DEPOSIT RIPPOFF

I have been a fairly regular customer at the Blue Bottle Liquors outlet in Heiderand Mossel Bay, firstly because it is the closet outlet to my house and also, I like to give my support to the local businesses in my area. This is however about to change. I frequently buy Lion beer in quarts (750ml) from them and included in the price is an amount of 90c for the deposit on the bottle. But I have only now realised that when I return the empty bottles for fresh stock, I am only refunded at 60c per empty. I took this up with owner/manager only to be told, in no uncertain terms, that he keeps back the difference of 30c to cover his labour, handling and storage costs. This basically pushes up the price of the product and in so doing negates some of the advantages of buying beer in quart bottles. Now I understand this practice may not be against the law but I really do take a dim view of this. I believe a deposit is exactly that, one pays an amount and then this gets refunded the full deposit when the obligations are met. What makes this worse, they dont inform one of this when buying the product nor could I see any written notice to this effect on display anywhere in this store. To me this is just bad business practice on the part of the owner and an indication that making profit is more important than fair trade. If they are going to continue doing this, maybe they should consider not selling product in containers that involve deposits of any kind. I am certainly not going to support them anymore and I suggest others buy their beer elsewhere.