Freshly stimulated, bank spreads wealth in supermarket shopping spree

By Brendan Buhler

Saturday, Feb. 28, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Here is the 2009 version of trickle-down economics: a 71-year-old man is given three minutes to race through a supermarket and whatever he can dump in his shopping basket, he can keep, provided it’s not alcohol, beauty products or medicine.

On Friday, U.S. Bancorp, which has taken $6.6 billion in federal bank bailout money, promoted the opening of 24 branches in Smith’s supermarkets by giving 24 clients $250 grocery gift cards, giving one of those clients a three-minute shopping spree and giving $1,000 to a local food bank. All told, U.S. Bancorp (better known as U.S. Bank) gave away $7,402.39.

Now, here is what a spokesman for U.S. Bancorp — whose chief executive has criticized TARP as misguided — says about the promotion: It was budgeted the same day Bancorp announced it was opening branches inside Smith’s stores, on Sept. 15, 2008, well before Bancorp accepted any bailout money. (Fun fact: that was the same day Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection. So thanks to Bancorp, it wasn’t all bad news that day, after all.) The $6.6 billion was not simply given to Bancorp; rather, the government invested that much in preferred stock and Bancorp has so far paid the government $83 million in dividends. The grocery store bank branches will create 170 jobs in Nevada and 150 jobs in Utah. Steve Dale, the spokesman, said promoting the new branches would attract deposits Bancorp could use to make loans.

“And then there’s the fact that we gave all that money to the food bank. That’s cool, right?” Dale said.

(He also tried to persuade me to switch banks.)

Here is what the afternoon of promotional charity looked like: Surrounded by red and blue balloons, the 24 lucky Bancorp clients gathered around a table full of store-made Easter cookies. They each held a single rose and a new U.S. Bank T-shirt. They posed for pictures. “OK, everyone, smile like you just won a million bucks,” someone shouted.

Each client — average people who had opened bank accounts at the new branches — was assigned a number. When their number was called, they could walk over to a table with 24 shopping bags stuffed with brightly colored tissue paper. The clients were told to select their bags and stand behind them. When everyone was there, they opened their bags, each of which contained a $250 Smith’s gift card. One bag also contained a piece of paper saying the person who drew it was entitled to whatever he could fit into three shopping carts in three minutes.

The person who drew that piece of paper was George Powell, 71, a retired mainframe computer programmer with a small ponytail. Powell retired to Las Vegas 15 months ago and has lost half of his 401(k) retirement money in the stock market. He draws Social Security and relies on Medicare for health insurance. He lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment two blocks east of the Strip and doesn’t know his neighbors. He rarely sees his four adult children, doesn’t drive and said his hobbies are watching sports on TV and gambling carefully in Strip casinos.

Asked whether he had a strategy, Powell said he wouldn’t be getting any meat as he doesn’t have a freezer. Instead, he planned to head for kitchen utensils and hardware.

Had he scouted the store? Powell wouldn’t comment on the record.

When the stopwatch started, Powell jogged his shopping cart down the utensils aisle, leading a U.S. Bank announcer and several cameras. Powell grabbed a set of pots and pans and several knives. He went down another aisle. “No, wrong aisle, wrong aisle!” he said and went down another one, grabbing a hammer and several pairs of pliers. In another aisle he grabbed blank CDs, in another, batteries.

He pulled up back where he started, panting and with almost 30 seconds left.

When cashiers rang up his cart for $402.39, the only food in it was a couple of jars of onion salt. Powell’s hands shook.

Asked how he was doing, he said, “Doing well, quite well.”

When the bank made out an oversize $1,000 check to Three Squares food bank, Powell helped present it.

“We need this, this is great,” said Ted Taylor, a vice president of the food bank.

Last year in the Las Vegas Valley, the food bank had a budget of $4.1 million and gave away 10.7 million pounds of food. As it battles the recession this year, Three Square will need to find 49 million pounds of food and $8 million. Taylor said there are as many as 210,000 people going hungry in the valley and half of them are children.

“It’s a daunting proposition for us right now,” he said. Three Square is looking for food, money and volunteers.

When it was all over, Powell took a cab back to his off-Strip apartment. Bancorp picked up the fare.