Stew Leonard’s Selling N.Y. Lottery Tickets

Shoppers at Stew Leonard’s store in Yonkers, N.Y., now have a chance to hit the jackpot, since the grocer has started selling New York Lottery tickets at the upstate location. Mega Millions, Powerball, Sweet Million and Take 5 tickets are now available for purchase, along with 20 kinds of scratch games.

“We’ve been asked thousands of times to add lottery tickets by our customers,” noted Stew Leonard Jr, president and CEO of Norwalk, Conn.-based Stew Leonard’s, which operates three other stores in Norwalk, Danbury and Newington, Conn., all of which began selling that state’s lottery tickets last month. “After looking into it, the real winners are the New York state schoolchildren. I personally buy a ticket every time I visit our Yonkers store. If I win, I’m donating the proceeds back to the kids.”

Added New York Lottery director Gordon Medenica: “Stew Leonard’s reputation for outstanding customer service makes it a natural and important addition to our retailer network. We are confident that the addition of Stew Leonard’s team to [the] lottery’s team will prove to be a win-win situation for our players as well as New York’s schoolchildren as the lottery continues its mission to raise much needed revenue for education.”

New York Lottery trained the grocer’s associates on how to activate and deactivate lottery tickets and operate the ticket-buying terminal, and also provided information on the state’s rules and regulations in regard lottery sales.

Tickets cost between $1 and $30 and can be bought customers age 18 and up.