Click Here

Is 1 McDonald's Soaking Customers With Its Water Charge?

McDonald's Blames Drought for $1 Cup of Water

From homes to restaurants, a lot of people are doing what they can to cut back on water use, but one McDonald’s restaurant in Wilson is charging for it – $1 for a cupful.

Many restaurants have stopped serving water automatically, encouraged by water-use guidelines and required to do it that way in some jurisdictions. Wilson, however, is in relatively good shape for water, having asked only for voluntary restrictions so far.

Breakfast at the McDonald's on Nash Street is part of Curtis Little's routine at least three days a week.

“I've been going to this McDonald's for about seven years,” Little said Wednesday. Now, he said, he feels like he’s being ripped off by the water charge.

“We get the full meal and a cup of water, and she says the cup of water is a dollar,” Little said. It used to be free, but employees told him last week that they now charge a dollar because of the drought.

“I think it's a real, real hard case of gouging,” Little said.

WRAL tried the McDonald’s drive-thru and found the same thing – $1 for a small water.

“You didn't charge me for water, did you?” asked reporter Mike Charbonneau.

“Yes, we do charge for water now because we have a restriction,” responded the McDonald's employee.

“Because of water restrictions.” Charbonneau said.

“Yes, sir,” said the employee.

The policy makes a large iced tea and a small water the same price.

At Chick-Fil-A and Wendy's in Wilson, water was free. Burger King charged, calling it a “cup fee” and collecting 27 cents. A different Wilson McDonald's, with a different owner, charged 11 cents for a water cup.

Little has his solution: “We'll continue going. I just won't get water.”

The owner of the McDonald's that's charging $1 did not return WRAL’s calls.



179 Comments


Golo

Welcome to GOLO, where WRAL.com visitors can comment on stories and create profile pages, blogs and photo galleries.

You must be a registered WRAL.com user to use these tools. Click here to register or log in.

View Comments View Comments

Photo Spotlight
*
*
*
*
*
*
[+] more photos | submit your photos
Report It
Send us your news photos, videos, tips and story ideas.
Submit Videos Submit Photos Submit Reports
  1. County Unemployment Rates
    North Carolina jobless rates

    View an interactive map with county unemployment numbers.

  2. Drought Map
    A year of N.C. Drought Maps

    View a time lapse animation of drought conditions during the last year.

  3. Twitter
    Follow WRAL News on Twitter

    Keep up with what the WRAL News team is doing on air and online with Twitter.

  4. taxes
    Search for missing IRS refunds

    The Internal Revenue Service released the names this week of more than 100,000 taxpayers who have not received their 2009 income tax refund.

  5. Gov. Mike Easley
    Easley investigation timeline

    View an interactive timeline of the Easley investigation.

Click Here