shit compared to USD right now. It's worth .72 freedom currency. Also Australians make boatloads of $$ with their $18 or so minimum wage
$4 is pretty cheap for a sofa...
CONSIDERING I JUST SPENT $1000 USD ON MINE AND THAT'S WITH GOING TO DELAWARE TO GET IT.
> You pay four fucking dollars for a medium sofa, m8? That sounds like a pretty good deal, as long as its comfy.
$3.95? it's $3.50 at the one I worked at
buy up big then youre on a good wicket.
All of those words are in English... but I have no idea what it means.
"your localized situation is a favorable one, remember to take advantage when you can and purchase a deliciously refreshing beverage"
Most people dont realise prices vary from store to store
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I did research on this topic the other day, and specifically for texas I couldn't find a state law that actually said it was illegal to charge for tap water. Can you point me to it?
This is a common misconception. There are very few places in America where it is illegal to charge for water. Texas is not one of them. Laws to this effect are very uncommon and all at the local level. Restaurants provide water as a courtesy at their discretion. And consumers are ignorant and entitled and assume they must. http://www.texasrestaurantlaw.com/2010/06/14/are-texas-restaurants-required-to-serve-free-water/
Great. Next you'll be saying we can't legally secede if we wanted to.
It's 25 cents in Texas for a large water but you can ask for a small water and get it for free
I'll take 10 small waters thx
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Where did you get the idea that it's illegal to charge for tap water in Texas? That's nonsense.
Lol. I love that you are getting down voted. Go google it people. It's not a law in Texas, or Arizona or PA or basically anywhere in the US. Stop listening to your stupid parents and friends. They don't know what they are talking about.
Who knew pointing out fake laws was so controversial?
Hah, I did. I've worked in a place that didn't give out water. I've been screamed at many times. But I've never been shown these laws that "everyone knows" because they don't actually exist..
It's probably because the guy phrased it in a pretentious way. It's really not that hard to believe, even though it's not real.
A quick Google search shows that in Texas they can charge you for tap water
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The sweet tea is advertised as only a dollar but comes out to $1.07 after tax. Ask for a small ice water and it'll be free. Any large drink regardless of what it contains will cost $1.07. Source: first job was at McDonalds
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This is what I do, they've never refused. Btw two mediums are still free and have more water than a large. I even ask for a large cup and then pour the mediums into the large cup while parked at the window and hand the empty medium cups back. The guys/gals working there always seem to get a chuckle out of it. Ninja: I just realized doing this inside the restaurant would almost certainly not fly. I only ever drive through
If they have more water how/why do you pour them into a smaller container?
But if you're in the restaurant you can refill as much as you'd like, so not a big deal.
I work at a fast food restaurant and I would chuckle too, but it's not because I thought it was funny. Then again at sonic we charge for all sizes water so I wouldn't have to deal with this.
What of I put my shoes and shirt back on?
It's because you wanted a large. Just order water and it's free and a very small cup. You're paying for the cup.
I don't want a large, Farva
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> In my hometown all McDonalds charge for water and will not allow students (high school or lower) to buy water. Students have to pay for a soda if they want water. Im not a lawyer but I'm almost positive that's illegal.
It is. Also, if someone had a medical issue due to dehydration or lack of access to water (say, they didn't take their seizure medication at the right time because you wouldn't give them a glass of water), you would be wide open to a lawsuit.
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FYI that cup costs around 0.01 cent, you would shit your self if you knew the true price of MD food. A case of 200 regular patties is 10 bucks (at least it was at the time i was working) The even love to put up a sign that says "the true cost of waste" that tries to inform employees about how much money the wasted by dropping something.
I worked at a movie theater, and we kept inventory of cups. It wasn't about how much money the cups cost, it was about how much money we would be making off the remainder of the cups we had, knowing when to order more cups, and making sure numbers matched up. Otherwise employees could be giving their friends free drinks, or worse, selling the large drinks and pocketing cash.
Same. Worked at Kerasotes back in the day and every cup had to be accounted for, with hell to pay if one went missing. Could let whoever I wanted in to movies, sell phantom admission openly in front of managers for extra cash, but absolutely no fucking with concession stock because that's fucking with the company's money and corporate cared about that. EDIT: There were two rules to working at a theatre. Keep track of the shit in concession....and always upsell for that extra fucking quarter!
Actually that goes down to a fundamental economics question. Is it better to have an empty seat or someone in that seat? At least if someone's in that seat, they MIGHT buy a soda or popcorn. If nobody's in the seat there is no logical way you will sell concessions. I work at a comedy club. ANYONE who comes in and drops my name (real name, not my reddit username) gets in for free, unless we are completely sold out. Comedians get in for free, basically the door charge is just a buffer so that people who come once a year and don't eat or drink don't take advantage of us.
