Reader Rachael went into McDonald’s today to get her usual morning Coca-Cola and was denied a large cup, despite the fact that she paid the “large” price, because it was “breakfast.” Instead, Rachael ended up with a medium Coke which the McDonald’s employee called a “breakfast large.”
Rachael writes:
Long story short, McDonalds is the only place near to my home or office that’s convenient to grab a quick bite or drink. Not good… but convenient.
I tend to pop in in the mornings for a small breakfast and always order a large coke since it’s really the only time during the day that I will be out… and it will last until it’s time for me to go home so again, convenient…
Anyway, I always order a large coke… Always get a large coke.
Today, I order a breakfast meal with a large coke. They give me a medium cup. I look at my receipt. It clearly says “large coke 1.59″, which is the price of the large. I think the medium is $1.35.
I tell her I ordered a large and she says no, that’s the “breakfast large – at breakfast, a large is a medium, a medium is a small and a small is a child’s cup”
Now, I used to work at McDonalds in the not so recent past… But recent enough to know how this works. When you order orange juice, that applies. A large orange juice is served in a medium cup. It’s the way they have always (at least around here) sized their orange juice. If you order a large soda, you get an actual large. I think the thinking is that orange juice is more expensive so they’re basically charging more for it.
But now, all of a sudden, if I order a large soda and pay at the large soda price, I get a medium – simply because of the time of day??? I’m in a really shitty mood anyway this morning and the manager wasn’t available and I really didn’t feel like arguing with her and being in an even worse mood for a stupid soda… But dammit – everybody’s feeling the credit crunch and there they all go basically reaching into my pockets to pad their profits…
ARGH. Could the extra $0.24 mean so much to them? The kicker is…. you know how the movie “supersize Me” made McDonalds discontinue the supersize line? Well…. wanting a large soda (and I mean a real large, not medium – breakfast large), I asked for a supersize soda. Thinking they would downsize it to the real large that I wanted. Nope. I was told they no longer offer supersize. No shit, I just wanted a large soda.
It shouldn’t be so hard to get a large soda at breakfast time….
Is McDonald’s pinching pennies or was the the work of one rogue agent?
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@radleyas: Once you get used to the diet flavors it’s really not bad at all. In fact, non-diet sodas taste entirely too sweet now that we’ve moved to diet soft drinks.
Then again, ordering McDonalds and a Diet Coke does not compute.
@deedrit:
Exactly!
McDonald’s uses the words “eat in tax” and “take out tax” both to refer to regular sales tax. Notice there is no sales tax on the receipt?
This was in the news a few years ago and was discussed by McDonald’s Corporation. And they use the same amount for both. It’s just fancy wording, nothing different than what you’d normally pay if it said “sales tax”.
@howie_in_az:
I’d rather eat sugar than a chemical. Call me crazy …
Come on now. It’s McDonalds. If you order a Big Mac and get a turd sandwich are you going to be surprised? She should be glad there weren’t bodily fluids added to the coke.
@Papagoose: if you can’t handle coffee, green tea is a much better choice than diet anything. I know it’s intimidating, but even in America not every beverage needs to be sweetened.
In the old days, sugar (not HFCS) soda was considered a “treat.” Generally it was served in an 8oz real glass, and you would enjoy it not unlike Pimms cup, twirling your parasol and observing the river on a Sunday afternoon.
Presently, you have people with front butts waddling through the generous asiles of Wal Mart, gasping to the soda section, eager to mainline the closest 2 liter of diet Whatevs
(Hey, I blame society for my elitist rantings!)
INT. ROADSIDE CAFE – DAY
All four are seated at a booth. The women have
given their orders and a WAITRESS stands above
Bobby, waiting for his:
BOBBY
(looking at his menu)
I’ll have an omelette, no potatoes.
Give me tomatoes instead, and wheat
toast instead of rolls.
The waitress indicates something on the menu with
the butt of her pencil.
WAITRESS
No substitutions.
BOBBY
What does that mean? You don’t have
any tomatoes?
WAITRESS
(annoyed)
No. We have tomatoes.
BOBBY
But I can’t have any. Is that what
you mean?
WAITRESS
Only what’s on the menu…
(again, indicating with her pencil)
A Number Two: Plain omelette. It
comes with cottage fries and rolls.
BOBBY
I know what it comes with, but
that’s not what I want.
WAITRESS
I’ll come back when you’ve made up
your mind…
She starts to move away and Bobby detains her.
BOBBY
Wait, I’ve made up my mind. I want
a plain omelette, forget the
tomatoes, don’t put potatoes on the
plate, and give me a side of wheat
toast and a cup of coffee.
WAITRESS
I’m sorry, we don’t have side
orders of toast. I can give you an
English muffin or a coffee roll.
BOBBY
What do you mean, you don’t have
side orders of toast? You make
sandwiches, don’t you?
WAITRESS
Would you like to talk to the
manager?
PALM
Hey, mack!
BOBBY
(to Palm)
Shut up.
(to the waitress)
You have bread, don’t you, and a
toaster of some kind?
WAITRESS
I don’t make the rules.
