Curse You Red Baron – Safeway Monopoly 2018, a Retrospective

As the sun sets on the last day to redeem Safeway Monopoly 2018 coupons, join me as I embark on a critical analysis of this year’s trials and triumphs.  

It was harder to win anything from Fandango. Much harder. And, loath tho I am to say it, I think that was fair. I ran out of movies to go to last year the credits flowed so easily.

I did not get all the cookies I could get. I am proud. There seemed to be many more cookies to get. I did not get as many bagels as I wanted. There seemed to be far fewer bagels to get. Many more aspirin. Portent? Or the bakers protesting. THANK YOU THANK YOU to whoever sent Sponge Bob back down the drain. NFL, blech. Sue me.

Curse you, campaign to create brand loyalty. As I may have mentioned from time to time, I’m a NYC native. SOOOOO many things to be a snob about. Pizza, hot dogs, pretzels, bagels and corned beef top the list. Hot dogs are too well-loved to be seriously harmed anywhere in this great country: a purveyor of inedible hot dogs deserves to be boiled in mustard. Philadelphia pretzels are better than NY pretzels – don’t rat me out for saying so. There are many people of rare palate in our beloved US of A: I can get excellent bagels in Mississippi, although I don’t think I’d want to hear the word from the mouths of locals. Safeway’s are actually decent. DO NOT GET me started on corned beef. That is a tale of woe. Pizza: pizza must be thick-crust, fresh, all sorts of other requirements. Only Philadelphia steak strombolis make all NY pizzas taste like swamp mud. Yet I now like Red Baron frozen pizza, the brand which gave out the most coupons. A Minnesota (← Minnesota blue) brand?????

I probably made about $50 in free stuff. Racked up an excellent # of gas points. Still had the thrill of the hunt, the complex calculations – could I get everything for free, only have contest-related stuff in the cart…

The game was afoot.