Supermarket Sweep rules question

[Kevin Prather]

On today's SS Buzzr airing, one of the contestants in the Big Sweep seems to be feverishly restacking items that she knocked off the shelf. Obviously this was to avoid the penalty, but Johnny commented that "it probably would have been easier if she just put them in her cart."

I assumed she didn't throw them in her cart because she already had five of them, but that got me curious. What is the rule if you put a sixth item in your cart? Is it a penalty, or does it just not count?

[JasonA1]

The most expensive items over the limit of 5 are deducted. If you were to grab 5 $20 bottles of pain reliever, and somehow put a 6th cheaper variety in your cart, you'd end up with the total value of 4 $20 bottles and the cheap one.

-Jason

[Kevin Prather]

The most expensive items over the limit of 5 are deducted. If you were to grab 5 $20 bottles of pain reliever, and somehow put a 6th cheaper variety in your cart, you'd end up with the total value of 4 $20 bottles and the cheap one.

Thanks, Jason!

[TLEberle]

While we're here:

So the show adjudicates "pain reliever" as a category instead of allowing people to grab five of each different brand of item? That would certainly require the runners to move about rather than squatting in a single aisle.

[Kevin Prather]

While we're here:

So the show adjudicates "pain reliever" as a category instead of allowing people to grab five of each different brand of item? That would certainly require the runners to move about rather than squatting in a single aisle.

Makes sense. I always wondered why people didn't just cruise down the medicine aisle just pulling five of everything.

[JasonA1]

Bumping, as I was talking about this show with a board member, and thought we had already covered the topic of "why didn't people on Supermarket Sweep raid a single aisle?"

Per a Lifetime briefing, it was because the categories for what constituted the limit of 5 were much broader than they appeared. All the big beef products were grouped together, but the poultry was considered separate, as was made obvious by how people behaved in the meat aisle. You COULD go into the deli section and grab the lunchmeat versions of each as well and not go over the limit, as they were considered separate. However, shampoo and conditioner? 5 total, not 5 shampoo and 5 conditioner. Hairspray? Separate from shampoo and conditioner. And we mentioned upthread that different brands of headache medicine counted as one item.

The nature of the briefing was "duplicates are solely up to the producer, so if I were you, I'd grab 5 of something, and try not to stay too close to it."

-Jason

[rjaguar3]

Were magazines and videocassettes worthless if not used for a special bonus? Otherwise those would be really quick and valuable additions to a cart.

[JasonA1]

The fruit, flowers and magazines were called out as items that were worthless in regular sweep play. I assume that extended to the videos -- if that game isn't part of your sweep, the items are just there for atmosphere.

-Jason