Jon from NJ says describes his local Subway’s new 75 cent refill policy as “silly.” Hmmm.
Guess the glory days of free refills are slipping through our fingers…
More From Consumerist
-
Target Says It Will No Longer Pressure Pharmacists To Push Auto-Refill Program
-
Give’em An Inch Or They’ll Take A Mile: Two Customers Suing Subway Over 11-Inch Footlongs
-
Subway Crosses Its Heart, Swears To Die: From Now On, All Footlongs Will Indeed Be 12 Inches
-
Documents: CVS Pharmacists Pressured To Put Customers In Auto-Refill Program
-
Mother Probably Less Concerned With Size Of Subway Sandwich Than The Glass Shards In It
Maybe the refill policy only applies to the coffee? After all, isn’t the sign on the coffee machine? BTW, where’s the coffee decanter? What if I want coffee with my tuna sub?
Our local Subway is in a Walmart. They have a “Free refills for people while in the eating area” policy-if you leave and come back, it’s $0.75. Turns out the Walmart employees were buying sodas at the start of their shift and refilling them throughout the day. Could that be what’s going on here?
It’s not an honor system if the manager’s on duty and watching the soda machines like a hawk.
I tihnk 75 cents is silly for refills, isn’t a cup of soda like 2 cents? The cup is more expensive than the drink.
Inflation?! Are you serious? 5-10 years ago a large was not $2 like they are today. The price of the soda has risen with inflation. This is just flat out rude to customers at the chance to make a profit. Hardly an establishment I’d want to give my money to. If they are having a hard time making a profit, I really, seriously doubt a 75 cent honor system charge for refills is going to ease their financial problems. If they can’t keep their doors open without charging for refills, maybe they should just close. If it was a $2 charge for a refill, would you still defend them with that same argument? Who gets to determine the point at when the price of a refill is excessive? If you ask the majority of consumers most will probably say anything more than free is too much for a refill.
The subway in the small town i used to live in was like that. They only charged 40 cents last time i saw. Noone ever payed it because the cashier/sandwich maker(s) could not actually even see the dispenser. Not to mention they would just laugh if you tried to pay for a refill.
I find that the cups I get in places like this are so big that I can rarely ever finish the whole cup of soda anyway. I actually can’t remember the last time I actually got a refill.
I used to go to a subway, i would only get the sandwich because next door there was a quick trip. 89 cents for a refill on a 44 oz drink.
restaurants drinks = the monster cables of food service
Some Subway franchises have been doing this for some time now.
Love going to the Subways that are part of the WalMarts, because there I walk up to the counter with my cheap 2 litre of Sam’s Choice Cola.
My work keeps free snacks and drinks stocked every month. We usually have coke, diet coke, vitamin water, and sometimes different things like Hansen’s sodas and sparkling water. I just buy my lunch sans-drink, then go back to the office and get a [whatever] from the office fridge.
methinks if they don’t want to give free refills, they should put the fountain behind the counter.
Sure, give them their 75c, just use your credit card (by the time they pay the transaction fees and discount rate, they might make about 20c).
Or, just take your own drinks into the Subway since they are going to be youknowwhatsaboutit.
Angrypants: I am with you. .75 is a meager price to pay, especially when the bulk of that is going to an INDEPENDENT business person. (yes, I know corporate gets a percentage of their profits, but still the bulk of that goes to support the local person who pretty much put all of his money / life on the line to open up this place).
Complaining about .75 for a REFILL when every sub place has cut their profits and LOWERED their prices to $5 is pathetic.
If some of you people were on the other side of the fence, you’d realize how much of a day-to-day struggle it is for someone who has invested so much of their life into their business to make a few bucks these days, and would hopefully feel ashamed of yourself.
Yes, maybe it costs .32 cents to make a 32oz refill, but most of you would have no problem going to a bar and paying $4-$5 for a beer that costs maybe .75 or $1 or so for the bar owner and not complain (me included – but I have no gripes about a local business owner asking for .75 if I refill my drink)
@octajohnny: A certain percentage of the profits?! They wish! They (franchisor) get a certain percentage of the gross income, meaning before they pay their bills, employees, and food costs. But still, a $.75 refill policy isn’t going to keep a struggling business afloat. For one, if you’re not busy enough as it is, who is going to be buying the refills? The customers you don’t have? For two lets say they sold 100 refills in a day (which I seriously doubt), that’s still only $75 per day. I don’t a think $75 per day (gross remember and some of you claim soda is expensive, plus there’s tax coming out of it, plus if its a cc transaction there’s a fee, and next thing you know that $75 is maybe $50) but still not enough to pay for one full-time employee in a day, let alone keep you in business. I’ve ran my own business, and also managed sandwich shops. $.75 per refill is not going to save your ass when you’re losing money.
I went to school at Carnegie Mellon and the nearby Subway never had free refills… it was downright communist.
This sounds like a greedy franchisee who doesn’t know how to market.
Charging for drink refills = pissed off customer.
Charging for pay toilet = fewer drink refills! And hey, if you gotta go, you gotta go.
Somebody was probably abusing the system. I don’t see very many places that have a posted charge for refills, nor do I see very many people going up for seconds on soda. Once in a while, I might get half a cup on a refill, but most of the time, one drink is plenty.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a restaurant employee or manager complain (or even care) if you topped off your cup, but I’m sure if you went back and helped yourself to 3 complete refills, they’d probably say something and then post a refill price to discourage people from doing that.
If you’re going to make me pour my own drink and do something your employees should be doing, I’ll pour it any way I please. Don’t like it? Move the soda machine back behind the counter. Simple.
having worked in the restaurant business for the last 8 years, in Texas, the avg cost of iced tea is .03 for 12oz and soda pops is .05 for 12oz. It is the highest profit margin of anything in the entire restaurant. Asking .75 for a refill is just pure profit. If you think about a $2 coke thats 12 oz, you would have to drink 40 cokes just to break even. Odds are the company is losing money on the sandwiches with the lower prices they are now offering and probably finding a way to offset that cost.
Either way you were paying the difference. If a $7 sandwich is now $5 then you are saving $2 and even with 1 refill, you are still saving.
It’s like this at my subway. Used to have free refills but the owner got mad cause a lot of employees at the mall were washing their cups and getting free pop.
So she started charging full price for a refill.
Then she got bought out and now it is 75 cents.
Subway Corporate does not decide the drink refill policy, that is a local/franchisee decision. @nyaz – the standard 5 gallon syrup bags were $40-$50 and that was back in 1999. When my stores implemented the “no more free drink refills” policy, people complained but yet our profits never suffered. Valid that fountain beverages are a high profit margin item, but consider the $4000 monthly rent, $1800 electric bill, maintenance costs, etc. The typical Subway franchise has a profit margin of less than 6%.
I was disgruntled today to see the Subway in Georgetown also has implemented
the 75 cent refill rule. I wonder if this is a growing trend. The homemade
sign always irritates me. That’s how you know that this was not a Subway
decision. The rude and unfriendly sandwich makers were probably enough to
make me discontinue going there anyway.
everyones stupid in this. the store doesn’t win by being so cheap. the consumer doesn’t win by drinking another 200+ calories of sugar messing up their health for gluttony. seriously, one drink during a meal should be enough unless you have some serious issues.
If the drink machine is self serve, free refills are implied. Move it behind the counter if it is that much of a problem.
NJ/NY areas are traditionally slim with the free refills especially at fast food and full serve restaurants. Anywhere in the SE US the free refills flow easily including at full serve restaurants- it is odd to find somewhere that actually charges for refills in this part of the US…