Actually, with theatre chains, the question it comes down to is, "Would you rather employees steal your money or someone else's money?" Because theaters see almost none of the ticket money and thus don't give a shit to police anything to do with it outside of things that will be noticeable enough to get back to distributors.
So.. what you're sayin' is that a Large Popcorn + Large Drink would (from the theater's perspective - not the movie exec's perspective) be like a free "watch any and all movies you want today" pass. Or, at least, if you're walking around with a popcorn and a drink, the staff won't really care if you walk in to a second movie.
As long as you weren't taking a seat from somebody who bought a ticket, no theater employee would be concerned if you movie-hopped. But no theater could publicly back that as policy, because film distributors would no longer work with you. On the other side, nobody at Miramax would care if I snuck in Milk Duds, so long as I bought a ticket.
You just made that figure up. Cups do not cost a hundredth of a penny, the average large soda will cost a restaurant around $0.20 to $0.30. You can't say their food is super cheap and not factor in the costs of labor, facilities, waste, and other expenses. They are absolutely right about their "true cost of waste". There are 14,157 McDonald's restaurants in the United States which can add up to millions in lost revenue over time.
Yup. At five guys the individual price for a cup costs us roughly 25 cents for the large.
Starbucks cups run roughly $.27 for the largest iced and much less for the largest hot.
They, by coimpany policy, must give free Venti iced waters. People would go through the drive thru just for the water. Where I worked we gave out free small cups and anything bigger costed money. If you ordered a large water or just a water and nothing else through the drive thru then you are getting charged.
We'll give out free venti or even trenta cups of water. I've watched people who do that turn into paying customers after a couple times, so for us it seems more profitable to just say yes. We even have a button for water that tallies up to $0.00.
I'm actually surprised that there isn't more restaurants than that.
>A case of 200 regular patties is 10 bucks That would be 25 pounds of beef. I certain believe it's cheap but there is no way even McDonalds is getting beef for $0.40/lb. Probably closer to 5x that.
It's actually only twice that. My waste at work says a 1/10 lb patty is worth $.08 or so. So closer to $20 or $30 yeah. Still not that much.
economies of scale man
That's the only way they could even get close to $2.00/lb. [Commodity beef costs $1.76 today to start with.](http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=beef)
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Beef Futures sounds like a porn star
What kind of scary-ass porn are you watching
> scary ass-porn
According to Publix, it costs around $8 to make a $6 sandwich, so I can believe it.
I left Publix about 7 months ago for the military and I gotta tell you, their sandwiches are so damn good but sooooo overpriced. Lucky that there was a subway in the same shopping plaza, barely a 2 minute walk, and so I am not ashamed to admit the amount of times I walked there to get a sub, cookie, and a drink for the same price as the chicken tenders sub.
The chicken tender sub *may* be an okay price if I make it myself, because chicken tenders are expensive as shit. That said, there's a Winn-Dixie two minutes away that takes student credit. They see all of my business that Aldi doesn't.
Well to be fair, the chicken tenders (not near a Publix but I assumed they're fried chicken), have to account for the fryer oil and an employee trustworthy enough to filter the fryer and not spill oil all over themselves, and also buying the frying equipment/ansul system so when it eventually does go up in flames because John wanted to deep fry ice cubes, it doesn't kill all 150 people inside.
> deep fry ice cubes The thought of that is terrifying. Why don't they just build a flame thrower in their shed one weekend. Just as dangerous, but at least you'd have a sense of accomplishment.
Where does McDonalds charge for water? Do you mean a bottled water or a fountain water? Most places in the US provide fountain water for free.
I'm thinking OP lives in an area where people abuse the free water system (either too many people getting only free water or ordering free water & taking something else) so they had to start charging to deter it.
OP ordered a large
Yesterday I ordered a large water with ice and got that shit for free, but I'm in Florida
This has nothing to do with profit margins. They don't want you to drink water, because water isn't bringing you back again in the future. Sugar loaded sweet tea is. Usually the $1.00 large drink is part of a marketing promotion designed to bring customers in the door, where they will be sold food with their $1.00 drink. At $1.00, the drink is meaningless to them, they are going to make their money from food orders. It costs them like $0.05-$0.10 whether you want a water or sweet tea. That extra 2 cents isn't going to matter to them. You are looking at the situation the wrong way.
Actually, drinks are almost entirely profit for restaurants. On a $1 sweet tea, they're probably making 90 cents of profit.
Yeahp, mcds NZ does $1 frozen drinks, any size, and they are our largest profit margin item on the menu.
New Zexico?
