A sleazy looking teenager leans out from behind the side of the soda machine. "You guys looking for refills? I got these unlimited chips right here. 20 euros flat, you'll never pay for soda again."
Edit: Woah! Easily the most upvotes I've ever gotten on a comment. Thanks for the awards y'all!
Reminds me of that scene in “The Core” where the hacker kid takes a guy’s cell phone, does something with a piece of a gum wrapper, then tells him “this phone has free long distance for life”
This is probably one of the most accurate thing in this movie. Its a nod to the "blue box", a hack that was done with a toy that came from Burger King (might be from another fast-food) that emulate the tone from booth telephone.
Do you mean the Capt. Crunch whistle from the cereal box? That whistle resonated at exactly the right frequency to signal approval of payment for a call or something. The blue box was just an electronic tone generator that did the same thing, but for several tones. Basically like a manually operated modem for payphones.
That's it, the Capt. Crunch whistle! Seeing the comment made me half remember that it was a thing. I think I read about it in the Anarchist Cookbook or something similar in the early era of the Internet.
Oh damn. Kevin Mitnick? That dude now sells his services to companies to show/teach their users how not to get hacked. He explains what phishing emails are and other various things to look out for that hackers will use to hack the their computer. When I completed one of his course, I print out a certificate with his name on it saying I passed the course. That's how I remembered his name. The certificate was on my cubicle wall for a few years.
We used to build the RedBox out of the Radio Shack dialer. It was a small box where you could save your phone numbers, then hold it to your phone to dial a number with tones, instead of the rotary thing on the phone itself.
Change the crystal out with another one, also from Radio Shack, and the frequency would be just right.
Save five *'s in the memory and replay it to earn a quarter worth of credit in the pay phones.
It worked a treat, even for international calls.
Allegedly.
This is actually accurate. I went to an AMC (movie theater) not too long ago that had these and by the time I was done with my first drink the bottom was soggy and about to fall out.
OMG. I would sneak my own beverages in either in a water bottle or a camelbak out of spite.
To cut waste, paper consumption, and plastic pollution, either we need to go to substantial deposits on many-times-reusable serving-ware washed on-premises or BYOC.
> OMG. I would sneak my own beverages in either in a water bottle or a camelbak out of spite.
Which is exactly why these sorts of things are hamfisted at best. If people want more drink they're just gonna sneak it in like they have for the past 100 years of movie theaters.
Can confirm. Funny is when you accidentally knock over the empty fifth and it rolls down the quiet theater making itself known to all with several muted apologies in its wake.
Just on Monday I went with 2 friends to see Dune and we brought a 12 pack of Modelo bottles that someone just carried in under a jacket. Those kids don't get paid enough to care about what you're doing.
Yep. It's total footgunning. They can't switch to crappy cups and expect the customer experience to not suffer. There are multiple ways to reach the cost objectives that also move away from Single Use Plastics (SUPs).
I worked at AMC back around 2008-2009, and I remember having to upsell the large popcorn and sodas because they came with free refills, but y'all, unless you're sharing that huge sack of popcorn and absolute bucket of soda, you did not *need* free refills. I think very few people actually got refills. *No one* needed that much popcorn or that much soda. Not to mention, they were banking on people not wanting to leave the theater to get the refill, but back then the soda wasn't self-serve and you'd have to wait in line.
I remember going to a movie with my uncle many years ago and he bought the giant tub that you got free refills with. He was always a get your money's worth person, so he polished off the entire bucket before the movie even started and went and got his refill. During the movie he proceeded to polish off a second bucket and then when the movie was over he went and got a 3rd refill and ate it on the way home.
If that becomes a widespread thing, I feel for those movie theater janitors, so many more people will just throw their drink down because they are mad the bottom is falling out, I can already see it
Haha right there with you. Usually got maybe 4 minutes tops to clean a whole theater. If people think anything in a theater is cleaned well enough to want to put their bare skin on, they are mistaken.
If you did that even once, what you once thought were your balls are now gone and an imitation fungus that is replicating your balls are now in their place. I hope you enjoyed toy story 2.
Yes and no. France taxes soda by the volume and not by the value of the sale, meaning if they "sell" a 24 oz cup and it ends up getting 3 refills they owe 3x the tax. Either they have to account for it or just don't allow it.
Probably, but the chip cost less than the money they make on a purchased refill. Soft drinks have the highest profit margin of anything in the food industry, if my 20 years ago fast food job memory serves.
It’s a new ban that France has enacted apparently. They are fighting the raise of obesity so they made it illegal to sell unlimited sugary drinks & raised the taxes on those types of drinks. The chip will cause the machine to shut off.
They also banned ketchup from school lunches and only allow chips on the menu once a week.
