>>>I find myself of two minds on this one. I agree that this is not something for government control. OTOH, when you and I were growing up, places that sold cups of soda generally had three sizes that were 8, 12 and 16 ounces, respectively. Now, in many places, you can get a 16-oz. soda; the "small" (if they offer small) is 20 oz. or more. It's absurd.
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>>It just reflects that service cost has grown more than ingredient cost.
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>In fact, soda is one of the biggest moneymakers for restaurants. The soda costs them pennies; I think the cup costs them more than the soda.

Restaurants have higher profit margin with drinks in general over here as well.
But even if the natural cost percentage with soda, water and beer is even better than with a good wine,
service cost is nearly the same for both.
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>>Or that it is cheaper for both vendor and consumer
>>that perhaps part is left not consumed, but price/value equation is still optimized.
>>Reflect on the prices of water in restaurants, even deducting the higher priced beautiful bottled one cost
>>to "compensate" in customer perception for the high price asked for the service.
>>I would gladly pay double for triple or more volume - that is in addition to one or two bottles of nice wine if in a group.
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>Water is actually not a good comparison for the US since it's generally free in restaurants. Only high-end places offer bottled water for sale. In most, tap water is provided free and automatically (except in places where there's drought, in which case you have to ask for it).

One custom I would prefer to find over here as well...

regards

thomas