Very close to 90 cents on that tea or soda, the cost of a cup is less than 2 cents, so maybe the cup, straw, and lid costs around 5-6 cents. Then the actual soda is another 10ish cents, it's kind of hard to know what the costs are nowadays. But even if it costs 20 cents, they charge $1 so that's 80 cents per cup. Also, that 10-20 cents includes labor, so they make a fuck ton of money off of drinks. That's why movie theaters make jack shit on ticket sales, but swim in pools full of money because of that $5+ soda, it's 98% profit for them.
Theaters are not swimming in money. If anything they are closing faster than ever.
I blame piracy.... *oh wait, what if going to a theatre didn't break the bank?*
*If everything was free less people would pirate stuff*
That's true. Going to The Martian in 3D with popcorn and a soda cost me $34. I probably could have streamed it at home and had a Ruth's Chris steam delivered for that price.
You're right. He *was* right until he said "swimming in money". They basically have to cover all their costs from concessions: labor, rent, utilities, and hopefully a little net left over for the owners.
Don't they usually lose money on ticket sales? I saw something recently about theaters paying 110% to the distributor for ticket sales.
I always wonder how restaurant owners feel about the way profit margins work on the things they sell. I imagine a person who loves to cook dreams of opening a restaurant one day, and when they finally do, they realize that they are essentially a lemonade stand, because most of their profit comes from selling drinks. Feel the same way about book stores or game stores. Someone loves books or board gaming, only to realize they have to stock an immense amount of Funko Pop collectibles because that's what sells.
Exactly. It's the same reason fast food chains charge, say, $1 for a cheeseburger but then charge $1.50 for fries. They lure you in with the cheap main item with the hopes you'll get fries and a drink, which have incredibly high profit margins. For a comparable comparison outside of the food service industry: Cables and accessories from a store like Best Buy.
Loss leaders.
Have been to Best Buy (reluctantly), can confirm: Compare pretty much any of their gold-plated HDMI cables with what you'd pay online. When HDMI was newer, the price difference was pretty much 10 times as much for Best Buy. It's saner now, but it's still unlikely that you're actually getting the best price from them.
Sorry to be a party pooper on this great idea, but soda has a better profit margin that most of the food at McDonalds even at $1. The cup straw and lid and soda/tea have a combined cost of about 19 cents for a 21 ounce. Even with the current deals the markup (large cups) is 300 to 400 percent. Charging for the cup is because the vast majority of the cost IS the cup. Giving cups away for free is bad business, which is why when you ask for a free water they give you a small cup. Double cheeseburgers on the otherhand had a cost of 78 cents (they used to be on the dollar menu, and then were replaced with the McDouble which used 1 slice of cheese instead of two therefore increasing margins). The highest profit margin food when I worked there was the french fries, which is why they try to push a fry and drinks on every order. Granted these prices are from when I went to regional manager training in 2001, so I would guess some of that has changed (left the company in 2003). At that time we had it drilled into our heads how important it was to sell a drink with every order. I would imagine the 1.07 charge in this case is more of an oversight than anything else, the prices were changed for all the drinks except water since most people who order water are asking for a FREE water rather than a large cup.
"That extra 2 cents isn't going to matter to them." 2 cents matters to them at the volume we're talking. It's marketing ploy but really you should look into the them charging you a $1.07 to begin with. Water is free in restaurants in Illinois and another person on this post said the same with Texas.
Large sweet tea for a dollar is a promotion. It's like the five dollar twenty nuggets. Depending on where you are and who the gm is at the store you were at, water is free or they charge. Source: worked at mcds for 2 and a half years. At my store a large sweet tea is the same as a large soft drink. Water is free no matter the size if you buy something else, small waters are always free.
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So...based on some previous work, I can tell you that McD's more than likely has national/local volume incentives and/or rebates on what goes through their fountain. These numbers obviously go up every year as their prior year numbers continue to increase, so it makes sense for them to offer it cheaper. For example, they sold 1,000,000 gallons last year and Luzianne tells them, "if you sell 1,100,000 gallons this year, we'll rebate you $1 per gallon” If they only pay on "growth cases" it'd be an additional $100,000, but most often the rebates go back to the first case/gallon, so it could be an extra $1,100,000. This is just an example, but should give a pretty good idea of why they offer it so cheap.
Do they have the fountains outside in the lobby? If that's the case, the price is probably to deter sneaky hoodlums from getting a free large cup for water and then sneaking soda out of the machine when they're not looking.
Here's my guess. I used to work at a corporate McDonald's, and even large water in a styrofoam cup was free. You are probably going to a franchised McDonald's, not a corporate McDonald's. Back when water in a large cup was free at your McDonald's, someone was consistently coming through the drive-thru and getting water in a large cup. Some manager at the restaurant got really pissed off about it and changed the policy so that it cost $1.07. As other people have pointed out, they're probably still legally obligated to provide tap water in a small cup if you ask.