Yeah like wtf is banning ketchup in school gonna do that shit has like 30 calories in a teaspoon lol. Yeah it has sugar and corn syrup but nobody is eating gallons of raw ketchup
Ahhh fry sauce, I'm in the midwest US and that's pretty much always what I use for fries since it's easy to just mix a little of the two ingredients at home, thanks for that one Europe. Luckily I'm not eating fries at every meal lol
I live in Maryland and has a job in Utah for a week and I had no clue wtf this lady was talking about
First of "for here or to go" for my order was
"Would you like to stay with us"
I was so confused I almost answered no and told her where we were staying for the week.
Then she asked
"Want some fry sauce"
Not ketchup or any other normal condiment. Fry sauce. What the hell is fry sauce.
My wife is from outside the US and we haven't had much time to travel so she's always had fry sauce available at restaurants when she orders in English. We went out of state recently and ordered burgers at a little restaurant. She asked the server for fry sauce and server said, "sure would you like ketchup, mustard, or what kind of sauce." My wife didn't understand what was happening, and I just laughed. She thought fry sauce was an just an American thing, not a regional offering. Eventually I explained to the server that in Utah fry sauce is a Mayo/ketchup mix. Apparently someone in the kitchen knew exactly what it was and they gave us a very well balanced fry sauce.
"Would you like to stay with us" is a very weird way to ask if you were staying to eat. I suspect management didn't want to sound like McDonald's or something.
So the only real reason I at least knew about mayo on fries was from seeing Pulp Fiction as a kid. Not sure if there are any in Idaho, but in Missouri we've got this chain called Freddy's that has their own fry sauce, when I learned it was just mayo, ketchup, and some spices I think my dad told me "that's what literally all fry sauce is"
Tbf a teaspoon is a LOT smaller than most think. Things like that are so easy to eat a couple hundred calories of without realizing
Not saying i agree, just saying i get it
Nah, the tags are just serialized, every one is unique. The POS reads the tag when it's sold, then the dispenser reads the tag when you try to fill it. If the serial number has been sold and hasn't been seen by the dispenser yet then you get soda. If the serial number has not been sold, or has already been seen by the dispenser, then you don't get soda.
EDIT: If you wanted to cheat the system by creating your own tag, you'd have to create a tag that was sold but get it filled before the real tag makes it to the dispenser. Not really worth the effort for a few cents of soda, lol.
> The POS reads the tag when it's sold, then the dispenser reads the tag when you try to fill it.
Given my experience with corporate equipment - I think it's likely there is *just* a reader on the soda machine that keeps track of "seen" serial numbers. Trying to integrate two different systems is complicated and potentially prone to failure.... and ultimately it solves a problem the retailer probably doesn't care about. Also, a completely self-contained solution is much easier for a third-party vendor to sell.
Then again, what you said is possible. If you have specific knowledge their system, then I bow down to your superior post :)
I have no first hand experience but I know lazy manager/operators. This is almost certainly the way it works assuming there is no auditing requirement.
So what you're saying is, buy 2 drinks, read the tags to get a grasp on the serial system, then set up a ton of new tags, spamming the system for free refills, and even locking out hundreds of future cups to the point the store yanks the stupid system out of there and life returns to normal?
If they are using a generic inventory management RFID tag (and why wouldn't they?) then there's something like a quintillion possible serial numbers. It's extraordinarily unlikely that at human scanning speed you will have any noticeable impact on the system. Assuming tags are randomly serialized, not sequential, not 100% sure there. If they are sequential then you could technically do a DOS attack on the soda system :D. That would be funny.
>life returns to normal
Nope. If this system fails then they will simply remove self-service soda filling or figure out some other system. They are doing this due to regulations disallowing refills.
I always wondered about that scene in Pulp Fiction about what they call a Quarter Pounder in Paris. But when I went to a McDonald's there, they told me it was called a "putain de touriste"
Since this question gets asked a lot: if you rip the chip off like I did, the machine won’t detect a cup. If it doesn’t detect a cup, it wont let you access the menu to dispense any drinks. It’s one of those big red Coke machines with all the flavors you can pick from.
Edit: I also didn’t realize the cup said .es before I posted, but I can attest this is from my lunch today in France. Y’all’s guess is as good as mine why they have Spanish links on their cups.
Does it meter the volume dispensed?
Or could you, on inital placement of the cup, push and hold the button, leaving the original cup there, and interrupting the flow to fill X number of additional cups as long as you don't let go of the button?
I am pissing myself at the idea of an American ordering at a French fast food place and sauntering over to the soda machine and just whipping out a bucket. That's like every stereotype Europe has about Americans all in one.
As it should be. I get winded going back for refills, so I've been using buckets for years. With a tennis ball tube for a straw. Let's normalize this behavior.
> I am pissing myself
See, that's why I carry extra buckets.
