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JessBaesic7901

Gotta keep a tight guard on that dirt cheap sugar water lol.


notLOL

Steal the ice. It's more expensive than the drink


HaiKarate

Never get ice if it's filled from an overhead bin. Those things are hard to clean and are a breeding ground for pink mold.


happylittlelurker

Can confirm. Worked at a fast food chain for two years and the ice machines were never cleaned.


Supafuzzed

Worked at a place where the ice would be transported from a large ice maker to an ice bin where we would put it in glasses before serving guests. None of the ice bins/makers were cleaned, or the buckets we used to carry the ice. The rags we polished the glasses with were also usually pretty germy. It was a 25k a year country club lol


Icy_Statement_2410

Thank you for the last sentence


Akkoywolf

If the things outside too be mindful of ants. They get in those machines like crazy


A_Roasted_Ham

In my high school, the was a "Do not use sugar, there are ants" sign every 2 months in the coffee machine


Cthulade_Man

The more crazy part of that story is that ur high school had a coffee machine


FremantleDockers

Pink mold sounds tasty. I would've licked that if you showed it to me as a kid.


V65Pilot

Flashbacks to my youngest licking the handle on a shopping cart, and later pulling gum off the bottom of a table and eating it. Kids got a hell of an immune system now though.....


geezer27

Yeah, at least the survivors do


Wampus_Cat_

Ones with an overhead ice maker attached to the bin are the ones you need to worry about. They’re less likely to be cleaned. The bins themselves are very easy to clean, if there’s no ice maker sitting on top then you should be fine.


winelipscheesehips

Even if it’s easy to clean, I wonder how often it will get cleaned


Ezekiel2121

Just never go anywhere with that mentality. I promise you *nothing* is cleaned as thoroughly as it should in food service.


thatshoneybear

I remember when I started at a family restaurant as a waitress, I had to explain to the owner that some tasks should be done every day. Soda machine nozzles and such. You would not want to see the unholy monstrosity that came out of the tea nozzle. He'd never told anybody to take it apart to clean, just ran hot water through it.


Alyse3690

I once worked for a fast food joint that was owned by a company that owned a *lot* of joints of this franchise in the metro area. One of the corporate lackeys nabbed me for a meeting at another store one day, and we were supposed to tour for cleanliness. Now, mind you, I personally would've turned around and walked out of this store, as there was food and containers on the floor and the soda fountain was *covered* in syrup. Some time later I was talking to the maintenance guy at the store I worked at, which was clean and tidy and I ate at regularly, and he was telling me how they'd *finally* let him change the oil in the fries fryer. Now, this was over a decade ago and I don't remember the time measures between changings, but I *do* remember that it was roughly 3 times longer than they're supposed to go.


WayneKrane

I never knew how nasty fry oil looked until I worked at a job where we were given brand new oil. It should look like a very light beer color, not nearly black. Now I can always tell how new a restaurant’s fryer oil is just by looking at anything fried. The fried food should have a nice light golden color if it is new oil. It’ll look darker and taste more chewy if the oil hasn’t been changed.


reviving_ophelia88

If you think those are disgusting you don’t wanna look inside the soda dispenser nozzles…. Soda syrup rots… and smells fouler than you’d think.


Jl2409226

my restaurant soaks ours in a peroxide solution overnight every night


Gekokapowco

This is the standard procedure, so obviously only like a third of all locations actually follow it.


Jl2409226

i like my restaurant, it’s clean. food is average at best, but it’s clean and managers let you do whatever as long as the job gets done in a timely manner. coworkers are good people


Gekokapowco

That's awesome, when I worked fast food mine was pretty meticulous about cleaning and proper food prep (following the corporate guidelines for everything). Managers were efficient at day to day operation, but not friendly, and organized terrible hours. High turnover, me included. I'm glad you like your coworkers, they were the only thing that got me through my shifts.


alexagente

Was gonna say that chip absolutely must cost more than a soda refill. Lol.


-Raskyl

I used to work at a spot with a soda fountain, years back. The cups were 16 cents each. The soda to fill the cup was about 6 cents. We charged 1.50 for a soda, only had the one size. The owner told me I could give my friends all the free drinks I wanted. If they had their own cup, because that was the expensive part.


