[quietbritishjim]

You might expect free basic water, what we in the UK would call "tap water". But that's not one of the options - the picture shows Dasani, which is a product that's marketed as a premium water competing with mineral water. I wouldn't expect to walk into a restaurant and get free mineral water, regardless of my housing situation.

(In reality Dasani is just filtered tap water, and is infamous in the UK for ending up less pure than the tap water it started with and having to go through a huge product recall before they even released it. But, as silly as it is, it's still a paid product.)

[stefan_]

How does it work at McDonalds? Everything else is a syrup, but the water (sorry, dasani) is shipped and delivered as water?

That doesn't seem likely.

[quietbritishjim]

Hmm, that's a good point. If it literally is just tap water with Dasani branding, it's like an implicit admission that Dasani in general is nothing more than tap water.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

When I worked at McDonalds in Germany about 1988 ('company store', not franchised) it was tap water from the local utility, processed by systems in the basement for compensating local differences in PH, for having a consistent endproduct regardless of location. That was true for all stores in the region, regardless of company store or franchised. By 'the book' that was the way how it was done worldwide, then. Don't know how it is today.

[yourenotsmart]

You think it's unlikely that water is packaged and shipped? What do you think bottled water is? Whether you think someone is cheating with tap water at the source is beside that point. Some do, some bigger brands don't as they have more to lose by cheating. But regardless, water gets packaged and shipped all the time.

Your regular variety grocery store Coca Cola is also 90%+ tap water, bottled and shipped. They're not mixing syrup at the store.

[quietbritishjim]

> You think it's unlikely that water is packaged and shipped?

You're refuting a different point than the one the parent comment made. They didn't claim that no water is ever shipped. They just claimed that these types of drinks machines don't work that way.

> What do you think bottled water is?

They weren't talking about bottled water, they were talking about this type of drink machine. Of course bottled water in a proper restaurant is shipped as such. It also usually arrives at your table in the bottle, partly so you know that it's not just tap water.

> Whether you think someone is cheating with tap water at the source is beside that point.

It's not besides the point at all. Actually it's completely central to the point. The comment chain you're replying to is precisely about whether people are being denied tap water, or some (supposedly) more premium product. If it's the latter, it completely invalidates the point of the original tweet.

Plus it's interesting in its own right. If the makers of Dasani admit that it's indistinguishable from tap water, then that's very relevant to people buying it at a store to take home and drink instead of the tap water they already had access to!

> Your regular variety grocery store Coca Cola is ...

Now that actually is beside the point. If bottled Coca Cola is the same as tap water + Coca Cola syrup + fizz, then that's not really a surprise to anyone buying Coca Cola in either form.

[yourenotsmart]

> You're refuting a different point than the one the parent comment made. They didn't claim that no water is ever shipped. They just claimed that these types of drinks machines don't work that way.

Really? And how do they work?

It's a drink dispenser, not a Mars spaceship. How complicated do you think it is to have one that mixes in syrup and tap water, and one that just serves from a container, like a regular water dispenser THAT'S LITERALLY IN EVERY OFFICE around the world?

> It's not besides the point at all. Actually it's completely central to the point. The comment chain you're replying to is precisely about whether people are being denied tap water, or some (supposedly) more premium product. If it's the latter, it completely invalidates the point of the original tweet.

No, if it's branded as a specific type of water, it's not tap water. You're reaching here for a conspiracy theory based on how "these types of drink machines work", despite evidence to the contrary.

Also no, a business doesn't owe tap water to anyone, either. So it's absolutely irrelevant wrt these RFID chips.

[quietbritishjim]

> > ... the parent comment ... just claimed that these types of drinks machines don't work that way.

> Really? And how do they work?

As you can see by earlier comments in the chain, they normally work by having separate containers of syrup for each type of drink that can be served, a single CO2 canister for carbonation, and being plumbed into the water mains. The drinks are mixed from those on demand. Soft drinks dispensed in pubs/bars work the same way, with one of those magic tap things on the end [1].

[1] http://www.cokepubandbar.co.uk/example-equipment.html

I already knew this before I posted my initial comment and someone corrected me, I had just forgotten and failed to join the dots. It's fairly common knowledge.

> How complicated do you think it is to have one ... one that just serves from a container

It's not complicated, it's just very inefficient, both in terms of getting those containers to the outlet, and in terms of staff swapping the containers all the time when they run out. That's why it's not normally done, so it would be a surprise if this one were any different.

> like a regular water dispenser THAT'S LITERALLY IN EVERY OFFICE around the world

Nowadays most office water machines are also plumbed in as it's far better for the environment. But the type you used to see typically had ~20L bottles on them, which wouldn't even serve 25 large US McDonalds drinks like the one shown in the picture (blimley those drinks are huge!). Hopefully it's obvious that it's not feasible for someone to come and change the water every 25 times someone uses the machine. The turnover of an office water cooler is typically tens or even hundreds of times less than a soda machine in a busy fast food outlet.

Those classic office water dispensers are also gravity fed, which is why the bottle is on top, and obviously that's not what's happening here. But I acknowledge it would be possible, in principle, to make a pumped version.

> No, if it's branded as a specific type of water, it's not tap water. You're reaching here for a conspiracy theory ...

You're showing a charming amount of faith in the Coca-Cola corporation here :-) Believing that they would sell tap water as Dasani is definitely not at conspiracy theory level.

That said, I never said I was 100% sure that they're doing that. Only that it would be extremely unusual for a machine like this to be connected to bottled water rather than mains. I'd love to see some evidence either way. Still, it would be so surprising that the burden of proof is really on the claim that it is using a bottled source.

> Also no, a business doesn't owe tap water to anyone, either. So it's absolutely irrelevant wrt these RFID chips.

I agree businesses don't owe tap water to non-customers. But most restaurants / take away outlets allow indefinite tap water to those that actually are paying customers, and I'd be pretty offended if I was at one that didn't (even if I didn't live in a country where it's a legal requirement). It would certainly be more surprising than a business that doesn't allow you indefinite amounts of e.g. Coca-Cola.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

This always gives me a chuckle.

It’s dehydrated water.

Just add water.

More seriously, if you put a label on a thing people will enjoy it more because of the brand.

[noir_lord]

In the UK if you serve alcohol you must provide water (tap usually) as part of the licensing requirements.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39881236