Those hoping to land lucky numbers should look no further than the Safeway in downtown Aberdeen. Located at 221 W. Heron St, the local store of the national supermarket chain was recently named the luckiest retailer in the Olympic Peninsula region for 2021 by the Washington State Lottery.

With 10 wins, the Aberdeen Safeway edged out two retailers in Port Orchard and one in Olympia to become the luckiest retailer last year. The wins are defined as prizes valued at $1,000 or more.

“7.67 is the average number of wins for all of the regions, so the Aberdeen Safeway is definitely above that,” said Kristi Weeks, Director of Legal Services for the Washington State Lottery.

According to Weeks, the local Safeway sold 339,282 lottery tickets in 2021. While the Aberdeen Safeway tops the region in the number of tickets sold, that doesn’t necessarily explain its high concentration of winners last year.

“Bigger stores sell more tickets, and the more tickets you sell the better chance you have to have winners, but we don’t really know — ultimately it’s random who wins,” said Weeks.

The Aberdeen Safeway was also tied for the luckiest lottery retailer of the region in 2020, when it shared the spot with an Albertsons in Port Orchard that also had seven wins. In fact, the Safeway has been in the top 10 of the region’s luckiest retailers four of the last seven years, and according to Weeks, the Washington State Lottery isn’t really sure why.

The good luck has not benefited Safeway much, as lottery retailers only win bonuses for selling winning tickets to big jackpots. They do, however, get 5 percent of every ticket sale. Besides what the winners take home, a significant portion of the money raised by the Washington State Lottery helps fund state programs.

Weeks said 19.5 percent of sales go to education.

“We paid for 18,000 people to go to college last fiscal year,” she said.

Lottery sales also comprise 25 percent of the entire state budget for the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), Washington’s pre-kindergarten program for children ages 3 and 4.

“With every ticket that people buy, we’re helping fund the state,” Weeks said.

While the annual luckiest lottery retailer list helps support local retailers and generates excitement for the lottery, according to Weeks, it’s a favorite among gamblers as well.

“Gamblers are incredibly superstitious people, and even though where the winning tickets are sold is completely random, people still want to know this information,” she said. “We love it when people win! We want people to win, come in, cash their tickets, be excited about the lottery, and go buy more tickets.”

So if St. Patrick’s Day has you feeling lucky, you might want to make a stop at the Aberdeen Safeway.