"Most people buy $5 or $10 worth. We've had people buying 300, 400, 500 tickets," said Country Trading Post cashier Basia Lewko.
Bradley and Lisa Willard of Ludlow purchased their lottery tickets for Friday night's Mega Millions drawing at the Trading Post in Chicopee on Friday afternoon.CHICOPEE – At Country Trading Post in Chicopee, where an electric sign announced extended hours for the purchase of Mega Millions Lottery Jackpot tickets, the Friday lunchtime crowd was reportedly enormous and a postprandial mob continued to file past the cash registers without a break.
At $1 a ticket, few people quit at just one, said cashier Basia Lewko. “Most people buy $5 or $10 worth. We’ve had people buying 300, 400, 500 tickets.”
The size of the jackpot Friday afternoon was $640 million.
Trading Post owner Carl D. Roy said some people represent office pools, but one of his customers bought 500 tickets for himself.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this much activity,” said Roy. “I think this is just craziness.”
Roy said the store had sold about 15,000 Mega Millions tickets in the past week.
“When it goes up high, that’s when I buy a ticket,” said customer Robert Garelli, of Springfield. When asked why, he replied, “I want to know what it is to be a millionaire!”
View full sizeBuffy LaRiviere of Chicopee sold 150 Mega Millions tickets to one customer at the Trading Post.“We play very rarely,” said Lisa Willard of Ludlow, who had bought 11 lottery tickets, “but when the jackpot’s this big, you might as well take a chance.”
“You just never know,” said her husband, Bradley. Asked how he would spend the money if he won, he said he would spend the first year imagining what to do with it – “and that’s as far as it gets.”
Melanie Boulais, of South Hadley, was refraining from risky behavior. She was about to buy a single ticket, though she had also bought one the day before. “I figure I work too hard for my money,” she said.
“My husband and I were just talking last night about how we would spend the money if we won,” said Boulais. “My daughter is 13, and she said I should give some of it to charity.
“I would pay people’s mortgages,” said Boulais. “I would hide for a while, I would buy a new car because I need one, I would help people who need help.”
Craig Pfister, also of South Hadley, had just gotten off work and was still wearing his employer’s truck driver logo when he stopped at the Trading Post.
“I’ve bought five tickets each at six or seven different places,” said Pfister, who was following instructions from his wife, Sharon. He was planning to stop at “one more place down the road” before he got home.
Robert Garelli of Springfield purchased his Mega Millions tickets at the Trading Post.If he won, said Pfister, all the money would go to his family. He would pay off his debts and would pay for the education of his older son, Brian, 19, who is in college.
Sandra Giverson, of Ludlow, said she would share the loot with “my brothers and sisters.”
“Everyone has a dream,” said Roy. “They’re all in good spirits.”
Had he bought a ticket himself? Of course. He and his wife spent about $20 on tickets, he said.