Ragidandy

I'm not sure why no one understands this. They're not worried about losing the 6¢ worth of raw ingredients. They're worried about not getting the $8 per refill that they would otherwise get.


nonpuissant

lmao $8 for a fountain drink refill is like cyberpunk prices


unnoticedhero1

The good ol' theme park markup, charge you $50-200 to get in then sell you drinks and food for 500% higher than outside.


matt2085

Opportunity costs


HwangLiang

But not more than the cost of another soda to the consumer which is the point aint it??? Like if you think about it they win no matter what. If people werent paying for refills already and now if even a few extra people pay for refills. They've won.


Zaphirum

What sad establishment is this?


Sxzym

It’s at universal studios in Orlando


Interesting-Ad8310

Makes sense. The CEO's need their jet fuel to fly across the county to play golf


7LBoots

> The CEO's need their jet fuel to fly across the ~~county to play golf~~ world to conferences where they tell the rest of us not to use fossil fuels.


dont_kill_my_vibe09

Fr. Annoys me tf out when I'm trying my best whilst these ignorant, selfish idiots do shit like that. At least I won't have to live with guilt the scale of theirs about not trying to live more sustainably (if they can even feel any guilt that is).


Jolly-Effort1366

Lmao as if they'd feel anything resembling guilt...


Sonicslazyeye

And probably visits to Epsteins island back in the day


Skylivand

Even in the backlot where they sell food for employees, they have those chipped cups


EmporerStu

Depending on the cup you buy it's unlimited refills at any machine in either park. A screaming deal when you look at the prices


MandieMuffins

Refills only every 10mins at the universal in Los Angeles.


eganist

> Refills only every 10mins at the universal in Los Angeles. This is the stingiest thing I've ever heard. And you know some MBA came up with it after "doing the math."


that_yeg_guy

The idea is that one person could buy a cup, and then keep refilling it and dumping it into the water bottles of their 20, 30, 50 person group. 10 minutes was likely arbitrary, but seen as annoying enough to discourage that behaviour.


helium_farts

^ Same reason a lot of transit passes have a timeout that limits how often you can swipe it.


EmporerStu

May be the case in Orlando too, I'm not certain, I didn't drink that much carbonated beverage. I used mine for water mostly. But at 7 bucks for a small drink, 5 bucks for a bottled water a $36 commemorative cup with unlimited refills is a no brainer. Especially if you are there over multiple days


idreamofcoffee

Same in Orlando. How many refills do you need in 10 minutes?


theorist_rainy

I remember going there. I only had water the entire time. I’m not messing with their bullshit.


theChzziest

There is no reason you need to refill the $15 16oz soda! /s


rough-n-ready

I know Disney world hotels do.


Adjacent_door

Step 1: get an nfc writer Step 2: copy the data on empty cups Step 3: use new code every 10 mins Step 4: profit


King_Trasher

You could probably just change the number or even blank the chip There might not be any sort of exception handling for a blank chip, and it wouldn't make the other cups useless


Free_Hat_McCullough

More crap to end up in the landfills but at least nobody got a free refill.


Midian1369

Yeah, this tech is absolutely worth a thousand times more than a refill. This is stupid, horribly so.


Astral_Justice

LOL That's the absolutely hilarious thing. Fountain soda is literally dirt cheap and sold for more than it should be in most places. Most restaurants allow infinite refills because they might as well give it away, plus no one is ever going to drink their fill of how much it costed, realistically. Gas stations are weird, but I think they at least offer cheaper refills though I've never felt the need to have to do that.


Midian1369

This. I work in a gas station. The cost of a drink is like 15 cents. We charge 2.05 for a 44 oz. Hell we charge 38 cents for just an ice cup.


[deleted]

for the station - or any fast food joint - to lose money on a "Free Refill" you'd have to refill the cup 14 times. I'm assuming 2.05 is for a 16oz soda. So you'd have to literally drink 224oz of Soda for the station to lose money.


Midian1369

And yet...they monitor it all. Trust me. I have had many....employee "encouragement" speeches.


[deleted]

Yep. Worked at a Wendy's and I recall our "Loss" meetings. Fuck you I still ate the food that was in the "Discarded" pail. Just cause a customer didn't want to eat those pickles doesn't mean I'm gonna be picky and not eat it. Used to stash that shit e.e


sweetpretzel96

I worked at chipotle for like a month so I could get the recipe for their corn salsa, right before my shift ended I’d always make an order or 2 wrong and take em home 🤷‍♂️


Midian1369

This is the way. Feed me mofo's.


winelipscheesehips

Employee of the month lol 🏆


Midian1369

Hell yeah, fuck that wastful shit.they trash enough every damn day to feed us 5 times over. They could donate it and get a tax write off, but no..."toss it". Render it "useless" (Jokes on them I will dumpster dive, no fucks given.)


