deruch

It's not the direct cost but the lost revenue that is important. Soda margins are staggeringly massive and they help make up for other menu items that are less profitable so that the overall margin is enough to pay for staffing and overhead. If you take out a big money maker like soda, then everything else has to cost more to make up for it.

When they eat by themselves, I think they eat a lot more. When they are with friends, the social pressure keeps them from gorging too much.

More likely this is due to the fact that they are talking more during the meal which slows them down and allows more time for satiation sensors to tell your brain that you are full.

How do we know this is you posting, and not your brother?

You could do something like an extra charge only for egregious examples. So, only if the amount of left over food is more than X would there be a charge. You'd have to make the X high enough that it wouldn't be seen as something someone would cross through inattention or being slightly less hungry than they thought. It would have to be something that would only get triggered for people who massively overdid it.

Was it really necessary to use 3 significant digits for an item that can only really be produced in whole numbers? /s Oh, you meant more than five hundred thousand sweaters produced. You non-Americans and your funny radix notation.

Real question: How many of your 100+ employees are involved in actual production/knitting vs. office, business, etc.?