The Great Grocery Giveaway

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MILL HALL - In a little less than six minutes, they collectively put more than $1,000 in groceries into their carts. And as they stood in the checkout line, each one had a big smile on his or her face.

That's because none of them were footing the bill.

No, the three grand prize winners of the The Express' July Grocery Giveaway contest definitely weren't forking over any cash for their goodies.

All 20 weekly winners, having unscrambled 10 words hidden each week in ads throughout the newspaper, received $20 gift certificates for Scot's Lo-Cost, but Sally Heck, Mark Kinley and Martha Russell were the lucky ones randomly selected to also go on a shopping spree at the grocery store.

Yesterday's event was styled after Supermarket Sweep, the popular television game show from the 1960s. Each contestant was given a cart, a time limit and Store Manager Dave Lewis' blessing before they were released to race through the aisles and collect as many groceries as they could before either filling the cart or reaching the time limit. Each winner took home whatever groceries he or she was able to grab during the time limit, except for tobacco or milk products.

Kinley kicked things off with his one-minute dash through the meat department. Conscious of the rule limiting contestants to no more than two of each item, he snatched up large turkeys, hams, packages of steaks and boxes of hamburgers two at a time, one in each hand. Not very gently, he tossed the meats into his cart, more concerned with fisting as many items as possible rather than neatly arranging them inside the cart.

"I thought I would go for the meats because I work at Wal-Mart and get a discount (there) on all that other stuff," Kinley said. "I have a child and my mom lives with me, so I wanted to have stuff that everybody can get nutrition from."

He said he had made space in his freezer in preparation. Like his fellow grand prize winners, Kinley came with a plan, though his might have been more thoroughly plotted than the others'. He visited the grocery store on Sunday to scout it out, then drew a diagram of his intended route.

"You think it's easy, but it's not. Now I know what the people on TV are going through when they're running through the store," he said.

Grabbing nothing but meat, he wrangled more than $310 in groceries on The Express' tab.

Heck was next, racking up $294 worth of food during her two-minute-long jaunt through the store. Like Kinley, she also chose to start her mission in the meats department. She spent almost a minute there before the other contestants and their friends and family started shouting to her not to forget the shredded cheese she had mentioned earlier as one of her must-haves. After sweeping through the cheese aisle, she barely made it to the bread section before her time ran out.

"I was going to head to the detergent aisle, but I ran out of time," she said.

Her game plan was to "run, run and run," as evidenced by the running shoes she wore for the special occasion. She started out with lots of speed, but was slowed down here and there by the weight of her winnings.

"This is so heavy," she panted out at one point, struggling to push the nearly-full cart.

"Still, it tickles me pink. I'm just thrilled to death that I won [the free groceries]," said Heck.

The third contestant, Russell, took a very different approach from the first two winners. She began her three-minute race in the laundry detergent aisle, taking her time a bit more than the others as she walked with a purpose through the store. She plucked nearly a dozen bottles of detergent and softener from the shelves, as well as Brita filters, cleaning supplies, tissues, toilet paper, coffee and tea.

"I knew I didn't want any meats because I live by myself," she said. "I thought about the price of fuel and decided to stock up on things that I use and that are expensive."

With 10 seconds left, she casually threw her hands in the air and said, "I don't know what else I want. I think I'm done."

Despite the remaining time, her groceries tallied $494.

"I didn't know where else to go, but I think I got everything I wanted. I'm just so grateful for the chance to stock up for winter before fuel prices go up," said Russell.

She may not have moved as quickly as the others through the aisles, but she wasn't about to let anything slow her down. She left her purse in her car and asked Express Advertising Sales Manager Rick Noll to hold her keys "because they're so bulky."

Lewis seemed pleased with the outcome of the sweepstakes. "It creates fun and excitement for shopping and it creates a little bit of community involvement for us as a store," he said. "As long as everybody had a good time and enjoyed it, that's what it's all about."

The store manager didn't even raise an eyebrow at the grand total of $1078.40 for the three full carts of groceries.

"With prices the way they are today, I'm not surprised. I think they all did really well," Lewis said.