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Monopoly

If you've shopped at a Safeway any time recently, you've probably seen that Monopoly game. The idea is fairly simple: you get Monopoly pieces every time you shop, and if you get the right pieces, you win a prize. It's sort of like a sponsored version of Bingo, only you participate by grocery shopping. They've been doing it for a while, so I'm guessing you've seen it around at some point or another. Well, this year, I decided to play.

I don't even know why I wanted to play, but as we were at the store, I figured, "why not?" I mean, the Mild Fiancée had just finished doing our grocery shopping, and it's not like it was going to cost us anything extra to participate. So, on sheer whim, I told the lady behind the counter that we did, in fact, want the Monopoly tickets and the game board.

Now, I know full well what the odds of winning are. There are only so many prizes, and there are a ton of people who shop at these stores. I don't realistically expect to win a million dollars, a fancy home, or any of the big prizes. Still, I collect the pieces and dutifully put them on the game board. And for a brief minute, as I'm putting one of them down, I daydream what it would be like if we won that particular prize. New laptop? Sure, why not. Car of your choice? Sign me up. Thousands of dollars in groceries? Okay.

This actually reminds me of a lesson in my high school economics class. My economics teacher made a bet that the world would end at the stroke of midnight on the last day of that year. On the surface, this was a losing proposition no matter what. If the world did end, he'd be dead and there's no way he could collect his winnings. If the world did NOT end, then he'd lose the bet. Either way, he came out on the wrong end of that deal. However, he reasoned that this gave him something to talk about at social gatherings, and he had fun doing so. The amount of money that he bet was basically a way to purchase fun. He got hours and hours of fun at a little bit more than the price of a movie. Suddenly it doesn't seem like a such a bad deal, does it?

Well, I'm reminded of that every time I place a Monopoly piece on my game board. I get a moment of daydreaming, all for free. I might not win anything, but I'm getting my fun out of it no matter what. Thanks, economics. You and the Monopoly game are helping brighten my day just a little bit every time the Mild Fiancée or I go grocery shopping.

The best part, though, is that the Mild Fiancée loves telling the clerk behind the counter that "someone at home sure loves these" every time that they ask if we want our Monopoly pieces. The clerk usually assumes said someone is roughly 4 years old, and they laugh. So, everyone involved gets a good laugh out of the whole thing. Who knew a random promotion would provide this much fun?

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