Home to the brave, land of the free. (refill)

I was eating at a Chinese restaurant this weekend with my wife and a friend of ours and when my soda got low I was getting a little upset that no one had offered to refill it although they filled my water several times and my wifes ice tea once. I have worked in restaurants as a waiter, bartender and even a cook at times over the last 12 years so I am fairly critical of the service I receive at other restaurants. So when I finally asked for a refill I was surprisingly told that I would have to pay for it? Really? It wasn't like I got a can of soda, the place had a soda fountain but charged for refills. A fountain soda costs me $1.25 to roughly $2.00 depending on where you go. The establishment only pays about $.05 for the drink in a reusable glass and maybe $.20 if its a to go cup. We were not being cheap or anything either, we had 2 appetizers on top of our salad, soup and four entrees for three people. It is so rare to not be able to get a free refill that I guess we take it for granted nowadays but it seems to be the standard in this day and age.

Sure the standard was set by the bigger chains like Mc Donald's and Burger King but its pretty hard to name a place you can't get one. A little known fact is that if you have a cup you can get a refill at Disneyland which would find a way to charge you for breathing if the Los Angeles area air wasn't next to poisonous. Maybe I am cheap but it cost them more in labor to keep coming over to refill my water than it would of for the sda since I drink water much fater than my soda. I could of went to the buffet down the road and got almost the same thing for a third of the price and drowned myself at the soda machine and then got a brain freeze on soft serve ice cream to boot.

This is America the home to the brave and land of the free (refill). Its not like I expect a free refill on my beer at the bar although it is nice when it happens but restaurants piss soda and make a lot of money off of it whether I have one or five refills. I'll just drink water next time.