18+ Only. Play Responsibly.
The lobster was already sitting in the trolley.
That should have been enough warning.
It rested on top of bananas, bread, milk and several hundred loose gold coins while Marina’s supermarket glowed behind it with the brightness of a building that had replaced every light bulb with a small sun.
A whole ham flew above the aisle.
An apple travelled in the opposite direction.
Shopping trolleys full of coins stood unattended.
Nobody was looking for the owner.
I selected €1.00.
My plan was simple.
Buy nothing I could not turn into a recognisable meal.
The first spin filled the six-by-six shelves with bread, cheese, oranges, apples, milk and one lobster surrounded by grapes.
No eight matching symbols.
No win.
No meal.
The lobster sat between fruit and dairy with the confidence of an item that had been placed in the trolley by a child allowed to shop unsupervised.
The next spin produced eight loaves of bread scattered across the grid.
They flashed.
Two multiplier labels had also landed.
x2.
x3.
The bread exploded from the shelves.
Fresh groceries dropped into the empty spaces.
Nothing else connected.
The bread itself had been worth €1.20.
The two labels were added together.
x5.
€6.00.
Five times the value of several loaves.
The supermarket had discovered dynamic pricing and immediately applied it to carbohydrates.
That was Supermarket Spree.
No checkout lane was visible.
No employee was visible.
Marina was presumably somewhere behind the shelves approving a trolley containing lobster, milk and loose coins without asking whether anybody had brought a freezer bag.
I pressed again.
Bananas filled the lower rows.
Seven.
One short.
A multiplier marked x4 landed beside them.
It remained there glowing with immense promotional confidence.
The bananas did not win.
The multiplier multiplied nothing.
A four-times reduction on the price of air.
The next few spins contained similar supermarket initiatives.
Nine apples and no multiplier.
Seven milk cartons and three x2 labels.
Eight grapes with no multiplier.
A lobster group that stopped at six while cheese occupied the remaining spaces like emergency insulation.
The grid did not care whether the basket made culinary sense.
Milk landed beside prawns.
Bananas surrounded ham.
Bread appeared in three corners while a single egg sat in the middle, apparently expected to feed the entire store.
A group of oranges paid €1.40.
They exploded.
New symbols dropped.
Eight cheeses formed.
A x2 label joined them.
The combined spin reached €4.20.
The supermarket celebrated with a burst of golden light usually associated with discovering a lost civilisation.
Then the dry section began.
Three Scatter baskets appeared several times.
No, not three.
Two.
Always two.
One basket landed on the left.
Another on the right.
The centre filled with apples, milk and an x5 label attached to no winning groceries whatsoever.
The multiplier looked prepared to turn a weekly shop into a luxury purchase.
The shop declined to provide the weekly shop.
More €1.00 spins entered the automatic doors.
Small grocery wins left through the service entrance.
A group of bread paid €0.80.
Several bananas produced €1.00.
Ten eggs arrived without a multiplier and returned €1.60, which seemed low considering the grid had briefly become responsible for breakfast across several households.
Then three Scatter baskets landed together.
One near the top.
One in the centre.
One on the bottom row beside a ham.
The shelves cleared.
Ten Free Spins appeared while fruit, bread and seafood flew around Marina’s trolley.
The lobster remained upright.
It had accepted turbulence as part of retail.
I pressed Start.
The first Free Spin brought no win.
A x20 label landed near the centre.
Eight matching groceries did not.
The most powerful discount in the building had been attached to an empty basket.
Nine spins remained.
On the second, eight apples appeared across the shelves.
Two multiplier labels landed with them.
x5.
x10.
The apples flashed and exploded.
Fresh groceries dropped.
No second combination.
The apples had produced €0.40 before the labels.
Fifteen times that.
€6.00.
The store had multiplied eight apples into a modest lunch.
Free Spin three brought two Scatter baskets.
No grocery win.
The baskets remained until the spin ended.
Five more Free Spins were added.
I had used three spins and now had twelve left.
The supermarket had extended my visit without requiring me to buy anything.
This was the first loyalty programme based entirely on loitering near produce.
On the fourth spin, eight pieces of ham appeared.
A x25 label landed below them.
The ham exploded.
The underlying win was €0.80.
x25.
€20.00.
Twenty euros of ham vanished from the shelves in one golden flash.
No bread.
No cheese.
No mustard.
