Haaaaaaaaaaalllllooooooooooooooo and Happy New Year!
It has been an entire year since I blogged. What can I say, a lot going on, seemingly all the time. Not going to review the year in detail though… but rather jump right into the concept of… FREE REFILLS!
Yeah you heard that right, free refills, wherever they might be! Most common at dine-in restaurants, fast food chains, and really anywhere that has a fountain drink dispenser. Or at certain movie theaters where you buy large (or XL) size popcorns/drinks and they have the free refills available. OR almost any food/beverage place that offers free cups of ice/tap water.
Conversely, free refills will most certainly NOT be found at coffee shops (although now that I think of it diner coffee would be an exception), not for canned/bottled beverages, and basically not for anything unique (sorry, no free refills on the Vitamin Water).
So what is driving the decision-making behind whether or not to offer free refills? It has to be economics… right… fountain soda is cheap… it is a mix of water and syrup. While beverages like brand name coffee, sports drinks, beer, bottled drinks and so on might have additional packaging and shipping costs, advertising costs, and more expensive ingredients. And if folks are getting free refills on drinks they are more likely to stay in the restaurant longer and purchase more food, attract more customers… While other businesses run on volume… the more transactions and the quicker you get the customer out the better… bottom line is profit.
My inspiration for this blog post is not to analyze the pricing levers for drink refills, rather it came from a memory long ago. I remember we were at a family restaurant when I was a kid, and when I asked for a soda refill the waitress said it would be $3.00 (or so), and I was shocked. After a moment of being dumbfounded (thinking to myself WHY ISN’T THE REFILL FREE?!), I think I asked my parents and they said it was OK to have one refill. I believe it happened at another restaurant not too long after that, and we were like thanks but I’ll stick with water. Keeping in mind soda refills were free at essentially 99.9% of restaurants I had ever gone to as a kid, I was actually pretty mad that it wasn’t the case here… haha.
Looking back on why I was angry, I don’t blame myself… I mean as a kid you want sugary, flavorful drinks, and everyone knows fountain soda is cheap… so what gives? Why would one or two restaurants change things up like that? It just didn’t compute.
As I reflect now… maybe it was economics… perhaps these particular restaurants were having difficult financial times and needed the extra income. Or maybe they didn’t have a fountain soda machine and were straight pouring cans/bottles of soda. (That seems most realistic now that I think about it). Whatever the reason may be, I am not actually concerned about it, rather I think it draws a strong parallel to the world in 2024.
These past few years have seen record inflation… everything is getting super expensive. Budgets are getting slimmer, the quality of goods is decreasing… literally everything is getting squeezed. And when it seemed the squeeze would let up, it just got tighter. And somehow revenues and profits are growing exponentially in fields like AI, data mining, and digital products which aren’t even tangible. There are some folks who have a lot and some who have next to nothing.
And so the idea of free refills strikes me as a bit of an anomaly… if something is free should we take every advantage of it (especially in these times?). Or should we avoid it and only take what we need? In my perspective I think the most important thing is to simply accept whatever the circumstance is, as it is. If something is free, great. If it is not free, great as well. And to really just appreciate and be grateful for everything, no matter how big or small. To not get mad, nor be overly happy, but to simply be thankful for whatever is offered.
I heard a couple sayings recently which seem to have led my thoughts here… I’ll do my best to quote them (there seem to be many variations)… The first was..: ‘The past is already gone, the future is not yet here. There is only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment’. (Buddha) … and… ‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what lies within us out into the world, miracles happen.’ (multiple authors)
I am feeling good about 2025… It is not going to be about what I have, or do not have, what I accomplished, or what I did not accomplish… It will be about what is inside. Peace of mind and peace of heart. That is what I will strive for.
(And if anyone cares to point me in the direction of free Gatorade refills, that’d be cool, that stuff is getting expensive). Happy New Year to all! 😀
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