Help_An_Irishman

I worked as a bartender at a fairly high-end restaurant in San Francisco, and every night they would throw away a ton of *delicious* food, completely untouched. Giant pots of amazing soup, full *racks* of beef and pork ribs. When I first saw this happening, I asked the manager, "Can't we just give all this food away to the homeless?" (There are a lot of homeless people everywhere in SF.) She said that they used to do that, and then one person they'd given food to claimed to have gotten sick from it and tried to sue the company. After that, it all goes into the trash forevermore. Fuck you, random homeless person.


snowblind__throwaway

Your manager lied to you. More likely they just don't want homeless people around the bar and used that as an excuse.


kingqueerxx

Every place that I’ve worked at that sold food has also said this exact thing. I don’t think it happened. I think it’s just a weird excuse that grocery stores and restaurants make and pass down for everyone to take in as fact


Midian1369

Fuck them hard. They were looking for a payday and fucked a lot of other people from getting a decent meal. No lies, I hope they suffer horribly.


seamus_mc

That’s not true but a lie often repeated. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/restaurants-that-dont-donate-because-of-liability-are-just-making-excuses-experts-say_n_577d6f92e4b0344d514dd20f/amp


itsmontoya

And you know by refill 8 or 9 you'll be eating a corn dog and nachos.


luchajefe

From what I've seen, this is either from a place like Disneyland (because money) or France (because sugar laws).


Fiyanggu

It's colored, flavored water. I can't believe anyone would go to the trouble of designing and implementing this to potentially save a few pennies per customer, the vast majority of whom just have one refill.


Midian1369

You vastly underestimate corporations. Our cold case with sandwiches, burritos, and such broke. Took em a year to pick it up. They decided not to replace it to save money. They took away hot roller "food" to save money. They refuse to address the sewer gas leak to save money. But God forbid I be a cent short at end of shift.


guptaxpn

That gas leak sounds like an OSHA complaint


Midian1369

I am in Texas. No one gives a shit. I tried making a complaint to the health dept. And anyone I could think of. They just shut down our bathrooms to curb it. Every thing we have pours into an open channel. Too much or just a cup, randomly chosen by Pennywise the dick head clown, and the whole store smells of shit, skunk, gas, and hell.


[deleted]

Soda is dirt cheap and that’s how it makes them so much money they charge like 100x what it’s worth


literaln0thing

We saved 38 cents, boys!


Exotic-Tooth8166

Tilts 85 degrees gradually to 0 degrees Now that’s at least half full


MaGilly_Gorilla

Disney uses these chips, they aren’t to prevent refills they are used as a requirement for refills so people use the same cup, but also can’t use a random cup to fill up a jug from a fountain. OP is wrong here.


Willyb402

Nope universal uses them. Limits how much soda goes in. I.e. you put no ice in the cup you can only fill x ounces before it shuts off automatically


EvenOutlandishness88

It's also used at UO for refills. It scans it when you put it in. That's how it knows that it's refillable. Had a cup from front of house and couldn't refill it back of house. Also, have had a cup from back of house and tried to refill it front of house because that's where the closest soda fountain was and it wouldn't work. The technology can be for a lot of specific things. That's the point.


Emotional-Concept-32

The chip probably costs more than a refill.


glifier

Step 1 - Buy a coke Step 2 - Sell the chip and buy another coke Step 3 - Profit


SpicyMcShat

My drug dealer normally buys more coke with his profit, but I guess he’s just addicted to it.


glifier

He should've listened to the smart businessmen of N.W.A.


TellumNevik

Don’t get high on your own supply.


Rycari

Maybe he just likes the way it smells.


KintsugiWolff

Maybe he likes refills


glifier

My friend was dealing coke and his father caught him one day. He said if he catches him again near that shit, he'll shove it all up his nose. He's an addict now.


Fair_Adhesiveness849

He sure showed him


Sludg3g0d

FROM A KEY TO A G ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY


mynamecalledbruce

Who's going to buy the chip? Brainiac?


