Fast food businesses are looking to trim costs any way they can. Due to their location, many have become default loitering locations and social services for people who have nowhere else to go (unsupervised minors, the unhoused, and the mentally ill). the fountain drink and sauce stations become liabilities for the understaffed employees to keep clean and functional. This is why Burger King puts the drink machine access code on your receipt, so the poor can’t get a water cup and fill it with pop. The neoliberal model has gutted the social safety net, so people who need services find the next closest thing: businesses with long open hours, shelter, food, drink, and implied permission to hang around.

The treatlers only see their free refill station disappear and blame woke