In August of 1999 the local Regal Cinema's sold a refillable cup with a promise of $1 refills for life. We bought a few and kept up with them for years. They stopped selling the cups some time in 2000. We would occasionally lose one as the bottoms were prone to falling out due to straw wear and the plastic was brittle and would break if dropped.
Eventually we were down to just two. About that same time Regal switched from Pepsi to Coke. After a few months of refilling our Pepsi branded cup they started refusing saying that Coke did not want them filling a Pepsi branded cup with Coke. We complained and apparently there were still enough of us around to make a difference. In a few weeks signs were placed around the theater announcing a Regalator Pepsi cup trade in program.
We traded in our Pepsi cups and got two Coke cups. The Coke cups have been much more durable and not nearly as fragile.
It is now 18 years later and we are still getting our $1 refills.
We average 3 movies a month * 52 weeks * 18 years = 2808 refills.
We have probably saved $7000 on movie beverages.
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