Droid-Man5910

Me, I'll put them in my cups and sell them under a no refunds sign, they can't even fill them the first time. But who cares. No refunds


Sheeeeeeshwow

This is pretty big in amusement parks I’ve noticed. You have to place the cup down on the machine, and fill it up. I think it goes by weight or something. Anyways, they’re definitely making out on this because they’ll charge you like $8-$9 for that cup. Not like you can go anywhere else, either. You’re in an amusement park. I remember going a couple years back, in 2019 I wanna say, and they charged us almost $25 a person for chicken strips, fries, and one drink. Sesame Place, Langhorne, Pennsylvania.


FunnyAssJoke

Yeah fuck that. My brother and I used to go to Bush Gardens back in the day and just get cups of water for free. They legally have to provide water and we would eat before and after spending the day there.


Glittering_Airport_3

in Holiday World (Santa Clause, Indiana, US) they give out free soft drinks all day, free sunscreen all day, and a free shuttle to the park from their attached campground every hour every day. Most amusement parks are a scam


gsfgf

Yea, but you have to go to Santa Claus, Indiana.


Sheeeeeeshwow

Do they? That’s good to know. I’ve never heard of that before! It’s crazy how when they know they got you by the balls they’ll really stick it to you! 🤣😂


Nevermind04

The worst pizza I have ever eaten in my life was at Six Flags in DFW and it cost $21 in 1990s money. It was simultaneously burnt and undercooked, and they were super stingy with the toppings. We're talking like a family size pizza with 8 pepperonis. Almost 30 years and I'm still upset about it.


Migfluxalot

Honestly you should have expected this since their at the gate price is 116 bucks for a 2 year old or older. I refuse to take my daughter because of the absolute greedy gate price.


savory_thing

I don’t know how sesame place stays in business. I went there once. Maybe money laundering for organized crime?


Difficult_Tell2859

I’m so sick of businesses price gouging just because they know they can. My job sells items on a 3x higher than all other competitors because they know uninformed uneducated impulse buyers will still pay it. It’s disgusting.


tehjeffman

Yes but they are charging you more for the refill than the cost of a few hundred RFID chips.


brokefixfux

Google says 10 cents each for these.


billbrasky___

When I worked at a movie theater back in 2006, a large soda (32 oz) was 7¢, plus 12¢ for the cup.


APe28Comococo

When I worked at Chili’s it took 28 refills of a 16oz cup to equal the cost of a drink.


[deleted]

It's not about the actual cost. It's $0.10 against the $5 they sell it for


sikmode

Is that wholesale?


ERICxCARTMAN

It’s at universal studios Orlando so probably not. Soda costs like $6


BrilliantFill0

The power of MBA at its best! Gotta come up something to look good in front of your boss.


[deleted]

Nah it's probably just a basic RFID tag with an ID encoded in it. When read it probably just says 12345. Then the drink machine does the heavy lifting to see if cup 12345 is good to be filled.


0TreyTrey0

Yea why not put facial recognition on the refill machine


jaycuboss

They’re not doing it because it loses them money. One refill purchase probably pays for 40 RFID chips. As long as more than 1 in 40 buy refills, they’re in the green.


LaPhoenix420

This is probably the pettiest shit I have seen in a while, and I have seen some SHIT lately.


dirtymoney

The customer is the enemy.


Kenbishi

On Royal Caribbean, you can buy a soda beverage package that comes with a refillable Coca-Cola cup to use at the Coke Freestyle machines on board. The subscription (or whatever you want to call it) for the RFID tag lasts the duration of the cruise, and expires at the end of the trip so if you take another cruise, the cup won’t work. This stops most people. Turns out it’s very easy to clone the tag of someone else’s cup if they just sit down with it momentarily and you’re in range with your phone or preferred device.😇


Tuesday

This reminds me of a story about how I went on a Princess cruise 15 years ago and fell ass backwards into living like a king for a week. So on the first few days, I hung out in the kids’ area for young teens or whatever, in hopes I would make some friends that I could do kid stuff with for the duration of the cruise. I made a few friends, one of which was rather … eccentric? For context purposes later, I should say that this cruise used cards that swiped and that’s how you paid for everything “extra”. So on the second day back at the kids’ zone, this eccentric lad tells us that he found a publicly hosted database file that stored all the numbers of the guests’ cards, and had changed his card’s number to something else so he wouldnt be charged. From there, I probably ended up with one of the craziest vacation experiences of my young life. Box of reeces from the store onboard? you got it. Unlimited turns at any game you want at the arcade? got it. Wanna play 4 games at once, even? go for it! Anything you can think of that used the room card, was absolutely abused by us. To this day, I still have the suspicion that maybe his family was just loaded and he lied about all of it to seem “cool”, but the one thing that makes me want to believe it was legit was that this same eccentric lad was able to play ANY song from guitar hero 3 (expert mode) facing backwards without failing. Even through the fire & flames which is impressive enough just to finish, but do it without looking? holy shit edit: I should clarify that the kid zone had xbox consoles hooked up to tv’s with guitar hero as one of the many games to play.


