1 Year of Service
I make good money, and my ass still orders water at a restaurant. I'm an absolute cheapskate, and hate how places charge extra for that stuff. 8 bucks for a 6 pack of beer, and bars are like 4-6 per bottle.
I eat before going to the Theater, because I don't feel like paying $12+ dollars for a drink and some popcorn, ridiculous concession prices. I will splurge for a Dine-In Theater, every 6 months or so. I had a $110k car, technically my realistic dream car at the time, that had close to 900 a month insurance. I chose to sell it. The Insurance actually dropped after I sold it and bought something cheaper with better fuel efficiency.
A lot of places make you request a refill at the Counter, since Covid. I don't eat out much, so not 100% on that, as of the last couple months. BK and McDonald's still allow self refills. I know a lot of places the drinks taste like shit, I believe you said you're in TX, too? I know they have those little plastic sacks, and the ratio is usually all messed up, you can tell they're way watered down and the water often tastes terrible. They are either diluted with too much water, not enough syrup, or not enough carbonation. When you see a mostly clear drink being dispensed when supposed to be something dark, you're about to have a bad time. Maybe the water sucks, maybe their machine isn't clean, maybe they need to calibrate some shit, who knows? Root Beer is almost decent a lot of the time, especially if it foams up good.This may have flipped, but I don't think so: when you order fountain/postmix soda, the highest "food cost" is usually the disposable cup and the ice.
When I was a kid working at Taco Hell (KFC and Taco Bell are both owned by YUM brands and use Pepsi products), we were told only 1/3 of the cup should be filled with ice for that very reason. But the pricing now is insane - the reason they can afford "free" refills is that you'd probably have to refill nearly a dozen times before you even come close to getting what you paid for and eat through the mark up.
And, as far as I know, almost every TB/KFC now has self-serve soda fountains, so you can control the soda/ice ratio yourself. At least in the US - may be different elsewhere.
Some places are exceptions, like those new Wendy's with the on screen selection for drinks, like they have at Firehouse Subs.