BOBBY
Okay, I’ll make it as easy for you
as I can. Give me an omelette,
plain, and a chicken salad sandwich
on wheat toast — no butter, no
mayonnaise, no lettuce — and a cup
of coffee.
She begins writing down his order, repeating it
sarcastically:
WAITRESS
One Number Two, and a chicken sal
san — hold the butter, the mayo,
the lettuce — and a cup of
coffee… Anything else?
BOBBY
Now all you have to do is hold the
chicken, bring me the toast, charge
me for the sandwich, and you
haven’t broken any rules.
WAITRESS
(challenging him)
You want me to hold the chicken.
BOBBY
Yeah. I want you to hold it between
your knees.
Ive been eating breakfast at McDonalds for years.. and its always been like this. Never thought it was a big deal.
@ehlaren: And apparently it’d be okay with them just as long as she ordered a DIET Coke for breakfast. Which, incidentally, is my usual breakfast. Need the caffeine, can’t stand coffee. I love the tasty, tasty chemicals that are Diet Coke.
@cybercjh: Hey, hey. I must stand up for Coke addicts everywhere. Don’t knock Coke for breakfast till you’ve tried it. In the summer, I often prefer a Coke over hot coffee unless I am eating something sweet. But with sausage, eggs or hashbrowns, I’ll take a Coke over coffee any day.
I am surprised she couldn’t get a large Coke. This is a first I’ve heard of McD’s limiting drink sizes–even for breakfast.
Re: eat-in and take-out tax: I actually live in a jurisdiction where we have a special tax on restaurants (HRA=”Hotels, Restaurants, and Amusements”), which is a municipal tax and funds our civic center. (Which was supposed to be self-supporting by like three years ago, but that’s a different issue.)
Anyway, eat-in is always the HRA tax rate, but certain kinds of take-out are NOT the HRA tax rate but just the regular sales tax rate you pay on convenience foods at the grocery store.
I’m not really sure what the differentiater is (I pay HRA on take-out and drive-thru at McFood), but then I pay like five or six different sales tax rates, depending on if I’m in the city or out in the county, if it’s “stuff” or “food and drugs,” if it’s HRA or not, etc. So sales tax is always a mystery surprise on the end of my bill!
I’ve been having a coke with my breakfast for years now. My mom thought It was bad, until my dad explained it to her like this: there’s less syrup in the coke, than what’s on your pancakes. If you can eat pancakes for breakfast, a coke, is actually not as bad as far as hfcs, or sugars.
Sorry I’m late on this but for accounting purposes this would be a bad setup for this McDonalds. If the employees were instructed to hit the same key for a large coke at 10:29am and give out a 21oz cup compared for a large coke at 10:31am (after breakfast) for a 32oz cup it would make for a inventory nightmare. It would also be silly for the McDonalds to segregate a key for a breakfast coke since they are limited on the number of active buttons appear on an average POS system. This is either a undertrained counter person or a really dumb nickle and dime tatic I see at many independantly owned franchises. The places where the manager’s bonus is solely dependant on the store’s P&L for the period.
@amyschiff:
You’re asking me if nearly 3 cans of a coke is excessive? Yes, it is excessive. Just because you’re drinking from one container doesn’t constitute “one” coke. I can fill a garbage can with coke and I suppose it’d be just “one” can of coke too, right?
32 ounces of lemonade? Yes, that is also excessive. Stop it.
There is nothing – NOTHING – better than an ice cold Coke the morning after the night before. Plus since you chug it so fast you get the meatiest burp to cheer you up.
@deedrit: Right on!
Myself, I keep a dozen small juice boxes, a box of granola bars and fruit cups around (at home *and* in my desk at work) in case I’m late out the door.
It’s cheaper, it’ll keep, and it’s better for you/me.
@Murph1908: Difference is, is that coffee doesn’t casue weak bones…. soda does. OP really needs to reduce her cola intake…
@twophrasebark: I was having a shitty day but you just made my whole fucking week!!
@twophrasebark:
That scene was classic! Thank you!
Here’s the video:
Coke might be interested in this story, considering this ad…
@twophrasebark: Haha, thank you!
@dotcomrade: And you too, for the video.
I was under the impression that this was a consumerism website, not WeightWatchers. I guess I was wrong…
Yeah, I meant to post this pic: [www.flickr.com]
@deedrit: wtf? that’s the very definition of being a complete dick, or a poor troll.
Rather than post here and get tossed into the “big festive box of agitated howler monkeys” (absolutely the quote of the week), why not take your complaint to McDonald’s website?
I recently had an issue with poor customer service at a local McD’s and I went and navigated through their site to the local manager’s comment page, and left them my comment. Within four hours I had an email from a national customer service rep for corporate, and a response from the local manager. Both offered positive solutions to my issue, which was similar to this.
They can’t retrain employees if they don’t know what’s going on.
I’m going to have to agree with others – just stop drinking Coke. Seriously. It’s like diabetes waiting to happen.
@Televiper:
Me and your mom have been noticing lately that you’ve been having a lot of problems, you’ve been going off for no reason and we’re afraid you’re gonna hurt somebody, we’re afraid you’re gonna hurt yourself.
