After 20 years of self-service beverage machines at McDonald’s, the days of free refills for customers are now numbered.
According to a report by The State Journal-Register, a local newspaper in Illinois, McDonald’s has decided to gradually phase out self-service beverage machines by 2032, with this measure already being implemented in some of its stores.
Marketplace, a public media outlet focusing on business and economic issues in the United States, reported that Uber Eats delivery driver Nathan Selkirk recently discovered that a McDonald’s restaurant in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was no longer offering free refills at its self-service beverage machines but instead charging customers for refills.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s told the financial news website Insider that individual McDonald’s restaurants have the discretion to decide whether to charge for beverage refills.
Customers of other chain restaurants like Wegmans and Panera Bread have also noticed the disappearance of self-service beverage machines in some restaurants during the pandemic. Alex Susskind, a professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University, mentioned that some food courts in shopping centers in western New York and Pennsylvania have placed beverage machines behind the counter.
Experts suggest that this practice may become more common in the future.
Darren Tristano, CEO of FoodserviceResults, a food industry research and consulting company, stated, “McDonald’s is often a leader in the industry. Many times when they make significant changes, other restaurants follow suit. McDonald’s is very savvy when it comes to costs.”
In 2004, McDonald’s first introduced self-service beverage machines, allowing customers to mix and match drinks according to their preferences.
Tristano noted that due to the pandemic, consumers are more concerned about bacteria and viruses in food service. Susskind pointed out that cleaning these self-service beverage machines requires a significant amount of time and effort, despite the low cost of the beverages themselves.
Furthermore, as consumer prices rise, fast-food restaurants are striving to cope with the impacts, so even though the cost of these beverages is low, restaurants may still try to save money.