Nick,


What do you take when you spend $50 for dinner? $100? How about when you pay $100 at a grocery store? Some candy bars at the checkout aisle?

What about when you buy some pants and shirts? Do you just slip some socks and belts into the bag on your way out?

I usually go in between classes and do reading/grading/class prep while I am there. What kind of a question is this? When you are eating by yourself do you just sit there and stare at the wall?

I don't know what this is, so I guess the answer is no.

The iced tea costs more like double that FWIW. If it was only $1.29, I might buy it every time. As it is, I buy a new one every second or third time I am there.

And Panera makes a lot of money off me. I once got enough points on my rewards cards that they gave me free cookies every day for a month. And they make more money off me because they tacitly let me do this. If I had to pay $2.50 for an iced tea every time, I would probably go there a lot less.

All,

Just to be clear, I don't think stealing some soda at a FF joint is some huge deal.

When I was a poor HS/college student, we pulled all sorts of petty stuff like this.

I just think it's super dumb to pretend like it's anything but stealing.

I will admit if I am going for a very long grocery run I will sometimes take one of those little caramel candies from the bins and eat it in the store.

This guy is out of control.

LOL. I have one question for you that I'd like for you to please answer either "yes" or "no" (btw, I appreciate your candor itt).

Do you think what you are doing is stealing?

I find the practice of grocery store eating to be so white trash it's almost endearing.

We should just save time since its obviously coming:

NickMPK: "They factor in stolen cups into the cost of the drink, so technically I am paying for it."

Nick,

Yes, they thought your repeat patronage was worth something - FREE COOKIES WHICH THEY GAVE YOU.

They don't "tacitly let you do it" any more than the grocery store tacitly lets me put a filet mignon on the scanner and ring it up as bananas.

Your situation is simple. They charge $x+2.50 for the lunch you want. You don't want to pay that, so you pay them $x and steal the remaining $2.50 worth of product.

All you're doing ITT is rationalizing your petty theft.

Lol, don't give him any ideas...

I don't believe I am doing anything illegal, because as far as I can tell, Panera has no actual published policy on refills. The founder of the company has said that he doesn't mind people abusing the free refill policy, though I've never been able to find a statement one way or the other on getting refills after you have left the store. I know some companies have instituted policies about this, and if Panera did, I would stop doing it.

In the more colloquial use of the term "steal", I guess I am. But Panera also requests you don't use their internet for more than 30 minutes during peak times. If you do use it for more than 30 minutes, are you "stealing" their internet? I think it would be fair to say I am "stealing" iced tea in the same sense.

Does Panera have a policy on kicking tea-drinking college students in the nuts while dining? They probably don't, so it's OK.

Going forward, listen to those here with half a clue about the real world. You are stealing, plain and simple. Just say you're going to pay for tea each and every time you go in, and then follow up on this. Don't ask why, don't question it, no excuses, just shut up and do it.

Nick, do you ignore the rules on plagiarism as well? I mean it's more borrowing than stealing.

Ah, the free hand of the market at work.

JC penny's makes a ton of money off him, and a belt only costs them a couple bucks, so of course its ok.

lol, jesus

uhm, no. That is a horrible analogy, and isnt even remotely similar.


Its like EL D said, Its not the worlds biggest crime, and you doing it is whatever. The fact you go to such great lengths to justify it and come up with such ridiculously stupid excuses is a faaaaar bigger strike against your character imo.

They don't have a policy about this because there are laws that make assault a crime. Clearly, you are violating the law here. There is no ambiguity.

Compared to the Panera policy, which is just "free refills", where the founder of the company has only clarified this to mean, "we are happy for customer to take as many refills as they want". Panera has been deliberately lax in their attitudes toward refills at times when other company have been cracking down. The fact that they are lax in this policy is one of the biggest reasons I patronize their business as much as I do.

Can you clarify how this is not remotely similar?

Of course not...my university has all sorts of explicit rules on plagiarism, and I certainly follow them.

There are a lot of grey areas that tend to vary across disciplines, particularly with respect to self-plagiarism, and I do tend to be on the side that self-plagiarism is often totally fine. But that seems like a totally different debate.

Nick,

God, you are so full of ****, dude.

If you are confused about whether one $2.50 purchase entitles you to free iced tea at Panera for life or not, why don't you ask them whether that's allowed or not?

Because of course you ****ing know it's not allowed, jfc.

Here you go. Yes, I know this is re: coffee, not tea.

"Panera Bread ‏@panerabread
@CoryNilsen Our coffee policy: Dinning in, there's 1 size & it's bottomless. Take out, you can choose from 3 sizes, no refills."

https://twitter.com/panerabread/status/13439266048

By most accounts I'm a reasonable and intelligent person, so I'm probably not pulling that statement out of my ass. There exists reasons for why I would make such a claim. Whether I'm right or wrong is irrelevant. Given my position and the assumption that I have reasons for believing the way I do, you should be able to reason out why I might feel that way. So what about the two situations can you think I might think are different, and different enough to say they arent at all the same?

I'm guessing you have an mp3 collection second to none.

I do think what I am doing is going beyond the bounds of their how they expect their free refill policy to work. I don't think it is illegal, because the policy is not clear. Perhaps it is unethical, in the same way as I mentioned before that it would be unethical to use their internet for a longer time than their requested limit.

You could have just told me in the same number of words instead of expecting me to read your mind.

Dude, you are being disingenuous. No one is buying it. Do you also think taking candy out of the loose bin in the supermarket is unethical but not stealing because there's no sign posted?