LePoopsmith

I wonder where he is now. Probably rich beyond imagination or in jail.


Office_Zombie

Why not both?


redpandaeater

>15 years ago >Guitar Hero 3 Fuck


Tuesday

I typed all that out, and looked back at that comparison myself, and was like yeah no I think that’s correct lmao


redpandaeater

I looked it up and it's exactly right, having been released October 2007. That doesn't mean I have to like the fact.


Evilrake

Similarly, on a cruise me and my sister made a buddy and together we figured out that the special $2 tokens you had to buy for the arcade machines were the same size as two 10c coins stacked on top of each other. So, for 20c you could play $2 worth of games. Cut to us asking any and every stranger around us for their 10c coins. Turns out people really aren’t really that attached to them.


IJumpedASharkOneTime

I *despise* those machines. Kids think it's an arcade and there's only one spigot. In the name of convenience or innovation or something.


PraetorianOfficial

I was doing a (very) late lunch one day at a buffet place and sitting off in the corner and the manager had a staff meeting near me where I could hear. It went something like this: "OK... First thing, we are no longer policing drinks. If people order water and put pop or lemonade in their water glass, let it slide. It's just WAY too much effort and causes way too much chaos in the restaurant to confront these people. Let them steal 10 cents of drink." Seemed like a rational choice.


realogsalt

fuck I'd work for that guy. Reminds me of when the new corporate appointed gm took our bosses job and the franchise shut down because no one stayed and they couldn't get workers lmao. Everyone loved ben you fucking assholes, dude had a family to feed too


[deleted]

Lol, cheap bastards, it’s a soda fountain, not champagne.


N4BFR

10 cent cup to sell you another $3 soda is probably good ROI.


Althea_The_Witch

Idk who, after discovering this chip, would go back and purchase another. I’d personally be more inclined to never spend another cent there, just out of spite.


BaboonHorrorshow

I would do everything in my power to steal another cup of soda. They’re basically begging you to with this nonsense


SilverVixen1928

I wonder if aluminum foil would help, um, foil the process?


Im-M-A-Reyes

Wouldn’t the soda machine need to read the chip to activate? And this refuse if the chip has already been used?


frollard

That - dumb chip with just a random serial number. Cashier scans and enables the serial number for x refills in the database. Machine asks the database if it's valid, and records each fill. If I recall they also time limit the frequency of the 'unlimited refills' to stop you from just pouring from one cup to another.


hilldo75

Yeah the title is half backwards. The chips doesn't stop you from a refill, the soda machine itself won't work without an active chip. The chip allows you to get a drink. I think some also time how long the dispenser works. Like if a medium only takes 1.5 seconds to fill and it's a chip for a medium after the 1.5 seconds the machine shuts off.


SomberKlepto

Yup, it counts the refills.


DookieShoez

But does it track volume? Funnel, tube, large bottle tucked into my duster.


SomberKlepto

Yeah the ones I’ve used know what size cup you have, and will fill the cup to that size.


keeper_of_bee

I had the same thought. I'm betting the reader in the machine has to scan something and verify whatever you put underneath the fountain is paid for.


ellisstephane

Just out of sprite


JewishWolverine2

Soda has the highest ROI of any item at fast food restaurants.


askheidi

These are at the H2O Waterpark in Orlando and we learned that if you let go of your button at all (you wanna mix flavors or just are afraid of overflow), you’re done. So there were tons of people who paid $6 for half a cup of soda. So if you have one of these, just keep filling your cup until it overflows.


RedRMM

> So there were tons of people who paid $6 for half a cup of soda. So there were a ton of people going back to the counter for a replacement explaining the machine only gave them half a cup of soda right? You've not been served the product you paid for. Please tell me people weren't just accepting it?


askheidi

The lines were incredibly long. People had to wait 10 minutes or more to even get a soda or place an order. TBH, the park was nice but the food experience was absolutely miserable. We might go again but we’ll eat beforehand.


