The game pieces began to pile up on our kitchen counter.  Having been in the promotions industry for as long as I can remember, my curiosity finally got to me one evening, and as a result, I was drawn helplessly in to the Shaw’s & Star Market “Monopoly Collect & Win Game” advertising “$55 Million In Prizes and Money Savings Offers”.   Something about my favorite board game as a kid, coupled with the iconic S&H Green Stamps type offer from days gone by drew me in, as I’m sure it did many of their patrons, particularly those old enough to remember the early 70’s tent signs at gas stations and affixed to buildings on every street corner.

In case you’re not familiar with the promotion, here’s how it works:  Shop at a Shaw’s or Star Market and earn game pieces based on the dollar volume of food and products you buy and in some cases, what you buy.  Tear open the game piece (not very easy I warn you), and match the 4 food items with the Monopoly game board provided to collect and win everything from a $10 Grocery Gift Card to an Xbox One to a $40,000 motorcycle or boat.  All told there are 21 prizes you can win ranging in value from $5 to $1,000,000, in addition to the other half of the tear sheet which is an instant winner of more game coupons or grocery items as well as an online game code and sweepstakes entry.

How often do I pop in to my local Shaw’s mid-day, mid week for a bag of Blue Corn Chips and some flavored soda water for my bar mixers?  Never, save for this week when we had a half dozen “two free game pieces” coupons burning a hole in my pocket and I was anxious to bang out one of the lower tiered prizes.  But alas, my pile of duplicates is growing and I am still not a winner as of this writing.  What gives?  Surely someone must be winning these thousands of prizes. Turns out there are sites and blogs dedicated to alerting folks to the limited and tough to find game pieces in each category, so you can simply scan your game pieces for those numbers to see if you have a Wonka like Golden Ticket in your possession.

From a prize standpoint, they seem to have all the bases covered; Grocery Gift Cards and small cash prizes for the practical, hot new merchandise and big toys for those driven by tangible rewards (we love those in the incentive industry!) and back yard makeovers and expensive family vacations for the dreamers.  Of course if you read the fine print you’ll see that not all prizes are guaranteed to be won, so only a fraction of the $55,000,000 will be expended.  Stay tuned for a follow-up article on what they actually gave out, because now I’m curious!