So we decided that it would be in your best interest if we put you somewhere where you could get the help that you need.
@homerjay:
Actually, it’s “Diabeetus”
@sam1am: Could you pleasew post your diet here so we can see a perfect example of what we should be eating and drinking on a daily basis? Oh, and your exercise regimen as well.
Why does this remind me of the movie ‘Falling Down’ where Michael Douglas shoots up the place for not serving him breakfast.
@Televiper: INSTITUTIONALIZED!
My best interests? How do you know what MY best interests are?
@Buran: my friend used to work at mcdonalds, this once happened to me too. he said it was because they sort of dial down the breakfast service once its 10am, so sometimes they run out of breakfast stuff a little early, but other times they have stuff that can last them till 10:45.
i never really thought about it, but know that i think about it, sometimes when i order breakfast combo with a soda (yes i have soda in the mornings lol) they give me a small cup and other times i get a medium cup. its not that big of a deal to me, but im sure if i said something they would give me the next size up.
A lot of dickheads posting on Consumerist today.
@deedrit: Due what a fatty does, take a 2 liter in to work with you =) lol, I’m making fun of myself btw as I do this. I don’t drink it all in one day, but usually it’s gone within 2 days, worst case would be 3 days =) I say worst case cuz it gets kinda flat on the 3rd day.
I swear to Gawd, I wish I could run a website like this, trace down IPs, and just go beat the fook out the idiots who post stupid shit. What’s funny is half the people calling other people fat, probably are fat themselves, it’s just the internet disguises their identity, and they try to fit in with the cool skin kids online by acting like their one of the cool skinny kids.
Fook the cool skinny kids, their life is probably complete shit anyways =)
Have a nice day!
@generalhousewifery: She told you exactly who needs a large pop at breakfast time. Someone that wants SOME pop at breakfast time and enjoys the fact that the large will last her the entire work day. Besides, what’s it matter when she drinks it? It’s still got the same amount of sugar and calories in it at 6pm as it does at 10am.
If the person wants a large Coke at breakfast, what is it to you?? It’s not about the .24 cents, it’s about the size of the drink. These stories are hilarious, as you couldn’t make this stuff up on TV. Not the OP, but the employees reasoning.
Four words: Seven Eleven. Big Gulp.
@Televiper:
All I wanted was a pepsi, and she wouldn’t give it to me. Just one Pepsi.
Time to get one of their $1 small drinks.
“Excuse me? I would like to exercise my option to get a free refill. *gulp gulp gulp* Um, I would like a free refill. *gulp gulp gulp*. Um, I would like a free refill. *gulp gulp gulp* What do you know? You could have given me the large I asked for and charged me more money, you dumb f***!”
course, I can’t guarantee you won’t get sick trying this.
@headhot:
There’s this thing called high fructose corn syrup… It’s bad for you.
@chicagocooper: Not true. Friendly’s Restaurant has the best fountain Coca-Cola in the USA. (I almost said ‘on earth’ but the real-sugar stuff is pretty amazing too.)
@Barbarisater: The Honey Mustard is for the Chicken Selects and therefore bigger than the BBQ which is for the chicken nuggets.
I was once refused by a McDonalds employee because I wanted pop at breakfast time and according to her, “We only sell juice and coffee for breakfast.”
actually, howie, it does if you have diabetes.
anyhoo, what i wanted to say was, this very sweet lady at the mcdonald’s where i live rang up my small diet coke with my order, but handed me a large size cup, telling me in a conspiratorial manner that they ran out of small cups. i promised that a) i wouldn’t tell, and b) i wouldn’t fill it up all the way. she just smiled and gave me a wink. they aren’t all evil.
@chicagocooper: Wow, as a Coke connoisseur myself, I have to respectfully disagree. I don’t know if it’s just the McD’s around me but it has the absolute worst Coke I have ever tasted. I have complained a couple of times to manager. One time it tasted so horrible I parked my car (I had gone through the drive-thru) and went in and told them they must have given me Diet Coke by mistake. They gave me another Coke and it was just as bad. So then I asked them to use a different machine thinking maybe the syrup in the machine was low. (I really wasn’t purposely trying to be a jerk and i apologized to them for being a pain) The Coke from another machine was just as bad.
After a few other visits resulted in the same nasty Coke I stopped ordering it. I buy my food at McDs and drive across the street to Popeyes for my Coke. (Which has the best Coke for a fast food IMO)
And this is why there’s so many people in this country who weigh 450lbs.
@lincolnparadox: That explains why sodas at McDonald’s taste nasty and watered down.
@deedrit:
“Wtf bitch, waste my Consumerist time with your coke story!?
Go buy your Coke at one of the other 1,000,000+ fast food store!”
Seriously, what the fuck is this? People who post here usually have real problems. No one gives a shit about you getting jobbed out of 4oz of sugar water.
If you’re hot you’d better post us all some nude pics to make up for this, unless you’re a minor of course. BTW, that last sentence wasn’t perverted at all…really.