McDonald's Monopoloy Game

[BluePenguin]

I went to McDonalds today for the first time in months. I found out that they are running their Monopoly game again. What do people think of it? It seems to be a good way to lure customers back in to buy more junk food in the hope that they get lucky and win a prize - and it is working!

As my friends and I waited patiently for our food, a group of teenagers nearby were busily comparing their Monopoly stickers with each other to see if any of them had won anything exciting. One of them had won a free apple pie or sundae and went straight up to claim it. I couldn't help but laugh at how happy they were over something so small.

When I got home, I decided to have ago. I peeled off the stickers and I had a go at entering the codes online. Has anyone else been collecting the stickers and entering the code? Has anyone won anything?

If anyone has any they don't want to use themselves then I will gladly accept them!

 

[johntea]

Must have had a go every time for the past 10 years or so, never won anything more than food prizes sadly (which I then inevitably forget to claim before the expiry date!).

Quite a fun little promotion though, a bit of fun once a year!

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

I won 50% off a skateboard

 

[trainmania100]

Won a apple pie on my last big Mac meal.
Don't bother with trying to collecting all of the coloured tickets because some are produced in larger quantities whilst others tickets there are only a small number made so makes winning unlikely, of course there's always a small chance you could win one of the big prizes.

 

[Ianno87]

Worth it for the feebie stickers they give away (e.g. a free Big Mac), if you happen to be going anyway.

The 'rare' coloured stickers (one per colour) can usually be found on the internet each year; don't bother collecting the others; just look out for and keep the rare ones (I've never got one; except for Old Kent Road that gets you a free value meal).

 

[johntea]

I don't even think you have to look out for them as such, if you get the rare one the sticker will have more details on it how to claim the prize anyway!

 

[Gemz91]

Not been past a Mcdonalds in the past couple of weeks, but my local Mcdonalds always seems far more busy during the Monoploy promotion weeks then usual. They must make a fortune in extra sales during the promotion.

 

[Drogba11CFC]

I got two Park Lanes in one go. Anyone get a Mayfair?

 

[BluePenguin]

I got two Park Lanes in one go. Anyone get a Mayfair?

If only! They seem to be very rare. I have 8 Park Lanes but never found a Mayfair.

 

[trainmania100]

I'm going to McDonald's today before a bit of unit bashing hopefully I win mcflurry weather is great today

 

[whhistle]

I find it rather dull.
Unlikely to win anything even "good". I was reading something online somewhere that said they've reduced the number of top prizes this year too, so it's even more unlikely.

But then I'm not one who buys scratchcards, plays the lottery or anything like that. I'm sure there's a stastic that says you're more likely to die on the way to buying a lottery ticket than actually winning.

In my opinion all the McDonalds "promotions" over the past 4/5 years have been very much the same.

I've suggested to their Marketing Department, they'd be better off doing a competition to have a new "standard" burger (IE, available all the time), or a "tastes of the world" (where they have a burger not available in the UK, but available in other parts of the world). Yes, they have a "great tastes of America" but that's just boring now.

 

[Ianno87]

If only! They seem to be very rare. I have 8 Park Lanes but never found a Mayfair.

I would presume they only print as many Mayfair stickers as the number of the top prize they have on offer. Chances of finding one on the thousands upon thousands of McDonalds packaging produced is truly tiny.

Baffles me how few people get this. McDs presumably budget for the promotion on the expectation that a number of the rare stickers just get binned by people who don't bother to check, so not every top prize gets claimed in practice.

 

[SS4]

It's a nice little bonus if I win something but I'm not going to make additional trips just in the hope I win a prize. If I may go off topic their wraps and side salad aren't bad and cheap on wrap of the day

 

[D365]

"Mayfair" is the gold dust sticker I hear.

 

[trainmania100]

I have a sausage and egg mcmuffin instant win to enjoy next week before work

 

[Intermodal]

I certainly enjoy the instant wins, but the board game is a waste of time for me personally.

I worked in McDonald's as a manager for a number of years, and let me tell you that this promotion is not popular amongst McDonald's franchise owners - they are almost always obligated to run the promotion through various means, and they do not receive full compensation for the free food items given out. At our store, the rise in sales (barely measurable) did not cover it, and it ate into profits.

