Grocery Store Monopoly

It’s that time of year again! Your local grocery store is bringing back the play monopoly sweepstakes. A promotion aimed to give shoppers rewards for simply shopping at their favorite grocery store. Rather than slapping sale signs on everything, they draw you in with potential rewards that range from $10 grocery gift cards to a 1 million dollar vacation home! It may seem like a ploy to spend more money at their store, which maybe it is, but it makes shopping fun. What is it exactly?

How it Works

Grocery stores all over America participate by giving their customers tickets when they buy certain items at their store. The tickets contain game markers that attach to a game board. Once you’ve got all the game markers requires in a section, you win that prize. Also attached to the ticket is a coupon for that store. The coupons can save you a couple bucks on certain items, get you a freebie, or score you two additional tickets. Some of the participating stores include Albertsons, Vons, Jewel Osco, United, and Safeway.  

What Prizes They Offer

The play monopoly sweepstakes provide a variety of prizes. However, there is a limit to the prizes able to be claimed. For example, the $5 cash prize has 925,000 prizes available to win, while the $1 million cash prize only has 3 prizes available to win. Once the limit of prizes claimed has been reached no one else can get the reward. Some of the rewards up for grabs include Fandango movie tickets for a year, $7,500 family vacation, or a $200 family picnic. The cash prizes range from $5 to $100,000. They also have grocery gift cards that range from $5 to 5,000. The bigger prizes include things like a $25,000 Home Theater, 30,000 pair of jet skis, 100,000 cash or boat, 20,000 college tuition, or a million dollar vacation home!

Do People Actually Win

Last year, a women located in Idaho Falls won a $1 million prize participating in the Albertsons Shop, Play, Win monopoly game by collecting all 8 markers required for that space.  She was awarded the grand prize at a ceremony held at her local Albertsons store. Speaking from experience, it’s a big ordeal to actually claim a prize.  You have to track down a manager who then has you transfer your winning game pieces to a new game board. Then the check it and call someone else to check it again. Have you and the two witnesses sign a book and then they give you your prize. In this case they handed me a wrinkly five dollar bill. Sort of anticlimactic, so I’m glad they gave the Idaho woman a ceremony.

The debate is still on if the sweepstakes is just a way to for these participating stores to increase their sales, or if it is actually a way for them reward their customers. As it stands it looks like it is a little bit of both.