The store had sold pure multiplied meat and left meal planning to the emergency services.
Free Spin five brought bananas.
Ten of them.
Two multipliers.
x5 and x15.
The bananas were worth €0.60.
Combined x20.
€12.00.
A dozen euros entered the win while the bananas disappeared.
The lobster watched from the edge of the grid.
It had now seen bread inflated five times, ham inflated twenty-five times and bananas given a twenty-times intervention.
Seafood remained patient.
Free Spin six delivered a x50 multiplier.
The label filled the centre of the shelves in pink and gold.
Around it sat seven oranges, six milk cartons, several eggs and one lobster.
Nothing reached eight.
The x50 multiplied zero into a more professionally presented zero.
The supermarket had placed its largest promotion on a trolley with no qualifying items.
Free Spin seven corrected that.
Eight lobsters landed across the grid.
Not grouped.
Not arranged.
Just distributed through dairy, fruit and bakery goods like a seafood recall nobody had announced.
A x30 label appeared.
The lobsters flashed.
The base win was €1.20.
Thirty times.
€36.00.
All eight lobsters exploded.
Fresh symbols fell.
For one moment, the supermarket contained no lobster at all.
The trolley on the feature screen still held one.
Emergency stock had been retained.
Free Spin eight paid nothing.
The shelves filled with milk, grapes, bananas and cheese.
The collection resembled a meal designed during a power cut.
Seven remained.
On the ninth, bread reached eight symbols.
A x10 label sat beside the loaves.
€0.50 became €5.00.
The bread disappeared.
New groceries dropped.
No continuation.
The bakery had accepted one multiplier and ended the conversation.
Free Spin ten brought milk cartons across four rows.
Eight connected.
Three multiplier labels appeared.
x5.
x5.
x20.
The milk itself paid €0.40.
The labels combined to x30.
€12.00.
Eight cartons exploded under thirty-times pressure.
This was no longer dairy.
This was a refrigerated financial event.
Five extra spins remained.
The first of those did nothing.
A x15 landed beside seven cheeses.
The cheese refused to qualify.
The label glowed beside them, ready to make almost-cheese extremely valuable.
Free Spin twelve produced apples.
Then grapes.
The apples formed a win worth €0.40.
They exploded.
The grapes dropped into the gaps and formed another worth €0.60.
The spin had reached €1.00 before multipliers.
A x15 and x20 stood on the shelves.
x35 in total.
€35.00.
The supermarket had taken a small fruit salad and charged wedding-catering rates.
Free Spin thirteen brought another x50.
Around it landed seven loaves, seven bananas and six cheeses.
No win.
The label stood in the centre of an almost complete picnic and multiplied disappointment by the maximum available amount.
Two spins remained.
The fourteenth produced eight cheeses with a x15 label.
The cheese paid €0.60.
€9.00 after the multiplier.
It vanished.
Fresh groceries fell.
A single milk carton landed where a second cheese win could have formed.
The dairy department had arrived late and obstructed its own neighbour.
One Free Spin remained.
The final shelves filled slowly.
Bananas across the top.
Grapes down the left.
Bread in the centre.
Milk along the bottom.
Two lobsters occupying positions that would have been less alarming in an aquarium.
Eight bananas connected first.
€0.50.
They exploded.
Fresh fruit dropped.
Eight grapes formed.
Another €0.60.
The total unmultiplied win reached €1.10.
Three labels remained on the grid.
x5.
x20.
x25.
Fifty altogether.
The supermarket paused.
The labels added themselves.
The trolley lights flashed.
€1.10 became €55.00.
Bananas, grapes, bread, milk and lobster flew across the screen while Marina’s trolley burst through a mountain of coins carrying enough groceries to prepare absolutely no known recipe.
The fifteen Free Spins finished at €190.00.
The long walk through the base game had cost far less than that.
Marina appeared beside the total, smiling under the supermarket lights while apples, chips and gold coins floated around her.
The lobster remained in the trolley.
The milk was still upright.
A ham passed overhead.
No bag had been packed.
No cold item had been separated.
No human being had checked the basket.
The normal shelves returned at €1.00.
Seven bananas appeared in the preview.
A x5 label waited beside them.
The supermarket was already preparing another promotion for produce that had not qualified.
The next euro stayed in my pocket.
Marina could put the lobster back herself.
The RTP in Iron Bank 2 stands for “Real Tears Percentage.”