 

[Busaholic]

Don't assume that any 'top' prizes are ever paid out. I was reading an article in the Daily Mail (c/o Costa!) a week or two back regarding promos by McCain Chips and others and there are so many get-outs in the small print. So many of these firms NEVER pay out on the top prizes or on the tiers of prizes below, and it's all quite legal, apparently, if they get the small print right (which the big firms always do). On the rare occasion when they are either forced (or choose, for promotional reasons) to pay out, then they are covered by insurance/

 

[E_Reeves]

I won myself a free photo album (where you choose the photos online). Although it was small, it made a nice Birthday present!

 

[pdeaves]

I worked in McDonald's as a manager for a number of years, and let me tell you that this promotion is not popular amongst McDonald's franchise owners - they are almost always obligated to run the promotion through various means, and they do not receive full compensation for the free food items given out. At our store, the rise in sales (barely measurable) did not cover it, and it ate into profits.

Offers and promotions usually have the caveat 'participating stores only'. Did you not have the opportunity to decide whether to participate or not? Was it, for whatever reason, considered less bad to participate than not?
<Honest questions, I simply don't know how these things work>

 

[greatkingrat]

Don't assume that any 'top' prizes are ever paid out. I was reading an article in the Daily Mail (c/o Costa!) a week or two back regarding promos by McCain Chips and others and there are so many get-outs in the small print. So many of these firms NEVER pay out on the top prizes or on the tiers of prizes below, and it's all quite legal, apparently, if they get the small print right (which the big firms always do). On the rare occasion when they are either forced (or choose, for promotional reasons) to pay out, then they are covered by insurance/

To be fair, if it is not McDonald's fault if they print 10 winning stickers, and half of them get thrown in the bin by people who don't bother to check.

 

[LowLevel]

Don't assume that any 'top' prizes are ever paid out. I was reading an article in the Daily Mail (c/o Costa!) a week or two back regarding promos by McCain Chips and others and there are so many get-outs in the small print. So many of these firms NEVER pay out on the top prizes or on the tiers of prizes below, and it's all quite legal, apparently, if they get the small print right (which the big firms always do). On the rare occasion when they are either forced (or choose, for promotional reasons) to pay out, then they are covered by insurance/

My parents won a trip to New York entering a packaging competition from the New York Bagels company so it certainly does happen from time to time.

 

[Busaholic]

My parents won a trip to New York entering a packaging competition from the New York Bagels company so it certainly does happen from time to time.

It's much more common now, apparently, that firms don't pay out, particularly the really large, global ones. I myself won a Nat West competition years ago: closing date by post was a Saturday, and I posted my entry the day before, having thought up a slogan in about thirty seconds flat! I obviously missed my true calling. Actually, I suspect that whichever entries were opened first on the Saturday and had a slogan in grammatical English were going to win (three of us, from memory). The slogan never got used , by the way.

 

[johntea]

Yesterday I bought a meal with 11 stickers, (7 if you exclude the online code ones) and managed 4 instant food wins, one of which was a McFlurry which I got in a container with 2 more stickers...for another instant win of a Big Mac! Quite a lucky run there!

Annoyingly on the self service screens it only lets you redeem one sticker per order which seems a bit of a pointless restriction.

 

[High Dyke]

Not a place I'm that interested in going in, I prefer the hot sausage baps my local butcher sells.

On another note the McDonalds near to me has been closed for a makeover for about 5 weeks; at least the traffic through the area flowed better whilst it was closed. However now it has reopened when will motorists learn that if the car park/entrance is full they won't get in. No the Muppets insist on blocking a major road junction because they don't have the brains to work out what to do...

Rant over.

 

[deltic1989]

Annoyingly on the self service screens it only lets you redeem one sticker per order which seems a bit of a pointless restriction.

That restriction has been in place for some time, and it's not just the self service, the cashiers are supposed to enforce that restriction too, but rarely do.
When I worked for McDonald's (some time ago now) the managers were fairly lax about enforcing it, and left it to our discretion. Unitl one guy came to my till with a stack (and when I say stack I mean about 40 vouchers), and because of a smallprint error on the vouchers, walked away with nearly £100 worth of food for nothing (The vouchers are supposed to have "one voucher per customer" printed on them but these didn't). After that signs appeared stating the rule in inch high letters.