Popular as Sundrop?: Local merchant predicts lottery sales will be brisk
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“I think it’ll be a staple like selling Sundrop,” said local convenience store owner Terry Boyd, who runs Korner Market and Village Market. “I don’t think many convenience stores can survive without offering lottery tickets because a lot of customers want to be able to get their gas, a drink and a lottery ticket all in the same stop. If a business doesn’t offer lottery tickets, the customers may go elsewhere where they can get it all in one.”
Boyd’s stores are two of an estimated 3,000 statewide which are receiving lottery machines in preparation for the anticipated Jan. 20 beginning of the lottery. Crews from G-Tech were busy finishing installation of the machine at Korner Market Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve been doing quite a few machines,” said Roy Lacy of G-Tech. “I think just about everybody is getting one.”
According to Tennessee Lottery President and CEO Rebecca Paul, the lottery will launch with four instant games, whereby the customer will scratch the ticket to see if they are an instant winner. The prizes on the scratch game will range from winning a free ticket to winning a chance at $1 million. Paul said the lottery should be computerized within 60 days of its start up where tickets can be purchased for the “pick-a-number” drawings which will be televised.
All lottery profits will go to education, with the lottery challenged to raise $88 million by July 1 of this year to fund scholarships for an estimated 65,000 students.
Boyd said education is a reason behind his enrollment in the lottery.
“It gives children a chance to go to school that may not have otherwise had an opportunity,” Boyd said. “This is one reason we got involved on the front end because they will be funding scholarships this year.”
As far as profits, Boyd says businesses will realize 6.5 percent of the lottery sales, which won’t mean a lot of additional revenues. The lottery machines are free of charge, although there are optional items businesses can pay for. The application fee is $95 for a business to sign up for the lottery.
“If you’re depending on lottery profits to stay in business, then you’re in trouble because by the time you figure up the added time you’ll spend in paperwork plus having to pay extra manpower, then there just won’t be a lot of profit there,” Boyd said. “A lot of it, besides helping on the education end, is to make things convenient for our customers.”
Boyd said his customers are excited by the prospect of the lottery, noting he expects a big turnout the opening week.
“We’re hoping it draws extra customers in, but you’ve got to realize just about everyone will be selling tickets so it’s hard to say how it will affect individual businesses,” Boyd said. “What we’ll do is see how it goes for the first little bit and then decide if it’s something we want to do in the long run, but I’d say it’ll be almost necessary to sell lottery tickets for convenience stores to compete.”
As far as what maintaining a lottery outlet will entail, Boyd said many merchants are still in the dark given the fact the beginning of the lottery has been pushed up. Boyd said he hopes to learn more about maintaining the outlet during seminars in the coming weeks.