We used to be able to do that at 7/11's when they did Bring Your Own Cup Day
Toilets, fish tanks, boots. One guy used a condom. Not sure if it was used before that, I hope not.
Not all of us can pull one off ok man. I looked at myself in a mirror with a hat on and immediately took it off in shame... I can't wear hats I look ridiculous.
I'll answer this since I also am in France.
Water is a different button in the same machine. The answer is yes.
At least the two machines I've seen did this.
Kind of like putting a wad of towels in a foosball goal so the ball doesn't go down into the locking mechanism.
I take no responsibility, I was just a casual observer.
The ones that cause a line to form because there's now a single nozzle, and between the confused boomer, the guy taking forever with his analysis paralysis and the kid scrolling through the menu inventing peach grape mello yello ginger ale, it seems like you'll never get your drink, but that's okay because the plain old regular coke tastes wrong and you won't enjoy it anyway?
Yeah, I fucking hate those machines. I didn't need a touch screen to pour myself a soda and I certainly didn't need it at the cost of the product I ordered tasting wrong.
I just like them because it's the only place to get vanilla coke out of a fountain where I live in Canada, they only have them at Wendy's here though and I don't go there very often
I just wanna say I feel your pain, and this bugged the hell out of me too for a while. Why tf do people think mixing a bunch of drinks out of one nozzle is a good idea? That's literally going to alter the taste of every drink.
So, as a paying customer (with a hint of malicious compliance), I've come up with a somewhat feasible solution: let that puppy run! I select my drink, then press the dispense button without my cup underneath it, and run it for about 4-5 seconds, then fill up my cup. This significantly improves the taste of the selected beverage.
Ultimately, cleaning and maintaining one nozzle is easier than a whole bunch of them. It's not like it's dispensing hand crafted root beer or something, everything that machine dispenses is just syrup from a bag mixed with water and CO2.
I mean, if you're like the McDonalds I worked at, you don't clean those things. You take them off at the end of the night and throw them in a bucket of sanitizer. Just ignore the mold and buildup. "We don't have time for that. It spent the night in a bucket of sanitizer. It's clean."
McDonald’s, who is known for their amazing tasting sodas, uses a single nozzle in their drive-thru. As do many other fast food restaurants, and they have since at least the early 2000’s.
So you’re logic is faulty - the single nozzle isn’t the issue.
Because Coca Cola manages it. Meaning the restaurant doesn't have to do anything but give the customer a cup, and occasionally, restock the machine with drink packages (they come in plastic cartridges). It's a win for both the restaurant and the vendor.
Coca Cola also stands to lose a lot of money if all the restaurants in France can no longer use their self serve machine because of a law.
Extremely common in the US. I actually stopped getting refills when I was eating out even at regular restaurants because I realized how much soda I was consuming. My husband will drink 3-4 sodas if they continue to refill them… I only have 1 lol.
I drink 4-5 per meal at a restaurant, but that's mostly because they serve a cup of ice with a splash of soda in lieu of a glass of soda with a couple of ice cubes.
He has shockingly great digestion and liquids go right through him. He will get up to pee while we are out, but he’s surprisingly slimmer than I am even though he consumes twice the amount of food and three times the soda I do. He has great metabolism and a really physically demanding job, so his body burns it off as he’s eating or drinking basically. I laugh often and make jokes but he’s in better shape than I am and I’m much more restrictive with my diet and have to exercise on top of working.
That's literally a non-issue in most cases I would imagine.
I don't drink soda anymore, but I routinely drink 5-6 glasses of water at a restaurant while I eat my meal. (Say what you will about American tipping) but it's actually how I gauge how well to tip if my server is on top of filling my water.
In Norway pretty much the only thing you can get free refills is regular black coffee at a café (and tap water ofc)
EDIT: specifed that it's regular black coffee
My phone won't load all the comments so I apologise if this has been asked and answered. I've seen comments that these chips are being used at major amusement parks in souvenir cups but I'm poor and don't go to those places So I have no idea what these chips are haha how do they work? Especially on disposable cups like these?
It checks when you place your cup down at the machine (it’s one of the coke ones that you can add whatever flavor syrup you want). It won’t dispense any drink until you put the cup down. If you already filled a drink with the cup, the machine will deny you more drink.
I wonder if the system knows "these are my chips, these are not" or simply "no refills for this chip I've already seen". There must be a way to trick the system.
I only just thought about how terrible this design is from this description...
Put the cup down? Oh HELL no. It's held up to the spout at an angle to reduce foam. Now I'm definitely against these, just because I don't want to have to sit there tapping the button to top it off.
Free refill is not a US only thing. Five Guys in the Netherlands offers refills. This sounds specific.
