Tom Whitehurst

A kids' game that H-E-B is playing for keeps

Played by more than 30,000 children each day, H-E-B's Buddy Bucks is no mere kids' game. For H-E-B shoppers who've managed not to notice, Buddy Bucks involves a mechanical claw device like the ones at arcades. But Buddy Bucks is free and the players get to keep trying until they win. The claw grabs a little plastic dispenser with a paper number inside. The number goes inside a Buddy Buck book - also free at H-E-B stores - that includes puzzles and other games. The numbers add up to prizes.
   H-E-B strategists weren't playing when they concocted Buddy Bucks. Their aim was to win the hearts and minds of children so they'd grow into loyal adult customers.
   Company officials won't say how many bucks they spent developing Buddy Bucks. But the program was more than a year in development before its debut in March 2000. It involved a corporate planning team of more than 30, plus an outside marketing firm and a company-wide naming contest among the chain's 275 stores and 50,000 employees. Almost 200 stores have Buddy Bucks machines and each of those stores has designated an employee as an H-E-Buddy Owner, responsible for all Buddy-related activities.
   From paper to coins
   Like any strategic corporate effort, Buddy Bucks has undergone a few tweaks. One of those was the switch in February from paper Monopoly-money-like Buddy Bucks to coin-like tokens.
   This switch, corporate officials say - and any H-E-B-shopping parent of a small child can attest - made it easier for young'uns to activate the machine. With the paper bucks, they'd feed the paper in, only to see it spat back out, over and over - just like they see Mommy and Daddy do at the candy machine.
   The tokens were an added expense - again, corporate officials won't say how much, but they say the paper bills were cheaper and were printed in-house.
   Alas, H-E-B decided last week to write off this effort and return to the paper Buddy Bucks because a 2-year-old from Buda choked on a token. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating. H-E-B decided not to wait and see if the government vindicates the tokens.
   A government spokesman said he doesn't foresee this investigation extending to the other companies that use token-operated machines, like Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza.
   "Are these tokens intended for kids under 3 and are they given to kids under 3? That's the bottom line," the government spokesman said. "If these coins are being given to kids under 3 then we may have a choking hazard."
   These tokens, by the way, are about the size of a quarter, a government-sponsored device that activates mechanical rocking horses and fits easily into toddlers' mouths.
   Jaren Shaw, H-E-B's vice president of customer service and sales, also known at corporate headquarters as H-E-Buddy's Mom, says she envisioned the game for children ages 3 to 8, accompanied by parents.
   Like parenthood, Buddy Bucks is serious business. But parents who shop at H-E-B will be relieved to know that Shaw won't throw out her baby with the bath water.
  
  

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