Maximums

Limits are important. I get that.
But here are two examples of dumb limitations:

1. A pizza chain's flyer arrived in my mailbox last week. One of their featured offers is the "triple decker": three pizzas, three toppings each, three dipping sauces... for a certain price per pizza depending on the size. The kicker? It very clearly states "maximum three pizzas".

So, if I want to buy five or six? Too bad. I have to pay the basic, non-volume-discounted, per pizza price for the additional.

Why would they discourage me from ordering as many as I want at the lower price?


2. I tried to return some empty bottles to the local (government-run) liquor store today. We haven't returned any for several months, so there was quite a few. But, they're all the same type, boxed in their original cases, etc. -- so pretty easy to return.

As I'm lifting the boxes onto the counter to make the return, the staff member informs me that there's a limit on the number of cases that they can accept per person per day. I was about three cases over the limit and had to take the extras back to return another time.

Alright, fine. I understand the need for a limit. They don't want some homeless guy bringing in a week's worth of collections. Or a soccer team returning an entire bottle drive into the store, tying up staff, filling the stock room, and clearing out all their cash.

But c'mon... Make an exception for the handful of extras. It probably took the clerk longer to explain the limits than it would have taken for him to just ring them through.

Besides the general annoyance at his strict adherence to a silly rule, I'm bothered by the rule itself. Shouldn't they be encouraging as much recycling as people are willing to engage in (especially since they're a government-run operation)? And not only that, since I've already paid a deposit on each of these bottles, isn't it really my own money that they're returning to me? Seems pretty cheeky of them to make it extra-difficult for me to get my money back.


I really don't understand the logic or the lack of flexibility in either of the above.