Water is free, you add to it and you’re trying to flex across a system that’s not built to care about you, so you pay or they lose hours for letting you get away with it. It’s a vicious cycle, the company made.

water is free but adding stuff to it isn’t

Cue the "she doesn't even go here" line. I quite honestly don't give a single shit if you don't wanna pay five dollars for water with strawberries. that's your own damn fault for wanting the drink in the first place tbh. Water might be free but the ingredients are not. And we can't sell ingredients. as my store manager says, "you don't go to McDonald's and ask for a piece of cheese" and even if you did, most aren't going to give out ingredients. so why come to us and ask for a water with strawberry pieces or syrup or whatever and expect us to give it to you for just the price of the ingredient. that's not how it works. and I for one, wanna uphold standard so that one, other stores don't get yelled at by customers for also following standard and two, I keep my hours.