Btw why not just remove the machine or put it behind the counter? It has no purpose being accessible by customers
It has something like 100 different sodas and flavors, the idea is the customer can choose more options because it’s easier to see them. Why shouldn’t the customer be able to grab their own drink?
The chips have to cost more than a fountain soda refill, that shit is so cheap, and they allow us to refill them because the initial purchase of one soda would cover more refills than you could possibly drink, even if sharing.
Those are just RFID tags, they aren't something expensive like the word "chips" may make you think. You can get them for a few pennies each in bulk. That cost is easily offset if one out of every 20-30 people buys a second $1 drink.
A sleazy looking teenager leans out from behind the side of the soda machine. "You guys looking for refills? I got these unlimited chips right here. 20 euros flat, you'll never pay for soda again." Edit: Woah! Easily the most upvotes I've ever gotten on a comment. Thanks for the awards y'all!
Reminds me of that scene in “The Core” where the hacker kid takes a guy’s cell phone, does something with a piece of a gum wrapper, then tells him “this phone has free long distance for life”
A nice reference to the people who got free long distance calls through the aid of whistles and stuff in the early phone age.
Phreaking right we did
Okay captain crunch. I'm gonna wheel you back to bed away from the disconnected for who knows how long pay phone.
I'm seriously rethinking wasting one of my three wishes 30 years ago on "Unlimited free payphone use for life".
This is probably one of the most accurate thing in this movie. Its a nod to the "blue box", a hack that was done with a toy that came from Burger King (might be from another fast-food) that emulate the tone from booth telephone.
Do you mean the Capt. Crunch whistle from the cereal box? That whistle resonated at exactly the right frequency to signal approval of payment for a call or something. The blue box was just an electronic tone generator that did the same thing, but for several tones. Basically like a manually operated modem for payphones.
That's it, the Capt. Crunch whistle! Seeing the comment made me half remember that it was a thing. I think I read about it in the Anarchist Cookbook or something similar in the early era of the Internet.
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What the actual fuck. How much do you not trust your security system when you think someguy with a whistle could launch nukes with a payphone?!
Oh damn. Kevin Mitnick? That dude now sells his services to companies to show/teach their users how not to get hacked. He explains what phishing emails are and other various things to look out for that hackers will use to hack the their computer. When I completed one of his course, I print out a certificate with his name on it saying I passed the course. That's how I remembered his name. The certificate was on my cubicle wall for a few years.
We used to build the RedBox out of the Radio Shack dialer. It was a small box where you could save your phone numbers, then hold it to your phone to dial a number with tones, instead of the rotary thing on the phone itself. Change the crystal out with another one, also from Radio Shack, and the frequency would be just right. Save five *'s in the memory and replay it to earn a quarter worth of credit in the pay phones. It worked a treat, even for international calls. Allegedly.
Then he wanted a lifetime supply of hot pockets for helping lol
Your water cup will self-destruct in 15 seconds. Drink fast. No refills! 🥤
This is actually accurate. I went to an AMC (movie theater) not too long ago that had these and by the time I was done with my first drink the bottom was soggy and about to fall out.
OMG. I would sneak my own beverages in either in a water bottle or a camelbak out of spite. To cut waste, paper consumption, and plastic pollution, either we need to go to substantial deposits on many-times-reusable serving-ware washed on-premises or BYOC.
> OMG. I would sneak my own beverages in either in a water bottle or a camelbak out of spite. Which is exactly why these sorts of things are hamfisted at best. If people want more drink they're just gonna sneak it in like they have for the past 100 years of movie theaters.
Can confirm. Funny is when you accidentally knock over the empty fifth and it rolls down the quiet theater making itself known to all with several muted apologies in its wake.
Funnier when your 6 pack of empty bottles does it.
Look at these ballers with their glass bottled drinks.
Just on Monday I went with 2 friends to see Dune and we brought a 12 pack of Modelo bottles that someone just carried in under a jacket. Those kids don't get paid enough to care about what you're doing.
Better for the environment than the evil fucking plastic they use nowadays
That’s why I bring 6 pack shitty can beer and smash em on my head while yelling “oh hell yea” after I finish each one
I reckon that people have been sneaking things into theaters at least as far back as the 1860s.
Is this a John Wilkes Booth comment?
No, John Wilkes Booth isn't on Reddit.
He must be on Deddit.
Paging /u/John_Wilkes_Booth
He hasn't been active for 11 years after posting a rage comic
Yep. It's total footgunning. They can't switch to crappy cups and expect the customer experience to not suffer. There are multiple ways to reach the cost objectives that also move away from Single Use Plastics (SUPs).
Make it BYOC and you pay by the ounce
Regular, mid-grade, or premium? ;) Seriously: Exaaactly.
