The Great Grocery Giveaway is a contest sponsored by Hannaford. Make a purchase and you get a golden ticket promising $5 million in prizes and a $250,000 grand prize.

Just scratch of 3 of the 9 circles with dollar signs on them. If the underlying symbols match, you win the prize that is hidden by another scratch-off box. There are always 3 and only 3 matching symbols per card. Seems like a great promotion, right? A wonderful chance to save a bit at the grocery store.

This game is terrible.


All cards offer the opportunity to win, but it is very hard to do so, the bulk of the prizes are tiny, and the game is unsatisfying for customers.

For example, there are nine spaces to scratch off. After scratching two that do not match, however, you know that you have already lost. Most cards give you the thrill of the first scratch, immediately followed by the disappointment of a second try that indicates failure. Seven useless circles remain.

Another complaint? The prize that you don't win is almost always $1. This amount is so low that it almost isn't worth anyone's time to claim it. (If you make $6/hr and it takes 10 minutes to claim it, you'd break even. Only if you earned less per hour would the trip to the counter be worth your time.)

I let a stack of these pile up and went through them all at once. Of the 20 or so cards, all but one were losers after the 2nd scratch. Only one got close, with two matching symbols in two scratches, but I lost on the third as one might expect with this game. Each and every prize was $1.

I'm sure somewhere in the massive pile of all cards there are different prize amounts. I didn't see them, though.

So how could it be improved?

Better odds for the low-end prizes. Everyone should be winning a coupon for a few dollars off any purchase.

It should be easy to get three of a kind, but hard to get 4 or 5 of a kind. The high money prizes could be left in that category to keep it difficult, but the everyday shopper could feel "like a winner" far more often. As it stands, it is as hard to win $1 as $250,000 with the current configuration.

There could also be a variety of prizes that come up more often. Seeing $1 over and over again leaves the impression that there may be $5 million in prizes being offered, but they are in $1 increments. If we're always going to lose anyway, why not let customers lose big?

And while we are at it... one dollar? What sort of prize is that? Is this a game from 1910? One dollar is so little money.

With a name like the Great Grocery Giveaway, one gets the impression that lots of groceries would be given away. You win a bag of potatoes! You win a case of apple juice! You win a roast! You win a shopping spree! You win 10% off your next purchase! Nope.

One of the cashiers told me that there had been a few winners, and that they had won $1.

If the game can't be improved, there is one final option. Rename the game to be more accurate.

Maybe: The Great $1 Giveaway. Over 5 million chances to win a dollar!

or

Here's a piece of cardboard for your recycling bin!