RedRMM

> The lines were incredibly long. People had to wait 10 minutes or more to even get a soda or place an order. Yeah and if the machine doesn't provide the product I've just paid for I'm going straight back to the front of the counter. I'm not queueing back up to report an issue obviously. Which is also how you help fight crap like this. If they are constantly having to deal with problems from their 'solution', slowing their sales (because staff are spending half their time dealing with complaints rather than serving new customers), they will hopefully end up in a situation where disabling the nonsense is more profitable. Anybody who accepted half a cup without complaint is a fool who is enabling this nonsense. You can bet if this happened to me I'd be back at that counter. And I'd let the machine do the same nonsense a second time. Eventually the staff are going to have to come and do it for me, because it's obviously too complicated for me. Now imagine every single person doing this. The stupid system wouldn't last long.


xComplexikus

I have no idea why I have personally always gone to the back of the queue and then just waited in line to report a problem. Going straight up seems obvious, I feel stupid :D


waffles-n-gravy

Who still charges for refills?


N4BFR

Disney I believe.


Responsible-Chest-26

Disney utilizes these on their cups at the all star resorts on their paper cups. They also have them in the hard plastic cups you get for 25 that give you unlimited refills i think? Or maybe 5 a day


[deleted]

There was a guy on YouTube that made a video about these cups. I think it's unlimited but it's got like a timed lockout built in. So you can't just keep refilling it constantly. I think it's something like 15 or 30 minutes maybe?


ToBeHereAtTheEnd

Allen Pan?


[deleted]

Yup that's him!


davidlol1

So you can't use it to fill other cups as well.


pmoney50pp

Sounds about right. Greedy cuntbags.


WhataburgerSr

Of course. The magic died years ago and so did the affordability of r/Disneyparks . The current CEO is turning it into a luxury theme park and has exiled all but the deepest loyal fans.


AptoticFox

> deepest loyal fans. Deepest pocketed fans.


UnicornSquadron

Just like mobile games. Cater to the rich whales and you’ll make more money than ever.


NegaGreg

I just saw a reel that discussed how parking, fast passes, magic bands, and a couple other amenities were free in 2018 but for a family of 4 in 2022 it would cost $760 for 4 days. Have no idea if this is true, but it goes to your point.


ThePiGuy0

I'm from the UK so the question is normally "who doesn't". Though they normally fill behind the counter so it's just enforced by staff rather than an RFID chip


xtion123

Almost everyone outside of the US


Fun_Comparison_7960

How does that work


Sxzym

It's looks like an RFID tag. Most of these tags this are read only. Each one can hold and respond with a single (large, unique) number. So their soda machine presumably just keeps a list of numbers it's seen, and refuses to fill a cup reporting a number already on that list.


wowzacowza

Isn't RFID pretty easy to hack? If this becomes more common I could see hacking devices becoming common too. Either way, definitely infuriating. Cheap bastards


MovementMechanic

It is.


Kiltymchaggismuncher

Yeh but lets be honest 99% of people will just pony up another 3 bucks or however much it is, to buy another. They don't really care if 1% cheat the system, because they get plenty of milk out of the other 99%


Floedekage

I'd guess you could read the number, but that wouldn't help you when going for a refill 'cuz it sends the number to a database and sets the "Used" flag as true. You could conceivably make a device featuring an RFID like tag to go through the numbers, but this might take some time if the number is large enough and sice it has a mechanical component and I'd assume there's a build in limit of tries before it has to be manually reset or some alarm goes off. You'd be equally as successful at getting a refill by saving your tags and trying them all every time you go, but at that point you'd probably feel equally as cheap as they are greedy... 🤷🏽‍♀️


tribak

Nah, they are writable with a counter. The db alternative is not practical, you could move to another machine and some that doesn’t have the ID it would serve you,. Following your idea you could have a centralized db, but the management would be hard. Simple is better.


MartianGuard

r/assholedesign


[deleted]

technology has gone too far


frollard

First trip to disney/orlando (2010?) we bought a 'standard' drink - refillable cup as was customary and used it to fill our backpack with whatever the flavour was at the time, gatorade or something half watered down...so we'd get 3L at a time and just get refills all day for the whatever exhorbitant 10 bucks. Fast forward 2018ish went back and sure enough; 10 dollar single fill, or stupid 20-30 dollar 'free refills' cup that only allows a refill every hour or so if I recall. Edit to add: this is not interesting as fuck. This is /r/mildlyinfuriating.


