Pick 'n Save's "Winning" Play?

Interested in winning a $250,000 dream home?  If you happened to miss out on the Pick ‘n Save Monopoly Sweepstakes this past summer you are in luck.

Because this fall, Pick ‘n Save brought out a new promotional tactic to capitalize on the success of the Green Bay Packers.  Ironically titled “The Winning Play,” the Roundy’s marketing team has produced a scratch off game with millions of dollars and special offers as prizes. The premise is simple enough. By shopping at your local Pick ‘n Save, a number of scratch cards will be offered in accordance with certain bonus items you purchase at the participating locations. Once the game cards are in hand, it is only a matter of scratching off the winning combination and quickly rushing back to the customer service desk and redeeming them for a myriad of wonderful prizes.

Which would of course be a delightful activity for all ages to enjoy except for the miniscule inconvenience that you NEVER WIN. No really, I mean it. The odds of finding a four-leaf clover  on your first try (10,000 to 1) are greater than actually winning one of the top prizes in this game.

Oh, but the exhilaration is certainly there. It is impossible not to feel the air crackling as you put the groceries away and spread out your horde of game cards all over the kitchen table. Even as time and time again the scratch cards defeat you, the little voice in the back of your head reassures you that the next card is a sure winner. So you keep on scratching long after reasonable logic has told you to give it up. But then, as if by miracle, you scratch off three consecutive helmets and the trumpets start playing. You leap to your feet and in the same continuous motion you reach for your phone with the single-minded focus of alerting someone to your victory. Finally as your heart returns to stable condition and your fingers stop trembling you are able to scratch off the silver shavings that are the only thing separating you from early retirement. With the steady hand of a neurosurgeon you carefully scrape away the box and stare with abject horror at what lies beneath.  “You could win two WINNING PLAY Game Tickets.”  The irony is overwhelming.  

But it is too late, you are hooked. You have to hand it to those marketing guys. They have developed an excellent gimmick that plays on the weakness of the typical American greed.

Even so, it is not always heartbreak. Perhaps you will get lucky and by a stroke of luck will win twenty-five cents off of a product that you would only consider using if the planets were all aligned correctly.  However, chances are you won’t.  Better to go back to the field and start picking clovers.  Looks like they still could not find a winner for that $250,000 dream house.