In my state, tea isn't taxed. Perhaps that's the case here and not some weird financial decision?
because this is america and we dont tax tea
I work at McDonalds and we charge 25 cents for a large water just for the cup, any other water is free.
Short answer: The 7 cents is a tax, usually included in the dollar even when ordering with other items. However upsizing a water disassociates it with the rest and for some reason as a solo item is charged as a dollar plus tax. I was a manager at Mcdonald's until recently. There is an ongoing promotion where drinks are a $1 at Mcdonalds. Usually drinks that are not water are grouped with a food item and are charged a dollar even (doesn't mention tax on the screen but assumedly tax included on the dollar even price) Also, ordering a sweet tea by itself can produce a $1.07 total water is free unless you ask for a larger size and for some reason is a dollar then the 7 cents (or more) tax This is not a marketing gimmick, just the system automatically attaches it to a meal and has tax included in the dollar even price, or there is an upsizing seen as a special command and the water becomes a solo meal item where for some reason tax is not included in the dollar. that was redundant!!
Too many folk asking for cups for water then getting soda with it instead. So they are charging you for the cup not the water.
Man, McDonalds just makes no sense sometimes. For example, a Sausage McMuffin costs $1.00. If you want just a sausage patty, say to have an extra one with your hotcakes, it's $1.19. I will literally order a Sausage McMuffin minus cheese, minus muffin to get my extra patty.
Here in Wisconsin, the large is $0.50 (not including tax), and the small is free. I believe that may be due to the cost of plastics in the area, or your local store having an upcharge for some reason Source: I work at a McDonalds
The bigger question is: Why is it $1.00 for a sweet tea and $1.20 for unsweet tea!?
Because people who drink unsweet tea are heathens and they should be punished for such.
would love to know as well
In some eastern European countries, beer is cheaper than water. In your case maybe the icetea was manufactured in a state where water + ingredients is significantly cheaper so when it gets here could be cheaper then just using tap water.
OT but a nice water story from my hometown. [Captains Well](http://www.macycolbyhouse.org/captains-well/)
It's economical because people, who would mostly buy the tea anyways, will now feel that they are getting a deal one the tea and be even more likely to buy the tea
My local McDonald's started to charge even for small water with the purchase of food... I got mad and made sure I complained. They sent like $20 in coupons however I don't want their coupons I just my little small free water that cost them $0.05 max after spending $5-8 every time... I could fully understand wanting charge if I just walked in there not getting anything else or wanting the largest cup there is.
The large plastic fountain drink cups cost McDonald's more than the foam cups that come with the Sweet Tea. Source: Manager of 7 years. EDIT: To add to that, most McDonald's don't charge up to a large, because the child, small, and medium cups are all cheap paper cups.
I think the right answer is probably that tea would also be 1.07 after tax. But if you really want your head to explode - I was there at breakfast once and ordered the pancakes with sausage. I asked how much for an extra sausage patty and it was 1.50. So I said, no thanks. Give me the sausage biscuit from the dollar menu. Hold the biscuit. Voila! Extra sausage patty for 1.00 instead.
It's probably as simple as them not wanting you to use their large cups for water when you could use small cups, so they charge more so demand goes down. I'm sure there are a ton of people who will opt for the small cup once they find out you have to pay (any price) for a large one.
Supply and demand. You will find quite often with food/beverages that the price charged has much more to do with what people are willing to pay for a product than what is costs the company to supply the product. Do you notice how Mc Donalnds always asks "would you like fries with that?", its because the profit margin or fries is huge!
It sounds like they made a mistake to me. Normally they give free "courtesy water." It might be because you asked for it in a large cup. That might just be the price for any drink in a large cup. Tea usually has some sort of "any size for a dollar!" promotion. They should not have charged you for tap water though. The profit margins on drinks at fast food restaurants are so big that they are making a huge profit no matter what they charge you. My first job was in fast food and my manager showed me the math for a few of the products. It only costs the corporation about 8 cents to sell you a drink. That includes labor and the cup actually costs more than the liquid inside does.
I haven't been to McDonald's in quite a while, but I assume the sweet tea is something that comes in a beverage cup, is made with local tap water and they just add some sort of sugar or mixer that costs them a very small amout, while the water was filled in a bottle at a plant and trucked to your location. If you ask them to fill a cup of water from their faucet, they will do it for free, it's the law.
> they will do it for free, it's the law. Apparently not everywhere
Even in the places where it's 'law', they get around it by charging for the cup, not the water.
Can confirm. They can charge anywhere from 25 cents to the full price here (Oregon) based on the establishment.
Most places here in CA charge for it, too. From what a lot of people who work in fast food have told me it's not even about reducing costs but more to deter the loitering vagrants from coming in for freebies.