Last time I was at KI, I asked for (3) waters. This was at the fry place outside of the train station. They gave them to me in 20 oz cups. I don't know if that person was just generous, if they didn't give a flip as it was at the end of the day or if it was new part of KIs policy on distributing water.

From a cost standpoint, I would think giving away the 20oz waters could save them money. the cost difference b/w the 20 oz paper cup and the 8 oz plastic cup can't be much per cup, if anything. Top that off, that even w/ the 20oz paper cup filled with water, you're still capable of slapping a Coke (or Pepsi) logo on the side that you don't get w/ the 8oz plastic cup. How many people go up and order 2 waters for each person in their group? I know I often do, but would get 1 if it was in a 20oz container. So if the paper cups costs a bit more, how much of that is offset by people going thru 2 plastic cups of water each time when they might have asked for 1 20oz paper cup? Finally, the hidden costs of using multiple sizes of cups. You have to have a back of store place to store extra inventory of each, you have to have a front of store place to store extra inventory of each, you have to have workers pause to think about which cup to grab, you have to keep track of all that inventory, place seperate orders for each amount needed, etc.... Having 1 size cup for both pop and the free water handout becomes much a much easier task to handle than having 2 different sizes, not to mention the larger sized cup for the large pop.

Lots of food stands track inventory by the cups they have on hand and number of cups used during the day. This is how they track the amount of products that they sell. other places like bars and such track the product sold by the pour from the device they use to fill the various drinks (alcohol and soda) and fills the cups with the correct amount of drink into the glasses. This prevents over filling and insures products are not wasted. It also allows the management of the bar/food stand to tell how much has been sold and when to connect new product when the inventory runs low. Places like Kings Island might not use a system like this and uses the cups used during the day to track product that are sold. This is why they use the same cup for requests for free water instead of the cups used to fill it with Coke products.

It's official!

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