Incidentally, the soda (gas-injected water plus syrup) is so cheap this [a real boy really named Peyton coming in and filling his bin for the fill-your-own-cup-special] would be better indulged and tolerated as a photo op and free advertising. When you get a fast food cup and free refills, the cup is literally more expensive than the soda + ice that goes into it. It's nearly 100% profit.

ETA The same is true for people who eat too much at AYKE buffets. Take a picture of the dude, and have him sign the guest book and put him up on the wall of eating champions. The loss from one over-eating dude is going to be made up by the draw that yes, we mean all you can eat, and all he ate. Managers who throw big eaters out are just short-sighted and failing to do the math.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

A 5 gallon bag o syrup costs around 50 - $100 depending on volume discounts and what part of the US. At a 5 to 1 ratio, that's 30 gallons per bag. Assuming each cup is 12oz (they do put in a lot of ice usually) that's 320 servings (assuming no spillage).

So it costs McDonalds or similar 15 - 30 cents per soda they sell in soda costs, and 11 cents for the cup lid straw combo. So assuming it's still a dollar, that's between 74 to 59% profit based on volume discount the specific place has with coca cola. So not really 100% profit, but still high. And no the cup doesn't cost more, if that were ever true it was for a brief moment in history.

As a side note fucking Googles LLM make this type of research hard by spitting fake info at you. It keeps quoting 16 cent cost for the entire soda, but the syrup alone costs at least 15 cents.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As a side note fucking Googles LLM make this type of research hard by spitting fake info at you.

The web in general is fucked, since most sites less than 3 years old are now entirely written by AI. :(

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Its just infuriating, if I were worse at math or hadn't been in the industry before I would have come up with an answer that was not even close to correct.

Also does boolean logic not work on searches anymore?

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Haven't noticed. Are you using the right syntax? I'm not sure if 'AND', 'OR' have to be capitalized or what https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

1/5 syrup is a lot of syrup, and doesn't track with Italian-style sodas.

I have heard that brand name syrups are often charged extra for a patent fee or something, much like the studios overcharging movie theaters since the 90s / aughts, forcing them to run entirely on concessions.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But 5 to 1 part isn't 1/5 it's 1/6 isn't it? I dont drink a lot of soda, but used to be on the sales side in a prior life. So I am going off what the internet says on mixing. I assume because some syrup brands/packs have significantly different caloric counts that the ratio isn't the same brand to brand or restaurant to restaurant.

You might be on to the weird relationship thing, but IDK if it's positive or negative for them. McDonalds specifically gets different packs than other places. Different size, shape, everything... So maybe they get thicker syrup or something. Something has got to be going on if my search was to be believed, because they are paying much more per pack and I don't remember them being significantly bigger.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 day ago

10 to 1 would be a bit much. 5 to 1 indicates the syrup is already thinned out, which is a possibility if the denser syrup doesn't mix readily with the fizzy without stirring.

But then, I'd figure there was purchase-density syrup, and then pre-make which is ready to dispense with fizz water, and a clerk is tasked with diluting one to make the other.

That's the way it'd be if I were writing a fast food sim.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago

I work in a store with one of these machines and i've seen the invoices. This is absolutely true. There is no way for the business to lose money on these things.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Incidentally, the soda (gas-injected water plus syrup) is so cheap this [a real boy really named Peyton coming in and filling his bin for the fill-your-own-cup-special] would be better indulged and tolerated as a photo op and free advertising

What do you think this is? Edit: oh this is from a satirical account so by default not real, got it.

[+] michaelmrose@lemmy.world -6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No. The loss from ridiculous misuse insofar as food (not soda) is small but meaningful and basically worth nothing because typically "exposure" isn't worth anything whatsoever. Worse it might convince some other assholes with the same strategy to specifically target your joint magnifying their loss.

It's funny that you who have run nothing know better than every company.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I've run nothing, but a friend of mine was a Pizza Inn manager and talked a bit about it, albeit in the late 80s / early 90s.

But the attitudes I've seen from managers suggests at an anecdotal level they don't know that much and don't care. They penny pinch in the wrong places, often developing the reputation that their own establishment has mean, miserly policies. Maybe, if their margins are that low, like it's Walmart, this is necessary.

Still, there's a lot of focus by companies on loss control than there is by making their places welcome enough to bother shopping there; this figures into the recent Walgreens franchise culling in San Francisco.

The focus of my own studies (as a game dev) had been about crunching in AAA game development, which is still done even though it has the opposite effect as intended (specifically, hurrying up production to meet a deadline. Crunching starkly slows development). Managers of billion-dollar projects are willing to be stupid in the face of data-driven policy; the cruelty is sometimes the point. Among the convenience store managers I've encountered, they don't look at or care about the data.

Believe what you need to believe, though.