When you hear the beep...think of all the fun you could have on Supermarket Sweep

We prepared ourselves for the new Supermarket Sweep by studying the old Supermarket Sweep

Kevin:

I think it was in the summer, we saw they were going to relaunch a new version of Supermarket Sweep, which I'd never seen, but you told me about, and you said it was really fun. And around that time, Netflix put a selection of old episodes from both the 90s and the later one, I guess the early 2000s, with David Ruprecht, the earlier host. And we watched those. I have to say the show was really entertaining, like you said. And pretty weird too, in some ways, but I thought it was a good format.

There's a lot of fun parts to it. They repeat most of the challenges on the old version. It's mostly the same questions or games. And then people also would do the same strategy every time they did the big sweep, which was, they would go for the meat and go for what else? Imported cheese, big cheese.

Lindsay:

Big cans of coffee... Giant bags of diapers.

Kevin:

That's pretty much it. What were your memories of the old ones? And then what did you think of the new one?

Lindsay:

Oh, I remembered it being really enjoyable and I always wanted to be on it. I've always liked grocery stores and grocery shopping. It seemed like a fun game.

Kevin:

Did you catch it randomly when you were a kid?

Lindsay:

I watched the reruns on some channel. I can't remember if I thought a ton about the strategy at that point, but it seemed repetitive at the time.

Kevin:

After we finished watching the old episodes on Netflix, we looked up some articles and interviews with Dave Ruprecht, where he talked about the fact that there was only ever one contestant who did what he thought was the best strategy, which was to grab a lot of little but pricey things from the health and beauty aisle. So it would've been medicine and makeup. And then fill up your cart with that instead of going for heavy meat products and diapers, the big ticket items. Every time we watched the older episodes, they always did the same stuff. Maybe one person got more makeup or medicine at one point.

How the new version compares to the old version

Kevin:

What did you think of the relaunched version with Leslie Jones and how did it compare for you to the old version?

Lindsay:

It was surprisingly similar in some ways. Though more hyped. I felt like the contestants and Leslie Jones were over the top with their excitement. It felt a little unnecessary. Team names, totally unnecessary. And the descriptions of team names too. I guess all game shows seem to like to do some goofy introduction of contestants, and I don't need to get to know my contestants.

The grocery store is bigger, I think that makes it more exciting. It looked a little more realistic, perhaps. Even though it’s still small, it had a much bigger produce section.

Kevin:

Also interesting to me: the food looked real on this new version. Whereas I think we found out the food that was in the old version, it was real, but it was rotten, right? They said the meat on the old show was left there and not replaced throughout taping.

The cart-shaped podiums where the contestants answer grocery trivia questions and holler about their life stories.

The new games

Kevin:

What did you think of the new version’s games?

Lindsay:

They were mostly good. They did slightly different things, but I liked it.

Kevin:

They did not really do anything the same. Maybe some price guessing. They did a little bit of that, right.

Lindsay:

About products or logos. Some of it, I think was relatively similar—

Kevin:

They switched it up a little bit more.

Lindsay:

—new versions of things like emojis into a food product or...Logo reveal was kind of fun. I like the Mini Sweep challenge. They had to guess a product and go find that product as soon as they guessed it. I wish they did a little more of that because they're all looking for a product, like a scavenger hunt challenge. I expected full-on collisions half the time because they were all grabbing at the same product. I wish they did more of those games, but it's a short show.

The big sweep

Kevin:

How did the big sweep compare for you, to the older version?

Lindsay:

The big sweep, largely similar. Most of them often still went for the same types of products. It was almost as if they were programmed by the old show. But then again, you don't see the prices of any individual item. They didn't mention how much some of the giant cuts of meat went for, I mean cuts of meat you'd only see in Costco or even bigger. They clearly had a high-priced home goods aisle, which I don't think they ever had anything quite like that in the old show. They had Yeti coolers and Yeti mugs.

So people were smart and went for a lot of those. Cause they were very costly, but otherwise there were still some set things, only slightly different than the old show. People went for big boxes of candy bars or chocolate. Cheese, expensive honey. You didn't see what they were grabbing as much. I often wanted to see exactly what was in their cart and you didn’t get to see that.

Kevin:

There wasn't as much clarity around the rules in the new version as there was in the old version. In the old version, there were penalties for dropping items and leaving them on the floor. Whereas this, it didn't seem like there were penalties at all. And then you could only take five of the same item in the old version. And it seemed like in the new version they could take a lot of items, sometimes more than five.

What did you think of the off-and-on implementation of the weird cashiers who would man the coffee counter or the flower counter and sabotage the contestants during the big sweep?

Lindsay:

I don't know. I think those are unnecessary, not seemingly very realistic about grocery shopping, like finding your name on a coffee cup. On the old show they did things like, grind a bag of coffee and you got $100 or something, and that seems like a more realistic challenge

Kevin:

It was more like life, right?

Lindsay:

Seems more realistic, these items take longer, but you might get a little extra money for it. The flower thing and the coffee thing, I think the way they did it felt really goofy. They were throwing coffee cups around in the air like clowns. And same with the flowers. It was like a guy juggling a bouquet of flowers, which I don't know how often you are dropping bouquets of flowers and trying to catch them. Maybe I want a little more realism in my supermarket sitcom game shows.