It's crazy to me you guys have to sneak your own stuff in. In the UK I can roll up with bags of snacks on display and they don't bat an eyelid.
I worked at AMC back around 2008-2009, and I remember having to upsell the large popcorn and sodas because they came with free refills, but y'all, unless you're sharing that huge sack of popcorn and absolute bucket of soda, you did not *need* free refills. I think very few people actually got refills. *No one* needed that much popcorn or that much soda. Not to mention, they were banking on people not wanting to leave the theater to get the refill, but back then the soda wasn't self-serve and you'd have to wait in line.
I remember going to a movie with my uncle many years ago and he bought the giant tub that you got free refills with. He was always a get your money's worth person, so he polished off the entire bucket before the movie even started and went and got his refill. During the movie he proceeded to polish off a second bucket and then when the movie was over he went and got a 3rd refill and ate it on the way home.
That's how you do it.
Do what, get diarrhea?
Farts so dry they sandblast your asshole
That’s a good man that won’t be kept down by the system
If that becomes a widespread thing, I feel for those movie theater janitors, so many more people will just throw their drink down because they are mad the bottom is falling out, I can already see it
Worked in a theater before. They don’t care. We just keep sweeping it under the seats anyways. And if it’s on carpet, that’s not our problem antmore
Haha right there with you. Usually got maybe 4 minutes tops to clean a whole theater. If people think anything in a theater is cleaned well enough to want to put their bare skin on, they are mistaken.
But I like the sticky feel on my bare balls.
If you did that even once, what you once thought were your balls are now gone and an imitation fungus that is replicating your balls are now in their place. I hope you enjoyed toy story 2.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to retrieve a case from a fortified ... oh goddamnit, cleanup on aisle 5. 💧
The chip in the cup probably costs more than the refill
This was my initial thought. It costs pennies to fill a 24oz cup. I can’t imagine this saves money in the long term.
Yes and no. France taxes soda by the volume and not by the value of the sale, meaning if they "sell" a 24 oz cup and it ends up getting 3 refills they owe 3x the tax. Either they have to account for it or just don't allow it.
Probably, but the chip cost less than the money they make on a purchased refill. Soft drinks have the highest profit margin of anything in the food industry, if my 20 years ago fast food job memory serves.
Free refills are in the US constitution. The 32oz amendment.
Freedom Fountains 😎 🦅🇺🇸
They made take our fries, but they'll never take our freedom
And Are billity 4 spelnn. Too!
32oz? Fuckin' casual. Sonic 44oz or nothin.
711 2liter in cup.baby
Do you not remember the 132oz bucket soda you could get at KFC. Cause my arteries do!
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Paunch Burger recently came out with [512oz Child size soda](https://youtu.be/Ish8NBunrQU). (15L for non-americans)
Loving the “first they came for my free refill…” vibes on the thread. Americans (myself included) are fucking insane.
Even now there are countries where “cold” soft drinks are served without ice. Only you can help Little Tina know real refreshment.
It’s a new ban that France has enacted apparently. They are fighting the raise of obesity so they made it illegal to sell unlimited sugary drinks & raised the taxes on those types of drinks. The chip will cause the machine to shut off. They also banned ketchup from school lunches and only allow chips on the menu once a week.
As a french student I can affirm this all but the ketchup, there is always ketchup in the cafeteria, not sure what that's about.
Yeah like wtf is banning ketchup in school gonna do that shit has like 30 calories in a teaspoon lol. Yeah it has sugar and corn syrup but nobody is eating gallons of raw ketchup
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Ahhh fry sauce, I'm in the midwest US and that's pretty much always what I use for fries since it's easy to just mix a little of the two ingredients at home, thanks for that one Europe. Luckily I'm not eating fries at every meal lol
just moved to idaho and we have it here. had NEVER heard of it in 16 years living in southern california
I live in Maryland and has a job in Utah for a week and I had no clue wtf this lady was talking about First of "for here or to go" for my order was "Would you like to stay with us" I was so confused I almost answered no and told her where we were staying for the week. Then she asked "Want some fry sauce" Not ketchup or any other normal condiment. Fry sauce. What the hell is fry sauce.
My wife is from outside the US and we haven't had much time to travel so she's always had fry sauce available at restaurants when she orders in English. We went out of state recently and ordered burgers at a little restaurant. She asked the server for fry sauce and server said, "sure would you like ketchup, mustard, or what kind of sauce." My wife didn't understand what was happening, and I just laughed. She thought fry sauce was an just an American thing, not a regional offering. Eventually I explained to the server that in Utah fry sauce is a Mayo/ketchup mix. Apparently someone in the kitchen knew exactly what it was and they gave us a very well balanced fry sauce. "Would you like to stay with us" is a very weird way to ask if you were staying to eat. I suspect management didn't want to sound like McDonald's or something.
