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Should restaurants charge for plain water?

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Should restaurants charge for plain water?

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  1. From a business standpoint it makes no sense to give water away for free.  They do have to pay for the water and to provide and clean the glass and add water.  These costs are very minimal, a cost restaraunts should be willing to absorb as part of doing business.  So, No!


  2. No!

  3. Yes. If you are sitting at a table, and just drinking free water, You are taking up space for other people to use. What if a paying customer came in and there was no other table left.

    A restaurant isn't your living room, Or the park. If you want to sit down and have a glass of water, Go home.

  4. unless they are paying for the water, they have no reason to charge anyone else!

  5. nol

  6. A restaraunt is a service industry.  They are providing goods and services.  They do pay for the water, but the cost is negligible.  In order to make the customers happy I would expect water to be provided for free with my meals, if on the other hand I go in and just want water then I am using up a seat in their restaraunt and/or the time of a waiter and the time of the bus-boy to clean the glass for the next patron.  Under those circumstances a small charge is reasonable.

  7. Water must be available to patrons free of charge, unless it is the special bottled waters.

    If you cannot stomach water with a meal, ask for a twist of lemon in it.....gives a lift to plain water!

    ENJOY!   :-)

  8. Unless it's bottled water, no. Come on, those losers are forcing service tax, govern. service tax on us, what more?

    Jeez, that reminds me. 50cents per cuppa water @ McDonald's! Then again, it isn't a restaurant. *Rolls eyes*

  9. no, they havent charged for that since like forever, so why should they start?

  10. For plain old yucky tap water....I would say no. In some places ( like Europe) the water is so bad, that have to charge for water that is actually fit to drink. I do know some places here however that charge or quarter or so, for the glass.

  11. No, they shouldn't do that. But they do.

  12. YES BIZZNESS IS BIIZZNESS

  13. People would not like it if you charge them EVEN for plain water!

  14. If they pay to get good water, instead of filling our glasses with tap water from the faucet, then yes they should charge for it. They paid for it, and we won't get sick on it, so what is the harm of an extra 50 cents on your bill?

  15. most don't, well most don't give you a price for the water, but i guess it's built into the service charge?

    restaurants where i live have a fixed "tea charge" per person... so everyone drinks tea, but if someone doesn't want tea she still has to pay the charge. there's no extra charge for water if you pay the tea charge and drink tea though...

  16. No

  17. No... unless they want the server to get a lousy tip!

  18. No.

    which makes no sense because i pay for water at my house. go figure.

  19. No, next they will want to charge you for the air you breathe.

  20. No. You know for a fact they use the tap water anyway. Why should they charge for that?

  21. yes and no because they do have to pay the person who washes dishes

  22. No. No. No.

  23. we had that discussion in my country

    i used to work in a restaurant and i would give away water for free as people tend to come back if you treat them friendly....

    you'll increase your income on the long run that way - even though people would say that it is hard to make money in the restaurant business anyway and you should charge for everything to survive on what you make...

  24. No they should not.  It doesn't cost them anything so why should they charge us?

  25. I don't think they should but some owners will charge for everything

  26. No nO

  27. I agree it is annoying to see a charge, but but the fact is that ALL restaurants charge for plain water.  Normally, you don't see the charges, because they are built into the rest of the prices.  So a hmburger costs 50 cents more than it would have to, and a cup of coffee is maybe an extra dime, but the water is "free."  Hah!

    The water requires the restaurant to buy a glass, clean the glass after every customer, replace it when it's broken, have an ice machine that must be bought, serviced, and run on electricity, etc., etc.  It may not be a fortune, but there are definitely costs associated with giving a glass of water.  Mostly, restaurants choose to hide it in the prices, but it's there, and you are paying one way or another.

  28. I don't see anything wrong with that if your question is geared towards restaurants in Singapore. Singapore is an island and like most islands, has a limited potable water supply. You'd think that, surrounded by all that water, drinking water would be cheap but it's actually a lot harder to convert ocean water into drinking water than it is to convert ground water, and most islands don't have very much ground water.

    Increased demand is stretching the limits of the current supply. Charging a small fee for tap water in restaurants helps encourage people to conserve the natural resources by wasting less and only ordering tap water when they intend to actually drink it. Plus it helps the restaurant cover their operating costs, which have gone up dramatically in the last 10 years, partly due to the rising water costs.

    On many other islands--- St. Croix, for example--- it's common to be charged for tap water in a restaurant.
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