Kevin:

What did you think about the institution of the money ladder? Like at the end, during the big sweep, you go for $25,000, then you go for $50,000, and then you go for $100,000. I thought that was one of the best innovations.

Lindsay:

I thought that was great. What did the old show even have? I can't remember.

Kevin:

I think you get the $5,000 if you win, on top of your cart total.

Lindsay:

Big money this time around. I really liked the option to keep going and double your money.

I'm pretty amazed how many people did not choose to go for either $50,000 or $100,000. I mean, I guess some went for $50,000, and then of course fewer went for $100,000. Overall, the clues were super gettable. You could tell the category of the food item.

Kevin:

There were some that were pretty randomly hard.

Lindsay:

Once you got in the right spot, there was the little tag or sign. So even if you didn't know the exact product, but you had a sense of what it was, you could probably find it. But yes, there were a couple that were tough.

I would like to think I would go for $100,000 given the chance, but maybe I would have gotten scared in the moment. There were a couple of shows with some pretty funny contestants.

Kevin:

There were some really good ones when people won $100,000. And then some bummed us out, because we were cheering for the people to win and they didn't get it.

Lindsay:

I thought it was well done and they definitely were smart about adding that excitement. I mean, it reminded me a little bit of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

Two legends. Madison Pollard and Michelle Alexander, a daughter and mother team, competed on the Halloween episode of Supermarket Sweep and won the $100K. During the big sweep, they had what could be described as a very sweet and endearing meltdown, and then wept joyfully and intensely when they won. Definitely two of the most entertaining contestants this season.

Leslie Jones versus David Ruprecht

Kevin:

I really liked Leslie Jones’s energy and I thought she had some really funny banter with the contestants, funnier than Dave ever was. I think David's probably better as a kind of neutral-ish game show host, but I think Leslie has a lot more personality and I think does better with conversation. Whereas Dave is more part of the set, like a game show pro. He keeps it moving. Maybe both Leslie and the contestants were trying too hard to be super wild and totally nuts and show they were having a lot of fun by screaming, which gets a little grating after a while. What do you think?

Lindsay:

I would agree. I think she left a bad taste in my mouth to some extent and it's mostly due to how she said “Supermarket Sweep.”

Kevin:

The way she said Supermarket Sweep, I'll write it out. Phonetically, it was probably like, “Supermarket Swaaayp” or “Supermarket Swipe,” or “Supermarket Swaaahp.” I mean, in all fairness she said that probably like six or seven times per episode, probably more.

Lindsay:

It got really old. It felt really unnecessary. It wasn't funny. I did like her though. I think overall, like you said, she has, I think she's naturally funny and I think she tried a little too hard or the show had her say stupid stuff sometimes, but I think she's naturally funny and would probably have good banter if left to her own devices. I think everybody could have taken it down a notch. She and the contestants seemed like they were hyped to some unnecessary degree.

Kevin:

The producers or the director were like, you have to do this. You have to scream every answer when Leslie asks you, like tell us your story and shriek.

Lindsay:

The contestants were jumping around and waving their arms and yelling. I mean...

Kevin:

It seemed like they were being held hostage in some way or they would be punished if they didn't do that. It didn't look fun or comfortable.

Lindsay:

I've heard that about some game shows in the past, you know, Ellen, and other shows like that. They're looking for contestants or audience members who are super jazzed and look like they're having the time of their lives. So, they must have decided that's what sells.

So overall I think Leslie’s a really good host. And I have to say, I like her outfits a lot better than Dave. He had some rough shirts and ties.

Kevin:

I can't remember the name of the clothing company, but it was, they acknowledged it in the end credits for each episode. JJ Richards shirt company or something like that from San Diego.

How would you fare on Supermarket Sweep?

Lindsay:

I think I could do well. It's interesting to think about the technique to the big sweep and what items to go for. I'm still amazed contestants fill their carts with the heaviest items and then they're dragging these giant carts around, which looks like it must waste a lot of time. And so smaller products that don't weigh a million pounds would make better sense.

But who knows, they racked up a lot of money in these sweeps, especially compared to the old one. So either there's higher priced goods or something changed. I think I could have done well on either one. I might have had a slightly different approach, at least on the first version, but that's after watching however many years’ worth of episodes.

Kevin:

Would you have me as your teammate or would you get someone else?

Lindsay:

No, I would get somebody else. I'm pretty sure. Although you would have come in handy for movie trivia.

Kevin:

I'm pretty good at answering questions.

Lindsay:

Yeah. You are generally good at trivia, but I don't know about like food, specific grocery trivia...

Kevin:

Who would you get?

Lindsay:

I don't think you would necessarily do poorly? You're not a grocery shopper, you don't like grocery shopping. You don't do it very often. I don't think it’s like a skill set but, you know, I could do the sweep. Just be there cheering for me.

Kevin:

Would you want to see another season?

Lindsay:

I do. I definitely liked it. I thought it was pretty well done. True to the old version, which was nice. Some good upgrades and changes.