won't somebody think of the convenience store workers???

[edenfalling]

It is all very well and good for people to get excited about the absurdly huge MegaMillions jackpot that will be drawn in... well, very soon... but my overwhelming reaction is oh god no make it stop.

This is because I work in a store with a lottery machine.

We sold over $1,300 worth of MegaMillions tickets by cashup at 2:30 this afternoon. I am quite certain we sold that amount again between cashup and closing. If the final jackpot is not over $700 million, I will eat my hat. (I think I have a hat. Somewhere. Possibly in the cabin in Minnesota.)

...

I did buy one ticket, just for the hell of it.

And now I am going to bed, because I was run off my feet all day and even after taking a nap directly after getting home, I am still completely and utterly exhausted.

Comments

[autumnia]

Well, there goes $10 of my money in tonight's drawing. Not enough numbers on my tickets to even get the lowest prize available. But it must have been really crazy for you, but your store does get part of the money from the tickets sold there, right?

[edenfalling]

The profit margin on lottery is 6%. So if we sell, say, $3,000 in lottery tickets, our profit is only $180 -- and selling that many tickets traps one employee almost permanently at the counter to staff the lottery machine, with the other employee unable to be gone long either, which means it's very difficult to do a lot of other tasks that are required to run the store! All for $180.

...

The potential upside is that sometimes people come in to buy a lottery ticket and also buy, say, a candy bar, or a cup of coffee, or maybe get their tickets and then notice all our magazines and wander off to look around and then buy a book or something. All those items have a much better profit margin. But that happens less than you might hope -- people who are lured in by ultra-high lottery jackpots are generally there to buy a ticket and only to buy a ticket. :-(