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| Pepsi-Cola. Photo: Dalton Rowe, Flickr |
Hanna Raskin's first waitressing job was at a small Greek diner in Michigan. In the 15 years since, she's worked at a chop suey joint in Mississippi, an exclusive Arizonan country club, a vegetarian eatery and an Irish pub. She currently picks up odd shifts at a seafood eatery in the North Carolina mountains, where she cracks crab legs for helpless tourists. This is the third in a series of posts.
Here's a confounding bit of restaurant math:If you and your three friends sit at my table and order a bottle of wine, all I'm expected to do is pick up the bottle from the bar, pour four perfectly measured glasses and toss the bottle in the recycling bin. On average, that particular routine earns me about $10.
But say your table contains three teetotalers who ask for soda instead. Inevitably, you'll slurp down your Sprite quicker than your tablemate polishes off his Coke, which means I'll have to make multiple visits to your table, each time sweeping up different glasses, carting them across the dining room and returning them freshly filled. All that work is usually worth about 80 cents.
McDonald's Korea and a poll after the jump.
Free refills are a boon for consumers, who can drink gallons of soda for the same price a convenience store might charge for a liter. But there are few other restaurant policies that so brazenly undervalue a server's work. Many servers are starting to wonder whether the free refill madness can be stopped -- and, thanks to the recession, some restaurant owners are supporting them.
Last month McDonald's Korea, where soda is not self-serve but refills were administered behind the counter, scrapped its free refill policy, saying customers' constant badgering for more soda was costing the company time and money. The new stance could be influential, since the fast food sector helped instigate the free refill craze.
Free refills on coffee and tea are a longstanding restaurant tradition most places, but it took franchises like Taco Bell to push bottomless soft drinks into the mainstream. Fast casual spots like Olive Garden soon followed, presumably pleased to create the impression of hospitality and value for mere pennies. By 1999, the practice had become so widespread that Orange County health inspectors began warning consumers of the dangers associated with free refills (think swapped cups and filthy soda machines).
There are now few restaurants of any caliber that dare to charge customers for a second cup of soda. Americans apparently wouldn't stand for it. But since diners at high-end eateries won't abide super-sized glasses or pitchers on their tables either, servers are stuck catering to their endless thirst -- and typically garnering less than the price of a soda for their trouble.
What do you think? Should restaurants maintain their free refill policy?
| Yes | |
|---|---|
| No | |
| Depends (tell us more in comments) |
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7-07-2009 @8:52PM Jules said... In both NYC and Chicago, there are no free refills no matter where you go (except chain restaurants like Chilis). I find that it tends to be something I find more when I go home to the South. I agree that it should be a part of the meal if soft drinks are $3, especially at a bar where it tempers the drinking and allows for safe rides home.
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7-08-2009 @12:16AM Fash said... Getting multiple glasses of soda isn't WORK. Digging multiple ditches is WORK.
I mean, I know your job probably has all sorts of minor annoyances, as does mine, but I think some perspective would be helpful. People who badger waitstaff for refills are jerks - people who ask politely are not. It's really the CUSTOMER you loathe, not the free refill policy.
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7-08-2009 @1:41AM Megan said... "It's honestly not my intent to be rude or unfair, but this column absolutely reeks of entitlement"
I agree. This one & the one about customers with food allergies : P Seriously, Hanna, you should consider another industry
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7-08-2009 @8:56AM Meister said... This is a really interesting conversation! I never knew my love of bottomless Diet Coke would one day be so controversial.
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7-08-2009 @1:36PM BrieCS said... So long as drinks are priced at five to ten times the actual price of the beverage, I think that the refilling should be permitted. Heck, even if they put a limit on it - up to six free refills! - I would be fine with that, particularly at bar-restaurants or places that serve spicier foods. I also agree with some of the other posters that this sounds kind of rude coming from a server - I can get hating rude customers, but when people ask for refills politely and it's company policy to give them, there's no reason to be irritated with them. Do you get angry at people who slurp down their alcoholic drinks quickly and need refills repeatedly?
I tip for how hard the server worked in combination with how polite and prompt they were. Bad attitudes can lead to me cutting the tip - don't work in a job where you're expected to be polite if you can't pull it off, no matter how fake it has to be.
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9-08-2009 @8:01PM tiggerthegrouch said... As a former server I can tell you if you only ordered a water, you were not my ideal customer. You most likely are going out to dinner and trying to spend the least amount possible (and tipping less than average). What kind of tip would you give for that FREE water that I had to run back and forth refilling 5-6 times? If your like the people I waited on...nothing because hey, it was free! People who feel they need to order a coke AND a water (because...hey, it's free and why don't we add a lemon to that to cause hey, free again!) are even worse! Then I have to keep refilling two drinks or just the one because you didn't even touch your free water...you just felt entitled to it because it was free!
The mentality of "if I can get it for free I got to have it" is just ridiculous! I was sitting in popular American style restaurant recently and overheard the table behind me commenting on how great the meal was...until the bill came. Then i hear griping and grousing over the cost of eating out these days blah, blah, blah. Next thing I know they are calling over the manager and telling him they weren't pleased with their dinners (they cleaned their plates!), the steak was too done, the fries were cold, the salad was small, and the cake they had for dessert was too dry! It was one of those 2 people eat for $20 deals and because the gentleman's meal "wasn't satisfactory" he felt he should only have to pay $10...half the price. As in the food service industry "the customer is always right" he got exactly what he wanted...something for nothing! I was disgusted! I ended up leaving double my usual 20% tip because of course those people behind me only left $1.50!
If I go out to a restaurant and order an ice tea with lemon and need to have it refilled (usually only once maybe twice) I will defintely tip accordingly! And if the server refilled my drink without my having to ask or point out that I needed one...extra tip!
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9-18-2009 @1:59PM xxx said... Karen and Erin got it right in their posts
I hope someone starts a blog about the entitlement about Hanna Raskin, and why she should not be working in restaurants or serving people.
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9-23-2009 @4:45PM C.Moore said... At restaurant prices I figure I'm owed at least 2 liters of soda or a gallon of tea.
Sorry Hannah. The refills are NOT free. They're included in the price of the drinks.
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