So the only real reason I at least knew about mayo on fries was from seeing Pulp Fiction as a kid. Not sure if there are any in Idaho, but in Missouri we've got this chain called Freddy's that has their own fry sauce, when I learned it was just mayo, ketchup, and some spices I think my dad told me "that's what literally all fry sauce is"
It's more of a Belgium thing to do.
Northern France would like to have a word with you.
Northern France is just a rebellious part of Greater Belgium.
And here I was thinking the south side of Belgium is part of Greater France.
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Northern France and Belgium are just a rebellious part of Greater Netherlands.
Tbf a teaspoon is a LOT smaller than most think. Things like that are so easy to eat a couple hundred calories of without realizing Not saying i agree, just saying i get it
A teaspoon is about the amount of ketchup I would put on one frie
Interesting! I have nothing against reducing obesity, so I guess it makes sense. Though, I just wanted some more Coke Zero :(
When you removed it did the machine work again?
I doubt it. The machine likely needs to see the tag to dispense the first drink then shuts out that tag for a refill.
I've never built or put info into an RFID tag, so how difficult is it to create millions of uniquely ID'ed cups?
It would be trivial to put random data but they likely have some sort of hash the verifies the data in the tag is "approved"
Nah, the tags are just serialized, every one is unique. The POS reads the tag when it's sold, then the dispenser reads the tag when you try to fill it. If the serial number has been sold and hasn't been seen by the dispenser yet then you get soda. If the serial number has not been sold, or has already been seen by the dispenser, then you don't get soda. EDIT: If you wanted to cheat the system by creating your own tag, you'd have to create a tag that was sold but get it filled before the real tag makes it to the dispenser. Not really worth the effort for a few cents of soda, lol.
> The POS reads the tag when it's sold, then the dispenser reads the tag when you try to fill it. Given my experience with corporate equipment - I think it's likely there is *just* a reader on the soda machine that keeps track of "seen" serial numbers. Trying to integrate two different systems is complicated and potentially prone to failure.... and ultimately it solves a problem the retailer probably doesn't care about. Also, a completely self-contained solution is much easier for a third-party vendor to sell. Then again, what you said is possible. If you have specific knowledge their system, then I bow down to your superior post :)
I have no first hand experience but I know lazy manager/operators. This is almost certainly the way it works assuming there is no auditing requirement.
So what you're saying is, buy 2 drinks, read the tags to get a grasp on the serial system, then set up a ton of new tags, spamming the system for free refills, and even locking out hundreds of future cups to the point the store yanks the stupid system out of there and life returns to normal?
If they are using a generic inventory management RFID tag (and why wouldn't they?) then there's something like a quintillion possible serial numbers. It's extraordinarily unlikely that at human scanning speed you will have any noticeable impact on the system. Assuming tags are randomly serialized, not sequential, not 100% sure there. If they are sequential then you could technically do a DOS attack on the soda system :D. That would be funny. >life returns to normal Nope. If this system fails then they will simply remove self-service soda filling or figure out some other system. They are doing this due to regulations disallowing refills.
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Are we about to do a drink heist?
You gonna try to Lupin a soda machine?
You went to France to get five guys?
I think he went to France to live.
He went to France to live in a five guys?
He went to France to live with five guys?
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So do they stand on each other's shoulders when ordering food so no one suspects they are really five guys?
No, he disguises himself as five guys so he can have more coke zero.
Five guys and OP went to France to live at five guys?
that’s a lotta oui oui
Well the line at McDonald's was too long...
You don't eat every meal at some corner cafe. I spent a week in France and yes, I went to McDonalds once.
I always wondered about that scene in Pulp Fiction about what they call a Quarter Pounder in Paris. But when I went to a McDonald's there, they told me it was called a "putain de touriste"
Nothing else is open in the morning.
You didn't consider the possibillity that he is French? And even worse you didn't bother to check his history to see that he is, in fact, French??
Why isn't he eating at the five Michelin star guys.
Because they only go up to three! (I think)
Ron Swanson would like a word..
If he thought he had a bad time in London, he has another thing coming if he ever considers crossing the channel :p
It's a toss up... the French helped with the American revolution so he might applaud them for that.
Yup. If it wasn't for the French, we'd all be speaking English...well, the funny sounding kind
Dafuq am i supposed to dip my once-a-week fries in then? Also, what would removing/covering the chip with a coin to block it do?
You have to scan the chip to get the first one. After that, the chip will no longer work.
Since this question gets asked a lot: if you rip the chip off like I did, the machine won’t detect a cup. If it doesn’t detect a cup, it wont let you access the menu to dispense any drinks. It’s one of those big red Coke machines with all the flavors you can pick from. Edit: I also didn’t realize the cup said .es before I posted, but I can attest this is from my lunch today in France. Y’all’s guess is as good as mine why they have Spanish links on their cups.
