Do you enjoy an occasional trip to McDonalds? Maybe you enjoy your trips so much that you have the meal numbers etched into your brain for ordering convenience. Or there may be the remote possibility that you saw the movie “Supersize Me,” where the guy eats McDonalds for almost a month and has horrific repercussions and decided not to ever step foot in one again. Regardless, you have probably heard of their Monopoly game. There’s a good chance that you heard about the highly publicized scandal that erupted in 2001 when a security official for a marketing company hired by McDonald’s was charged with a number of mail fraud charges for taking the $1 million dollar pieces and selling them for $50,000. See link: http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/08/24/mcdonalds.suspect/
One of my family’s favorite things to do is visit the McDonald’s playland area with our toddler. Our son gets great enjoyment out of playing with other children and climbing on the devices. We aren’t exactly sure why he gets so much enjoyment out of the area but we are immensely entertained by the raucous nature that comes out when he decides that it’s time to play!
So when we heard that Monopoly was back and that we could win “guaranteed” Toys “R” Us bucks (they are listed on the playatmcd.com website as being guaranteed) for our little guy, we were thrilled.
Guaranteed Bonus Game Pieces include Toys”R”Us Bucks, Foot Locker offers, instant win prizes or mobile downloads. Guaranteed Bonus Game Pieces are available on specially-marked Large French Fry boxes, Premium Chicken Sandwich boxes and 3-piece and 5-piece Chicken Selects boxes in the U.S. but are not available at any Walmart McDonald’s restaurants. See official game rules at: playatmcd.com
We learned from the website that you could either play the game in-store from October 2nd 2007 until October 29, 2007 or from October 2, 2007 until November 13, 2007 online at playatmcd.com. The playatmcd.com website boasts over 1 million online winners; but if you read the official rules section — you’ll see that your odds of winning a cash prize aren’t incredibly great. In fact, during the month of October, I won $5 in Toys “R” Us bucks, a few discounts off Foot Locker purchases, a small soft drink/soda, a McFlurry, and a medium fry. We didn’t expect to win any cash prizes but we were content with getting some Toys “R” Us stackable bucks (in amounts of $1, $3, and $5), which could be stacked up to $5 per purchase at Toys “R” Us. We looked forward to getting these bucks, as the holiday season is quickly approaching and we intend to get toys for a number of children in our family, and Toys “R” Us has a terrific selection of gifts for children. So, instead of taking the baby to the park or somewhere close to play, we decided that we would go to McDonald’s for the “guaranteed” bucks and an outside chance at some other cool prize.
But starting about two weeks ago, and continuing through today, stores everywhere must have run out of game pieces. Instead of the store employees telling you that they were out of pieces, they would tell you that the game was over — there were even managers that said that the game was over. We came to find out that these bucks weren’t guaranteed at all. They were never available, which you didn’t find out until after you got your meal — frustrating since you made the trip mainly for the bucks. What irked me more than anything, however, was the array of signs posted inside, outside, and all over their stores advertising the game — despite the fact that they had no pieces. Even today — the day the game ended, these signs were still posted for people to wrongly assume that the game was still running – and no, there were no pieces available today. Now I understand that this game may have been “while supplies last,” but for some reason, I don’t recall the signs noting that. If they did — it must have been in incredibly fine print. I cannot express the frustration that we felt when we would go to a McDonalds in hopes of getting some Toys “R” Us bucks, and instead got nothing but boring old McDonald’s food instead.
It brought me to question the integrity of the McDonald’s corporation — why is it that these “guaranteed bucks” weren’t all that guaranteed? Why did its employees tell us the game was over when it wasn’t? Why did they advertise the game without having the pieces? Could it be that they actually have the mindset of a monopoly — win at all costs?
We haven’t made a trip back to a playland McDonald’s and I don’t know that I will. Call me picky, but I have come to expect more out of such a gigantic company. If they want my business and respect, they should do their part to earn it.
