I read an article about this a few months ago and this seems to be a follow on to that original article.  Anyhow, I’m quite guilty of eating off of fast food value menus exclusively lately and ordering free cups of water instead of a bottled water.  It’s a great value for me, but I can see how this (particularly customers not buying soft drinks) hurts franchise owners as commodity prices rise and they can’t raise food prices to reflect this.  It’s a tough problem and I see both sides of the argument — a squeeze on the franchise owner and the company, on the whole, fighting for market share.  The rising price of commodities is making everyone’s life miserable.  Anyhow, here’s a link to the articles.