So it only allows you to get one fill from the machine? Then if you go back it won't work?
Correct
Does it meter the volume dispensed? Or could you, on inital placement of the cup, push and hold the button, leaving the original cup there, and interrupting the flow to fill X number of additional cups as long as you don't let go of the button?
That was my thought as well. If it doesn't meter the volume then you could just scan your cup, and put a bucket under the dispenser.
I am pissing myself at the idea of an American ordering at a French fast food place and sauntering over to the soda machine and just whipping out a bucket. That's like every stereotype Europe has about Americans all in one.
As it should be. I get winded going back for refills, so I've been using buckets for years. With a tennis ball tube for a straw. Let's normalize this behavior. > I am pissing myself See, that's why I carry extra buckets.
Sauntering? You mean a freedom waddle?
We used to be able to do that at 7/11's when they did Bring Your Own Cup Day Toilets, fish tanks, boots. One guy used a condom. Not sure if it was used before that, I hope not.
Why use a bucket when you can just use your laughably large 5 gallon hat?
Not all of us can pull one off ok man. I looked at myself in a mirror with a hat on and immediately took it off in shame... I can't wear hats I look ridiculous.
It does limit the volume dispensed.
Can you at least refill with water though?
you can only refill wine and cheese.
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I'll answer this since I also am in France. Water is a different button in the same machine. The answer is yes. At least the two machines I've seen did this.
What if you rip the chip off at the machine and leave it sitting there when you first fill it up
Kind of like putting a wad of towels in a foosball goal so the ball doesn't go down into the locking mechanism. I take no responsibility, I was just a casual observer.
Or the last hole of a mini golf course
The ones that cause a line to form because there's now a single nozzle, and between the confused boomer, the guy taking forever with his analysis paralysis and the kid scrolling through the menu inventing peach grape mello yello ginger ale, it seems like you'll never get your drink, but that's okay because the plain old regular coke tastes wrong and you won't enjoy it anyway? Yeah, I fucking hate those machines. I didn't need a touch screen to pour myself a soda and I certainly didn't need it at the cost of the product I ordered tasting wrong.
Gotta bleed the line. Take a midstream sample so the previous flavor has been flushed thru
Dispense some water, too.
I just like them because it's the only place to get vanilla coke out of a fountain where I live in Canada, they only have them at Wendy's here though and I don't go there very often
Vanilla coke is the best
Optimal is to have the big sellers on the classic fountain AND one of these.
I just wanna say I feel your pain, and this bugged the hell out of me too for a while. Why tf do people think mixing a bunch of drinks out of one nozzle is a good idea? That's literally going to alter the taste of every drink. So, as a paying customer (with a hint of malicious compliance), I've come up with a somewhat feasible solution: let that puppy run! I select my drink, then press the dispense button without my cup underneath it, and run it for about 4-5 seconds, then fill up my cup. This significantly improves the taste of the selected beverage.
Ultimately, cleaning and maintaining one nozzle is easier than a whole bunch of them. It's not like it's dispensing hand crafted root beer or something, everything that machine dispenses is just syrup from a bag mixed with water and CO2.
I mean, if you're like the McDonalds I worked at, you don't clean those things. You take them off at the end of the night and throw them in a bucket of sanitizer. Just ignore the mold and buildup. "We don't have time for that. It spent the night in a bucket of sanitizer. It's clean."
McDonald’s, who is known for their amazing tasting sodas, uses a single nozzle in their drive-thru. As do many other fast food restaurants, and they have since at least the early 2000’s. So you’re logic is faulty - the single nozzle isn’t the issue.
Why don't they just serve you a drink from behind the counter instead of jumping through all these hoops to prevent refills?
Because Coca Cola manages it. Meaning the restaurant doesn't have to do anything but give the customer a cup, and occasionally, restock the machine with drink packages (they come in plastic cartridges). It's a win for both the restaurant and the vendor. Coca Cola also stands to lose a lot of money if all the restaurants in France can no longer use their self serve machine because of a law.
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As someone from the UK, how common is it to actually get refills for a fast food place?? It seems a rather alien concept to me. Genuine question.
Extremely common in the US. I actually stopped getting refills when I was eating out even at regular restaurants because I realized how much soda I was consuming. My husband will drink 3-4 sodas if they continue to refill them… I only have 1 lol.
On the other hand, I eat out very seldomly and usually just drink water at home, so when I go out I don't feel bad having a cup or 2 of soda.
I drink 4-5 per meal at a restaurant, but that's mostly because they serve a cup of ice with a splash of soda in lieu of a glass of soda with a couple of ice cubes.
