Sideswipe: Confession

"My Dad went to the Karaka sales and did a bad thing!" says Jack.

Multi-tasking while driving

Don writes: "We pulled up at the traffic lights in Albany alongside a woman waiting in the next lane. She had two dogs in the front of her car, one on the passenger's seat, the other on her lap. Her window was open so I suggested she might be safer with a mobile phone rather than the dogs, at which point the lights changed, she gave me the fingers and drove off with one hand on the wheel. Consummate skill."

Soft drink situation not a plot

"It's not a plot by the soft drink industry to do away with 300ml cans," says Ross. "It's the dairy owner who is buying them from The Warehouse and Pak'nSave in the 24 packs for around $19 and breaking them down to sell individually because it is cheaper than buying single cans from the manufacturers.

Coke fine with dairies on-selling

A reader writes: "It's not illegal to sell the 'Not for individual sale' cans. All it means is that those particular cans do not have barcodes so cannot be scanned. I briefly worked at Coca-Cola and we would constantly get calls from people wanting free Coke for dobbing dairies in. But Coke didn't have a problem with it - it's perfectly fine."

Deal works for supermarkets

Ben says there is no law against selling cans individually. 'Not for individual sale' generally refers to a deal between retailers and Coke. For a supermarket to get cheap product from Coke they must agree not to split bulk packs and sell them individually. Dairy owners often have no direct relationship or agreement with Coke and can sell them with impunity.