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Sometimes, it feels like restaurants are nickeling and diming customers for every little thing. One of the biggest offenders is extra sauce, though the decision rather or not to charge seems inconsistent. Why do some McDonald's locations charge for sauce while others don't? According to Mirror, some locations are franchised, so the decision to charge for extra sauce is up to the individual owners. In regards to Zaxby's, a Redditor once posed the question, "Are Zaxbys employees instructed to give out as little Zax Sauce as possible or what?" A comment confirmed that all meals come with one sauce, but a second one always costs $0.25. An employee of the store wrote, "We aren't supposed to give anyone sauces for free."
At Dunkin' though, the issue doesn't revolve around extra sauce, but rather extra swirls. The realization caused a Redditor to inform other potential customers of the change. Surprisingly, the swirl situation isn't exactly as simple as it seems.
A case-by-case basis
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In August of 2022, one Reddit user noticed that Dunkin' Donuts had charged for extra swirls upon viewing their receipt. In a posted photo, they circled two places that confirmed a $0.10 upcharge. But according to a comment on the post, not all stores implement the charge. Similar to how McDonald's charges for extra sauce (per Mirror), the decision is completely up to the franchise owner. In another comment, however, it's revealed that the Dunkin' corporation doesn't recommend the extra charge.
"Corporate sent us a message about this a few days ago, they streamlined the process for franchises to do it (via app etc) but still recommend not doing it," a comment read. So basically, if a customer asks for more swirls than the five-pump standard, they can be charged for an additional pump if the franchise owner so chooses. Luckily, Dunkin' as a company won't let the price exceed $0.10 per pump. A response to this message calls out the corporation for this decision. "Please don't do this thing we're going to show you!" the comment half-jokes.
So, if your next extra swirl at Dunkin' leads to an upcharge, you'll know that your local franchisee made that happen.
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