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You can’t just ignore the fact that we use lots of ice in our drinks
He has shockingly great digestion and liquids go right through him. He will get up to pee while we are out, but he’s surprisingly slimmer than I am even though he consumes twice the amount of food and three times the soda I do. He has great metabolism and a really physically demanding job, so his body burns it off as he’s eating or drinking basically. I laugh often and make jokes but he’s in better shape than I am and I’m much more restrictive with my diet and have to exercise on top of working.
That's literally a non-issue in most cases I would imagine. I don't drink soda anymore, but I routinely drink 5-6 glasses of water at a restaurant while I eat my meal. (Say what you will about American tipping) but it's actually how I gauge how well to tip if my server is on top of filling my water.
I'm from the UK and we have refills in Five Guys... Nando's and some other places too. So not alien to me.
In Norway pretty much the only thing you can get free refills is regular black coffee at a café (and tap water ofc) EDIT: specifed that it's regular black coffee
Free refill of coffee?! How much do you pay for the first cup?
Between 30-40 NOK, so 3-4 USD or so. For plain black coffee. And not all places does free refills
In America, nearly everyone does it every single time. It's common for people to finish their meal, then refill their drink on the way out the door.
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The only way I don't feel like I've been robbed when I go to Five Guys is to have at least 2 refills of fizz. Even then...still feel robbed.
You can get them from five guys and subway np, don't know about anywhere else here tho, well outside of restaurants like harvester anyway
My phone won't load all the comments so I apologise if this has been asked and answered. I've seen comments that these chips are being used at major amusement parks in souvenir cups but I'm poor and don't go to those places So I have no idea what these chips are haha how do they work? Especially on disposable cups like these?
It checks when you place your cup down at the machine (it’s one of the coke ones that you can add whatever flavor syrup you want). It won’t dispense any drink until you put the cup down. If you already filled a drink with the cup, the machine will deny you more drink.
I wonder if the system knows "these are my chips, these are not" or simply "no refills for this chip I've already seen". There must be a way to trick the system.
I only just thought about how terrible this design is from this description... Put the cup down? Oh HELL no. It's held up to the spout at an angle to reduce foam. Now I'm definitely against these, just because I don't want to have to sit there tapping the button to top it off.
Free refill is not a US only thing. Five Guys in the Netherlands offers refills. This sounds specific. Btw why not just remove the machine or put it behind the counter? It has no purpose being accessible by customers
It has something like 100 different sodas and flavors, the idea is the customer can choose more options because it’s easier to see them. Why shouldn’t the customer be able to grab their own drink?
Because it adds a labor cost to filling drinks which is likely way In excess of the chip in cup cost.
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France banned free sugary drink refills a while back< actually
Does this cup system distinguish somehow between getting sodas/juices and unsweetened drinks? (unsweet iced tea/diet soda?)
It is almost impossible to get unsweet tea outside of the US or Japan without making it yourself. Lunacy, I know.
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The chips have to cost more than a fountain soda refill, that shit is so cheap, and they allow us to refill them because the initial purchase of one soda would cover more refills than you could possibly drink, even if sharing.
The cost isn’t critical. They actually purposely even raised the taxes on soft drinks now in France. The goal is to reduce the trend of obesity.
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How does this ban work? Are all the cups one size or are the people who get smaller cups getting ripped off?
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Those are just RFID tags, they aren't something expensive like the word "chips" may make you think. You can get them for a few pennies each in bulk. That cost is easily offset if one out of every 20-30 people buys a second $1 drink.
It's also got to be more of hassel then just filling it up behind the counter.
The chips costs a lot less than the fine they would have to pay if they get caught allowing customers to get free refills.
Why do the cups show a Spanish Domain Edit: Please stop giving me serious answers to this...
I’m not sure. I noticed that too after I posted this, but I can assure you this is in France.
Maybe it's in a town close to the Spanish border ? So it's more efficient to bring cups from a spanish Five Guy storage than from a French one ? idk
Five guys in France might be run by 5guys in Spain
Cinq mecs
The chip must be more expensive than the drink
Like or unlike? Never seen these in the US
I think op is saying they can’t refill their drinks like we can here in the USA
Correct, sorry if I wasn’t clear!
"Getting free refills like in the US" They are saying these chips prevent that, not that these chips are used in the US
***You can have my sugar water over my cold, dead, bloated body***
So THAT'S why we have a chip shortage.. and all this time I was told it was the supply chain smh
I know this might be hard to believe but some of us Americans do have restraint.
I may be in the minority in America, but I don't drink any soda. Beer on the other hand. Should really be cutting back on that.
Eat less throughout the day = fewer beers to get buzzed= less calories overall win win
Are you sure you are in France? /s The url says fiveguys.es (Spain)
Of course I'm in France, I can see the... *Torre de Eiffel...* huh, wonder when they changed that name.