Ignored items grabbed on Supermarket Sweep

[johnnya2k3]

Hope my second SS post will be better than the cameramen one (I realized they worked at other NBC shows -- Days of Our Lives, Leno, Weakest Link, Access (Excess) Hollywood, etc. -- since the show used to tape there).

Whenever Dave says at the beginning of the sweep that everything at the store's up for grabs, the shoppers never took him seriously. The only items they cared about getting were big briskets of beef, huge cheeses, garden hoses, diapers, and pans. I know you would find all those at a warehouse store, but NOT at a real supermarket. Oh yeah, and there were also those bonuses.

But have you noticed that many other items were never grabbed, like cereals, the upper tier of meats, frozen foods, soft drinks/juices, snacks, dairy, et.al. I guess the big items would be easier for the stagehands to restock in between tapings.

By the way, the Safeway store near my house almost resembles the Supermarket Sweep set...except of course, that there are computer screens at the checkout counters as in many other stores.

Jonathan Allen

[Craig Karlberg]

There's a good reason for that.  The big items(meats, cheeses, & other stuff) tend to be more expensive than say the cereals & other items.  Those help the shoppers rack up a rather high total.  Multiply that by the store limit of 5 & watch that total grow.  These do NOT include the special bonuses that help the shoppers add even MORE to their total.  Among the regular ones are the $100 Candy(1 lb. bag +/-.02 lbs), a full bag of coffe beans grounded up for $100 & the "Giant" inflatable brand items up to $200(sometimes a $250 Super Bonus)(not sure if it was raised to $300 though).  Then there are special bonuses that require shoppers to bring back a certain number of items(usually 3 of them like a Shopping List) or where there's a certain secret item hidden in the store(the Mystery Product).

[tvrandywest]

We sure have a couple of "Sweep" fans here... cool!

Indeed, everything in the market IS up for grabs. Contestants roam the aisles before taping to become familiar with the placement of the expensive items. From their own investigation as well as from having watched others on the show, they did repeat many of the same items as other contestants simply because they WERE the best grabs for building a big sweep total. Those upper tier meats and chicken were only a few dollars each, where the big beef begat big bucks to the tune of about $30 each!

Similarly, items like cereal and soda take up precious room in the cart for their lesser value. A full cart means that the grabbing stops when it is brought to the front of the market for an empty cart. Those are valuable seconds.

Just the same, we saw a number of shoppers choosing unusual items... Mahatma rice, dog food, feminine hygiene products (mentioned in the current shows for the first time in the show's long history), ice cream, etc.. Commenting on the lesser seen items was the most fun for me. After all there are only so many ways of saying "Betty bounces a bevy of big Butterball birds into her basket!"    ;-)


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[chris319]

Indeed, everything in the market IS up for grabs.

That explains the bar code label on your tuchis.

[Jimmy Owen]

Nobody ever stops at the magazine rack.

[CarShark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 07:21 AM\'] Nobody ever stops at the magazine rack. [/quote]
 I think they only use that for the bonus round. No one ever goes by the Video Section unless it's a bonus game or part of the bonus round. Same goes for the Hallmark Card Section.

I think they've gone a little overboard with the bonuses, though. It was fine when they had just the bonus items, but now they have the Coffee Center (now $200), Candy Center (now $200), International Bread Center ($250), Red Tag Specials ($150), Splitting the Name ($250), Jolly Time Is Money ($150), Stack Job ($150), The Alphabet Game ($250), Fruit Fantasy ($250), The $300 Movie, and the newest one, Market Madness (up to $250). And I'm sure that I'm missing some more. I remember some bonuses that had to do with sandwiches, frozen yogurt, and Jelly Bellies.

I have seen teams earn almost a thousand dollars worth of bonuses, then lose because they only had a hundred dollars worth of groceries. Something needs to be done. Bonuses should be a valuable addition to a team's total, not the bulk of the total itself.

[Robair]

[quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 05:41 AM\'] Just the same, we saw a number of shoppers choosing unusual items... Mahatma rice, dog food, feminine hygiene products (mentioned in the current shows for the first time in the show's long history), ice cream, etc.. Commenting on the lesser seen items was the most fun for me. After all there are only so many ways of saying "Betty bounces a bevy of big Butterball birds into her basket!"    ;-) [/quote]
 "Wow! Look at team number one! She's got her limit of Kotex, but it might not be enough!"

If it's not enough she should get to her gynecologist as soon as possible...

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 09:44 AM\'] [quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 05:41 AM\'] Just the same, we saw a number of shoppers choosing unusual items... Mahatma rice, dog food, feminine hygiene products (mentioned in the current shows for the first time in the show's long history), ice cream, etc.. Commenting on the lesser seen items was the most fun for me. After all there are only so many ways of saying "Betty bounces a bevy of big Butterball birds into her basket!"    ;-) [/quote]
"Wow! Look at team number one! She's got her limit of Kotex, but it might not be enough!"

