Editor’s note: This article was first published in November 2011. This news from that month, including the ticket sales of over 60,000 and the 2011 hamper contents, describes that year’s raffle only.
We call it Spain’s biggest Christmas hamper raffle, though it’s probably the biggest in the world. The raffle is held at a roadside restaurant in the province of Teruel, in Calamocha to be precise: Restaurante Mariano, whose speciality is its set lunch menu (menú del día). Thanks to the publicity around his Christmas hamper raffle, the owner, Mariano Sanz, has turned his restaurant into one of the most famous in Spain, and he receives orders for tickets from all over the country.
Some of the items in the hamper:
- A Ford Kuga 2.0 TDCi
- A Mini Cooper Coupé
- A BMW S 1000 RR motorbike
- A salary of €1,000 a month for 3 years
- A trip to New York
- Half a gold bar
- 40 hams
- 10 shoulder hams (paletillas)
- 20 cured pork loins (lomos)
- 20 cheeses
- 12 bottles of French champagne
- 24 bottles of wine
- 18 bottles of gin
- An iPad
- A MacBook Pro
- A Canon 4463 AA EOS camera
- A PlayStation
- A Wii
- And more…
The whole hamper is valued at around €230,000, and a ticket costs €4. Mariano has already sold more than 60,000 tickets, and as I write this he is probably getting close to 100,000, since people from every corner of Spain come to the restaurant every day.
How did Mariano come up with the idea?
Mariano’s business took a hit when the motorway was built, because travellers no longer drive past his restaurant’s door. So this resourceful businessman created an eye-catching Christmas hamper, for the second year running.
Not only has he seen his sales go up, but thanks to the raffle Mariano will also take in more than €400,000, which leaves him a net profit of a good few thousand euros. It’s a profitable business any way you look at it, as well as an elaborate marketing strategy to get the whole media talking this Christmas about a restaurant in Teruel that gives you the chance to win, for €4, a prize that easily compares with Spain’s Christmas lottery.
Mariano displays some of the hamper’s items inside his restaurant, including one of the cars. He has put the other car on the restaurant’s roof, which catches passing travellers’ eyes, to say the least.
Featured image: Tamorlan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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