Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 4, 1993 TAG: 9312040143
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The bears are Coca-Cola's current advertising icon. The lottery tickets are an experiment to determine if gaming will boost food sales.
It's too soon to know the answer, say the parties involved.
The fast-food spot is one of five Roanoke Valley Hardee's that have been outfitted for lottery sales; 10 others have been licensed to add machines.
Sales figures show that the five stores sold $13,500 worth of tickets (both for instant, scratch-off games and on-line games) between the Oct. 20 start and Nov. 18.
They have averaged $500 to $1,100 in instant-ticket sales each week and $100 to $150 weekly for the on-line games, said Paula Otto, spokeswoman for the Virginia Lottery.
Otto said the department is excited about the venture thus far.
"When you think about it, fast-food restaurants are ideal outlets for selling lottery tickets," she said. The eateries have a high volume of customer traffic, and people are normally there during the dinner hour, which is typically when many people stop to buy lottery tickets.
But until the Lottery Department got vending machines to dispense tickets, "it was not convenient" for fast-food places to handle sales.
Hardee's is the first fast-food chain licensed to sell lottery tickets in Virginia. The long-range plan is Fast-food restaurants are ideal outlets for selling lottery tickets, said lottery spokeswoman Paula Otto. The eateries have a high volume of customer traffic, and people are normally there during the dinner hour, which is typically when many people stop to buy lottery tickets. to install the vending machines in all 187 Virginia Hardee's.
The restaurants are owned by Boddie-Noel Enterprises Inc. of Rocky Mount, N.C.
Randy L. Pritchard, vice president of marketing for Boddie-Noel, said the Roanoke-area test will be evaluated in mid-January.
"We're pleased at this point," Pritchard said. "It is more favorable than we thought it would be."
He said customer traffic has "increased marginally" at the five Hardee's with machines. And that is before the company has done anything to advertise that lottery tickets can be purchased with burgers, fries and biscuits.
Pritchard got the idea for the new venture about three months ago and approached state lottery officials who, coincidentally, also had been thinking about tying together lottery machines and fast-food restaurants.
He said Boddie-Noel doesn't expect to get rich off the 5 cents retailers make on each ticket sold.
He said the restaurants have to undergo extensive wiring changes to accommodate the lottery machines.
The next phase is to expand in the Roanoke area, Pritchard said. He said it would be about 60 days before another restaurant will be added.
The company plans to move into various other areas of the state next year.
by CNB