If it's not enough she should get to her gynecologist as soon as possible... [/quote]
 "And there goes Mary, heading for the adult diapers, but does she really need them? Depends"

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 09:52 AM\'] [quote name=\'Robair\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 09:44 AM\'] [quote name=\'tvrandywest\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 05:41 AM\'] Just the same, we saw a number of shoppers choosing unusual items... Mahatma rice, dog food, feminine hygiene products (mentioned in the current shows for the first time in the show's long history), ice cream, etc.. Commenting on the lesser seen items was the most fun for me. After all there are only so many ways of saying "Betty bounces a bevy of big Butterball birds into her basket!"    ;-) [/quote]
"Wow! Look at team number one! She's got her limit of Kotex, but it might not be enough!"

If it's not enough she should get to her gynecologist as soon as possible... [/quote]
"And there goes Mary, heading for the adult diapers, but does she really need them? Depends" [/quote]
Boo!

Incidentally, the cash registers used in the show appear to be NCR 2127s.  Good for their day in 1992; they are now sorely outdated.

The one section I'm surprised they never stop at is the videos. [Aside from when they had the movie bonus game].  Didn't they run at about $15/ea. back in the day?

[tvrandywest]

Chris, that isn't a bar code. And you promised you wouldn't tell!

There was a magazine game for a while to increase traffic at that rack. Similar to the bread and fruit challenges, you had to remember the 3 magazines that David asked for just before the sweep.

And as for the references to feminine hygiene products that are too disrespectful for the "Sweep" sensibilities, I'll simply say that the OB/GYN medical specialty is finally being recognized for it's importance. You could say that things are looking up in gynecology !!!


Randy
tvrandywest.com

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 09:52 AM\'] "Wow! Look at team number one! She's got her limit of Kotex, but it might not be enough!"

If it's not enough she should get to her gynecologist as soon as possible... [/QUOTE]
"And there goes Mary, heading for the adult diapers, but does she really need them? Depends" [/quote]
 "And look, Jimmy's headed straight for the contraceptives section! In this day and age, it's always good to practice cautious LifeStyles!"

I'll be in The Chamber Chamber.

[aaron sica]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 01:39 PM\'] [quote name=\'aaron sica\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 09:52 AM\'] "Wow! Look at team number one! She's got her limit of Kotex, but it might not be enough!"

If it's not enough she should get to her gynecologist as soon as possible... [/QUOTE]
"And there goes Mary, heading for the adult diapers, but does she really need them? Depends" [/QUOTE]
"And look, Jimmy's headed straight for the contraceptives section! In this day and age, it's always good to practice cautious LifeStyles!"

I'll be in The Chamber Chamber. [/quote]
 And I'll be right behind you...

[chris319]

Chris, that isn't a bar code.

Oh yeah? Then how come they won't let you into TV City without scanning your a** with a laser beam?

And you promised you wouldn't tell!

Tell that to the source of my information: SplitSecond :-O

[Casey Buck]

Randy, is there a big master list of all the prices of the items in the market? After all, how do we really know that those giant wedges of cheese are worth between $26 and $29 each?

[tvrandywest]

[quote name=\'Casey Buck\' date=\'Mar 13 2004, 01:34 PM\'] Randy, is there a big master list of all the prices of the items in the market? After all, how do we really know that those giant wedges of cheese are worth between $26 and $29 each? [/quote]
The market is laid out by a crew of prop people according to printed "maps" of what should go where. There are master lists of all the prices that are cross-referenced to those maps. Al Howard has been doing this show since the 1960's and has it down to a freakin' science!

Like a real market, the usual items are all bar-coded and scanned at checkout. Those prices are noted on the shelves. The beef, turkeys, hams and cheese are individually weighed and their weight and price are written on a label... again, just like your market.

At the end of the season all the food is donated to charity... almost all of it from the last season of taping...

Now the secret of the cheese: Each season the show buys one round, big-ass hunk of imported cheese that's too damn heavy to lift alone. That monsterous wheel is wrapped in packaging that's labelled in some foreign language (looks like Dutch or Swiss or something similar). The prop department slices it (like a pizza) into those huge wedges, and wraps them in many layers of plastic. Each is a slightly different weight, and they are priced accordingly. Those same wedges last all season being manhandled and tossed and replaced in the refrigerator case over and over and over. At the end of last season I took one home, and it was the best damn cheese I ever tasted! I put it out on a huge cutting board with crackers and had a few neighbors come over with some wine. I couldn't get anyone to go home - it was the best damn cheese any of us had ever had! That wedge lasted for months!

So all those shows with logo hats and T-shirts can kiss my swiss!


Randy
tvrandywest.com