Here goes my two cents:
Growing up back in the day, in TX, there was a promotion held by the local 7-11 franchises. I was over 18, and my little sister was under 12 years of age. I used to drive her around all over town doing our things, like a good big brother would. But I digress…
The local 7-11 franchises sold these large 32-oz refillable containers (that they sold for $0.99 cents extra, on top of the volume of soda it held, whether or not you filled it to the top) called “Squenchers” that you could bring back to your local 7-11 and get a refill for only $0.25 (plus tax) regardless of the amount of soda you dispensed. It was cheaper than the regular sized sodas, so they (maybe) lost money on refills, but I’m sure they made the money back on selling the plastic refillable Squencher jugs (which I’m sure they assumed the customers lost along the way). Maybe they figured it would make them some money.
So, this one summer, they held a promotion for free Squencher refills. As long as you brought your (previously purchased) Squencher bottle in, you could refill it with any soda for free. The promotion was supposed to say that they would provide free refills for Squenchers until the end of Memorial Day weekend (just for the three days). It was to state this on large signs, placards and local advertisements saying “FREE REFILLS UNTIL AFTER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND”. This was to begin advertising only one or two days before the actual promotion, as it was to be a big deal suprise thing to beat the Texas Summer Heat thing. (Texas summers do get quite hot) They wanted to beat the competition, as you would think. The promotion was to begin the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. There were to be no dates on the signs, but this was freely promoted by all the local 7-11 people prior to the actual promotion, as they were trying to boost the sales of Squencher jugs, things went awesomely as planned. The promotion was launched, mostly merely upon word of mouth by the local 7-11 franchise retailers, somebody in the main office didn’t proofread the signs, and as it turned out, the signs, placards and local advertiesements and what not went out reading" FREE REFILLS UNTIL AFTER LABOR DAY WEEKEND".
Yup, You guessed it. It was quite the horrorshow of free fountain drinks. ALL SUMMER LONG. Folks all over the place were sucking up free refills ALL SUMMER LONG. There was an initial rush of sales when they ran out of Squencher cups, as all the local 7-11’s ran out of their stock. DID I FAIL TO MENTION THAT SUMMERS IN TX GET HOT? The local franchises had to make a public statement that they would no longer provide “Squencher” cups. Then the big rush hit and EVERYBODY was getting free refills on Squenchers all summer long.
Bottom line: This was the summer that I taught my sister not to be greedy. I showed her that, no matter if they would give her unlimited drink refills on her soda, she should only fill her cup to what she could drink.
Not said: I wouldn’t pull over for her to pee because her brain was too big for her bladder.
LESSON LEARNED: This is also how I taught my sister about self-control. You don’t need to fill the 32 oz cup if you don’t want to drink 32 oz.