How Does Pizza Hut Stay in Business?

So I went out to Pizza Hut for dinner with some friends last weekend.I’ve always considered the Hut’s version of Pizza to be the best, and usually at a slightly higher cost, but still a very reasonable deal. But this time around their pricing logic just baffled me.

There were seven of us (five adults and two kids) dining together, and the menu had a great meal deal called “Dinner for Six.” The deal was two large pizzas, six salads and six soft drinks for the low, low price of $31.99.

“Pretty decent deal,” I thought out loud. So we placed our order and enjoyed our pizzas.

Here comes the baffling part. As it turns out, only four of the adults ordered a soft drink, and the other ordered water and the kids’ drinks were free.

When I asked for the check, our waitress returned from the kitchen with a puzzled look on her face. She explained that we didn’t order enough drinks to get the “Dinner for Six” price for our meal, and unless we ordered two more beverages, the check would be over $40.

What?

Yes, you heard me right. Somehow the Pizza Hut computer works in this way:

So, we ordered two drinks to go (drank one and poured the other one out in the parking lot) and got charged the correct price for the meal deal.

Way to make profit, Pizza Hut.