As is the norm with me on a lazy Friday afternoon, I was thumbing through the local (free) newspaper yesterday when I came across this ad for a pizza place. The HSBC Celebration of Light — an annual fireworks competition/festival here in Vancouver — has been going on since last Wednesday and concludes today with the grand finale. Thousands of people flock to a number of beaches to watch these fireworks, which are blown out from a barge in the middle of the water. This creates a huge business opportunity for restaurants and eateries in the area and they know it. As such, they want to capture that audience and make sure they dine there before heading out to the beach for the fireworks.

So, as I was saying, I was reading through the paper when I saw a very strange ad:

fireworks pizza special

Sorry for the crappy camera phone quality, but I’m pretty sure you can make out those numbers. I wasn’t a math major at university, but I’m reasonably confident with my basic arithmetic. For $3.49, you can get yourself two slices of pizza and a single serving (can?) of pop. Alternatively, you can pony up $1.50 to get one slice of pizza and a pop… so, why wouldn’t you just do the one slice + pop deal twice instead of getting the two slice + pop deal?

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, but would you not save yourself fifty cents in the process and get an extra can of pop? I understand that math can be difficult for some people, but if you’re running a business, you had better have a basic grasp of these figures. Can you imagine if their cheese suppliers offered them one pound of mozzarella for $5 or two pounds for $12? Looking at their fireworks pizza special, I have a feeling they’d pick the latter.