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Supermarket Jackpot
"Ok, your total is $175…" WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP! "Oh, congratulations, your groceries are free." | |
On average, every 50th shopper gets their groceries free.
Once the bill is tallied, the clerk hits total and either says
"$89.76 please." or a jackpot alarm goes off along with a
rotating beacon and a sign that lights up "JACKPOT! $89.76 IN
GROCERIES FREE!"
It would obviously have to work
on averages so people
wouldn't just count shoppers and check out when they were
the 50th one. You'd do the same thing the casinos do with slot
machines. Enough wins to keep people interested but not
enough to break the house.
The idea would be that more people would shop there to get
a chance to get their groceries free which would pay for the 1
in 50 baskets of groceries.
The fun part would be that if you bought a stick of gum you'd
feel like a heel, so people might even tend to buy more.
Somebody has to have thought of this.
http://en.wikipedia...le_(betting_system)
[hippo, Dec 23 2013]
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Annotation:
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So what's the policy on returns? |
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Double your money back guarantee. |
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//work on averages so people wouldn't just count
shoppers// |
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Ah, but most people hold to the gambler's fallacy. I
bet that as soon as the alarm went off, shoppers
would linger instead of going straight to the
checkout. |
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Simple, make the selection algorithm favour bunches of 2 or 3 wins slightly more often than expected. |
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//I bet that as soon as the alarm went off, shoppers
would linger instead of going straight to the
checkout.// |
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Yea, I could actually see some people hearing the
jackpot alarm and either putting their stuff back or
even leaving their carts where they are and leaving
the store. Pocmloc's idea might help, not sure. |
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I'm fascinated by the study of un-intended
consequences and I'd love to see how people would
react to this in the real world. |
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You'd probably have to have something remind them
that their cart could be next, but even then, some
would probably just bail, wait around before
checking out or otherwise figure out some way to
make this idea not work and ruin it for everybody.
Never underestimate the power of dumb people to
mess up a good system. |
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Un-intended consequence #2: Dirty looks from all
the other shoppers when you win. |
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I was at Tesco this evening picking up a marked-down item for dinner, and there were 4 cashiers plus self service machines, I would estimate at least 25 people queueing, and this is a small "metro" shop at a quiet time of day. So with 1 in 50 winners, a 50% chance of a win while I am queueing and a high likelyhood of at least 3 while I was in the shop. In a big shop there would likely be winners every few minutes. |
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I know, I think it would be very exciting. |
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All other things being equal, assuming they have the
same stuff as all the other stores, I'd shop there.
Why not? Unlike the lottery with it's millions to 1
odds, you've got a 1 in 50 chance of winning. Those
are pretty good odds especially considering you're
not paying anything extra for the chance to play.
And you've got the chance to get something free you
need anyway. |
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Un-intended consequence #3: I wonder if you'd get
jerks who would just load up the cart with the most
expensive stuff, get rung up, see they didn't win and
leave. Maybe you would need to put your payment
method in first. Still, you can't tell somebody
that they can't cancel a transaction. Even then, I'm
not
sure if there would be enough jerks doing stuff like
that to ruin it for everybody. Plus the people would
have to pull that stunt an average of 50 times before
it paid off. That's an awful lot of work. The store
could also not serve them if they did this more than
a couple of times I guess. |
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Might be fussing over a problem that wouldn't
happen though. |
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No first you pay like normal, then you run your receit (sp?) through the lottery machine. Only receipts (sp?) for more then 25 euro's are accepted in the lottery machine. If you win, the lottery machine automatically reimburses your money back to your bank account. Only works if you pay with your pinnumber. |
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If you intend to buy for 75 euro's worth of stuff, would you check out in batches of three to increase your chance to win or would hope to get it all back in one go? |
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Doesn't give money back to every 50th customer but gives you a 1 in 50 chance to win. |
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//No first you pay like normal, then you run your
receipt through the lottery machine. Only
receipts for more then 25 euro's are accepted in
the lottery machine. If you win, the lottery machine
automatically reimburses your money back to your
bank account. Only works if you pay with your pin
number.// |
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Wow, perfect! Problem solved. Smart solution Z. |
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Got a solution for the dirty looks from other
customers? |
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// solution for dirty looks? //
Yeah, just make it so you have to take the receipt home and type a code from it into their web page. Have the alarm sound at a random interval 0 to 5 minutes after the transaction was completed. So if you hear the alarm go off while loading your car, you'll be sure to check when you get home. Making peopel go to the web site is anohte rmarketing opportunuity, you can make them take a survey to find out if they won, and some people won't even bother. |
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Why are people worried about minimum purchases? If you buy a stick of gum and win it's free, you'll be happy and it won't cost the store very much for that round. On average it just makes everything 2% cheaper. |
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I'm trying to figure out if this falls under gambling regulations or not. It's not like you can actually get more out than what you put it, it is just randomly applied extreme discount. The 2% cost would be passed on to the customer, but that might be offset by reduced advertising costs or something. To make it even less like gambling, rather than returning the cash, just print a coupon good for that much off the next purchase (Expires in 2 weeks). No purchase necessary. Enter as many times as you like. When you win, the discount will be for the total amount of your winning transaction, from $0 to $1,000,000. |
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It would be interesting if people started to try
betting strategies such as a Martingale (see link)
to try and 'beat the system'. For example, with a
Martingale, every time you 'lost' - i.e. didn't get
free groceries - you would double your 'bet' on the
next go. A Martingale system will leave you even
or perhaps slightly ahead eventually, but relies on
you having infinite resources (and space to put
the groceries). As an example, if you start by
buying something which costs £1 and don't hit the
jackpot until the 25th time you visit the
supermarket, by that time a Martingale system
will require
you to spend about £33m (i.e. 2^25 pounds) on
groceries. |
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Did you bring your own bags, sir? |
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Rather than "every 50th shopper", the
selection needs to be randomised. That way,
the odds of winning are fixed and there's no
reason why two shoppers can't "win" within a
few seconds of one another; equally, there
might not be a winner for hours. |
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The system could be made elective, based on
loyalty cards. At the checkout, the customer
gains points; they may then choose to add
the points to their total (and redeem them at
a
later date for goods or services), or gamble
them in the hope of winning their shopping
for free. |
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Human nature being what it is, by controllong
the odds on the same basis as gambling
machines, the store is on to yet another nice
little earner. |
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Posession of a loyalty card acts as a
gatekeeper for under age gambling, and for
those morally opposed to gambling they can
just take the loyalty points. |
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//Rather than "every 50th shopper", the selection needs to be randomised. That way, the odds of winning are fixed and there's no reason why two shoppers can't "win" within a few seconds of one another; equally, there might not be a winner for hours.// |
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Yes, it would be "on average", the trick would be getting the public to realize that you could go hours without a win and have 5 wins within an hour. You don't want people thinking they've "figured out a system" and screwing things up. |
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That might be a marketing problem more than anything. Just make it clear in the commercials how it works. |
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I don't think gambling laws would apply because this isn't gambling. Your buying groceries, you pay for them and legally, the transaction is over. The grocery store just elects to give some people all their money back. To gamble you have to be able to lose. |
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Like the customer loyalty idea. |
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