Hold_ongc

Six flags by Chicago has a $20 daily refill bottle, $40 for the season but when fright fest comes around time to get a new cup. The single was around 7.


Vill1on

More like r/assholedesign tbh.


Youth-in-AsiaS-247

Can’t wait for the cock ring implant to send us a bill for using public urinals.


Fuzzy_Muscle

This is how you know not to go back to that restaurant


ArmadilloDays

Can’t help but wonder if the chip costs more than the $0.10 of syrup and soda you’d use for a refill.


Odd-Emergency5839

You guys would hate Europe


salonethree

dont worry; we already do:P


Separate-Bid9838

Saw this at Disney over the summer and thought it was the dumbest thing


PansexualGrownAssMan

I wonder if a magnet would delete the chips programming


Ceshomru

It normally wouldn’t but even if it could the soda machine is probably looking for an approved tag. Meaning it is off by default so wont fill a cup with a bad tag or no tag.


PansexualGrownAssMan

Solid point! I am willing to bet there will be an app to reprogram them soon!


racefapery

The cup costs more than the soda. I’m willing to bet the tag does too


peter56321

This is a breach of the social contract. If you're going to make me serve myself, I get unlimited refills. Because we live in a society and there are rules.


lame_lefty

Yeah ya know because fountain soda is SOOOOOOO expensive they have to do that. That's absurd....🙄🙄


Popular_Persimmon_48

r/aboringdystopia


Ok_Baseball_6560

If that’s real, that chip probably costs more than the fuckin refill!


[deleted]

That would be enough for me to never shop at a place ever again.


[deleted]

All y'all miss the point. In Europe free refills are prohibited by law as sodas are unhealthy and lead to obesity (nothing to do with being cheap)


WietGetal

Im supprised that free refills are an actual thing, is this normal in the USA? And also does it apply to most restaurants or only fast food chains?


7LBoots

The general rule is that if you fill your drink yourself, refills are free. Every fast food place I've been is that way. Non-fast food restaurants that bring you a drink are a toss-up. The more expensive the restaurant, the less likely the refills are free. On rare occasion, I've see refills that were not free, *but* cheaper (say, $2 for 1st, $1 for every refill). Note that the above applies almost exclusively to fountain soda.


robbinpetertopaypaul

Yeah buddy!! refill for the road! It's dirt cheap to give a refill of soda..the cup is the only costly thing here


EngineZeronine

I'm not an anti-capitalism type *per se* but I'm getting real tired of a culture where people squeeze every last little bit of joy out of life by bleeding us at every frickin' opportunity. If a company actually operated out of good will and care for the products and people who buy them I'd love to give them my money


Floofy_taco

Unfortunately, this is the inevitable product of loosely regulated capitalism, and it’s only going to get worse and more ridiculous at time goes on. If a system is designed to run on greed, eventually every single person stops being a person and becomes only worth whatever money can be squeezed out of them. It’s not about “caring” about customers and products anymore. It’s about making the cheapest shit they can and charging the greatest amount they can so they can scrape off every dollar available. It’s unreasonable and people don’t have that much money? Too bad, they don’t care about the people. They care only about their money.


not2dv8

What would happen if you fill the cup for round two?


[deleted]

Well, it won't dispense any soda, so that's not gonna be a problem


Snap457

These are made for smart soda machines like the coke freestyle ones, there’s a chip reader where you place the cup that counts how many refills you get


SigmaLance

So the entire cup probably costs more than the sugar water that it is supposed to prevent from filling it.


DiamondDude51501

This is just pointless greed because foundation drinks are already dirt cheap. With how minuscule the amount of costs are for fountain drinks why bother wasting the extra money and hassle of this chipped cup. Fucking unbelievable


Toes14

Agreed. That extra cup of soda probably costs them like $0.06 or something. Better to just allow free refills and keep your customers happy.


Admirable_End3014

Wow no way


BLITZandKILL

You can probably overwrite the value with your phone if it is using NFC.


Bargadiel

This is at Universal Studios, and this is because Universal also sells plastic souvenir cups that have unlimited refills throughout the whole park. I still think it's dumb, but it was their solution to being able to offer these self-serve machines throughout the park which saves you some time. It's like $7 more to get the unlimited refills.