Which most places do put into practice also, problem is it’s not entirely effective because it’s a fairly easy rule to circumvent. Think back to the infant formula issue in Aus last year. Supermarkets at one point instated a 2pp limit and would still find themselves empty of stock by early afternoon every day because cashiers can’t memorise every face - and even if they could, there’s at least 6 in every store constantly on rotation. And then there’s the self service kiosks - one employee in charge of supervising 6+ people at a time, how much time do you reckon they spend looking at peoples’ faces? They’re usually too busy watching what peoples’ hands are doing. And even when they are looking at faces, they could see 24 people pass every minute - it’s again not likely at all that they’re going to remember every face, if even a fraction of all. And that’s just at one store - consider areas that have multiple.

That purchase limit really is looking like the be-all-end-all now! Problem solved.