Payless Hates Canadians!
I went to Payless yesterday to get a pair of sandals. They are having a promo to tie in to the Madagascar craze, and they gave out scratch-off game cards, prizes redeemable starting next month. I threw mine in the bottom of my bag. Bonnie, my co-worker, actually read her game piece, including the fine print.
I've attached a really bad photo of the card just to prove that I'm not lying. You can't see it that well, so I'll write here what it says.
Canadian residents only: To receive any prize or discount, you must first correctly answer, unaided in any way, the math skill-testing quesiton below.
Question: Add 22+16; then subtract 18; then multiply by 8; then divide by 2. Answer________________________________.
I shit you not. WTF? Someone please explain the necessity of this to me.
Comments
I found this link about the Skills Test question. I have wondered about this for a while myself.
http://www.jaypinkerton.com/blog/archives/001136.html
Posted by: Donovan | May 24, 2005 12:18 PM
WTF? LMAO!
Maybe they thought Americans couldn't do the math....
BTW the answer is 80
Posted by: caltechgirl | May 24, 2005 12:19 PM
This is just a guess, but maybe Canadian law prohibits "games of chance", and the math question turns it into a "game of skill". Maybe Payless doesn't hate Canadians, and is providing a loop-hole.
Posted by: Bruce | May 24, 2005 12:28 PM
Stop sucking the fun out of everything, Bruce.
Posted by: michele | May 24, 2005 12:29 PM
I thought that by asking the question in English, it rules out the Quebecois.
Posted by: Shawn | May 24, 2005 12:30 PM
What on earth? Oh well, I guess it's just one of those things that we aren't supposed to understand, like the obituary in my local paper this morning that included the fact that the deceased was a fan of Clay Aiken. The heck? I just don't know.
Posted by: Kim | May 24, 2005 12:48 PM
Sorry about that, Michelle. Too much blood in my caffeine-stream this morning...
Posted by: Bruce | May 24, 2005 01:05 PM
I lived in Toronto for a year after college, and this blew me away the first time I saw it. Canada can be a weird place, my friends.
Posted by: Adam | May 24, 2005 01:13 PM
Actually, those skill testing questions are on everything up here. I'm pretty sure that its a goverment regulation.
It isn't so much that Payless hates Canadians as it is that the Canadian government hates retards and will stop them from getting free stuff at every end.
Which of course explains how I never win anything.
Posted by: skippystalin | May 24, 2005 02:14 PM
In Canada, it's illegal to run a game of pure chance that requires considation to play.
There usually has to be a method of playing for free
or getting prize that doesn't require a purchase,
or a pop quiz.
Which there will be on these rules in ten minutes.
Posted by: SarahW | May 24, 2005 02:29 PM
Wow... I didn't know Americans didn't have to answer skill testing questions.
It's a funny thing, that line across the 49th...
Posted by: Lee | May 24, 2005 02:38 PM
The Canadians DO have poutine, though. I have no problem having to do math to win a prize were I also able to walk into Burger King and order up some poutine.
Posted by: Adam | May 24, 2005 03:17 PM
Hey I'm south of the 49th and Canada's to the west.
Posted by: coolrobc | May 24, 2005 03:51 PM
hey! i'm from the REAL 49th. what are we, chopped liver? no oil drilling for you!
Posted by: mikey | May 24, 2005 04:13 PM
That jaypinkerton.com link Donovan provided up at the top is a hilarious description of the "logic" behind this phenomenon...
Posted by: MikeR | May 24, 2005 05:40 PM
Try the 49th parallel mikey.
Posted by: Blog Jones | May 24, 2005 05:41 PM
The math question for Canadians is so that when we win, we can wave our prizes in all you 'Murricans' faces and assert we're both luckier and smarter.
Posted by: Light & Dark | May 24, 2005 10:03 PM
If you Canadiens are so smart, how come you're living in a country so far north you freeze your backside off nine months out of the year? (On the other hand, maybe that's why you don't see very many fat Canadiens.)
Posted by: the large one | May 25, 2005 01:14 AM
If the Canadians want to regulate games of chance, the skill question should require an estimate of probabilities.
Posted by: Crank | May 25, 2005 09:55 AM
Git ta work, you bunch of slaker Ka'nooks
Posted by: da boss | May 25, 2005 10:31 AM
Stop wasting my space with your idiot comments. I just banned your IP which is too bad, as I see from my logs that you are normally not this much of a jackass.
STFU.
Posted by: michele | May 25, 2005 10:35 AM
What I want to know is how do they know it was correctly answered "unaided in any way"? If a Canadian wins, do they have to answer another one in front of a witness?
Posted by: cardeblu | May 25, 2005 09:14 PM
Theoretically, they have to answer it in front of the cashier. But to tell you the truth I've never had to do it. I think it's more a formality these days than anything else.
Posted by: kelly | May 26, 2005 08:13 AM
Posted by: roulette | June 6, 2005 04:13 PM