For the past month or so, Safeway has been giving out these “scratch and win” cards. We have scratched maybe 10 of them so far, but haven’t won anything, but I’ve been duly checking what we would have won. It’s always been sandwiches and soups. Why are they so stingy with the sandwiches?! You’d think they would let you win once in a while so as to not discourage you…
Jeremy Cole 
Yeah, totally! As an experiment, I scratched off *all* of the options on the Safeway football cards. I’m doing this from memory, but I think there was only one possible path for victory. So basically it’s a 1 in 81 shot for a free sandwich. Ouch. Robert Heinlein was wrong: There *Is* Such A Thing As a Free Lunch, it’s just improbable.
Well, we only got about three of the cards, and won a roasted chicken from the deli. And a friend of mine won a 55″ HDTV.
Maybe they’re giving no love to California. :)
I just checked the only card I have and you are correct — only one chance in 81 of winning a roast beef sandwich. For the record, here are the numbers: Col 1: 25, 30, 40; Col 2: 15, 10, 25; Col 3: 5, 20, 0; Col 4: 20, 10, 0.
So, if you get all the highest numbers in each column, you reach 105 and the requirement is to reach 100. And none of the rows have a number 5 less than the largest, so you have to hit the 40, 25, 20, and 20 to get your free sandwich. Not worth the time it takes to scratch off the numbers.