Supermarket Sweep

Supermarket Sweep is an American game show which combined an "items found in a grocery store"-related quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. A total of 1,111 episodes were produced and aired during the course of the show's 11-season, 12-year run on 3 television stations.

Gameplay (ABC version)
Three teams, usually married couples, but generally always a housewife and her "runner" - usually a male relative under the age of forty - competed. Each team began with a base time of one minute and thirty seconds (1:30).

In the first part of the game, the teams were shown a grocery item or combination of two closely associated grocery items and were asked to guess its retail price. As host Bill Malone instructed the contestants to "Please checkout on your machine what you think is the exact retail price", the housewives would mentally calculate the price of all items shown and type the amount on their registers. Each player's totals were revealed followed by Bill Malone resorting to the automatic counter which displays the items' exact retail price. The team who came the closest won the item(s), and an additional 15 seconds to their time. Four items were played and each item revolved around around a central household related theme, such as items for washing, like laundry soap, to the items needed to created the associated "wash day" soup, a soup generally made at the same time washing was being done, like potatoes and gravy.

In the second part of the game, one contestant from each team, generally referred to as a "runner", went on a shopping spree through the market using the time accumulated in the first half of the game. Several bonus prizes, coming in the form of pennants with dollar values ranging from $10 to $100 printed on them, would be spread throughout the store. After each contestant ran their sweep, the total value of groceries and bonus prizes in each player's cart was determined. The team with the highest total won not only the groceries they accumulated and the bonuses they picked up, but would also earn the right to return to the show and play in the next game.

Gameplay (Lifetime/PAX version)
The gameplay of the Lifetime/PAX version of Supermarket Sweep consisted of three segments: the question round, the Big Sweep, and the Bonus Sweep. The game was played between three teams of two related individuals, such as a parent and child, spouses, siblings, or best friends. Unlike the ABC version, however, where the contestants' last names were revealed, no contestants' last names were ever revealed in this version (except on special occasions). In the last two rounds, the team members wore sweatshirts of the same color ( aqua blue for Team #1 [ green in earlier tapings], burgundy for Team #2, yellow for Team #3 [ blue in earlier tapings] [the colors of the first two teams switched starting in 1993]). The show gave the appearance that pairs were chosen to be contestants based on who in the audience (or in the show's last two seasons, the market) held pre-distributed grocery items that the announcer called for at the beginning of the show.

Question Round
At the beginning of the game, all three teams started with a base time of 1:30, like the original. The questions answered correctly added time to their clocks. The round was divided into three segments; in the first two segments, one teammate from each team answered a variety of questions and/or played one of several games that involved pricing everyday grocery items, with the teammates switching between segments. The third segment was the Round Robin game, in which the teammates rotated after each question.

Question types
Players were asked a series of questions, usually with a specific brand of grocery items as answers; each question was worth 10 seconds. In each round, the questions followed a specific format, which varied between rounds and shows. The formats used on the show included:


 * Guessing which item a series of interesting facts described.
 * Determining the brand name of a product, the picture of which had the brand name edited out.
 * Slogans – Guessing which item went with a particular slogan or jingle.
 * Multiple Choice – Selecting one or more of the answers to a series of questions from a bank of four, five or six possible choices. A famous saying or phrase was asked to the contestants, belonging to which answer.

Pricing Games
During each segment, different games were played involving everyday groceries. These games varied from day to day and generally involved the following objectives:


 * Selecting which of three items was priced above or below a certain amount, was not a given price, was on sale, was incorrectly priced, was correctly priced, or was the most expensive.


 * Determining how much of one item could be bought for a certain amount of money.
 * Guessing whether the actual price for a product was higher or lower than the price displayed. A variation also included the possibility of the shown price being correct.

If a player was correct, that team earned 10 seconds; however, if all three players were right, 30 seconds was added to all three teams' times. In Season 1, however, all games (excluding the "on sale" version) had 20 seconds added to all three teams if all three players were right.

Special Games

 * 30-Second Shootout – At the beginning of the second segment of the question round, both contestants on a team played an individual game, which banked the team 30 seconds of Sweep time; each team took turns by playing the game individually. The format usually consisted of a contestant guessing a series of words using the clues given by his or her partner (similar to Pyramid and Password). The first letter of each correct answer was a letter in the name of a brand name or item from the market, which the guesser then had to identify to earn the Sweep time. Each of the teams had 30 seconds to achieve this (40 in the final Lifetime season), and if a word was accidentally blurted out by the clue-giver, the team was disqualified automatically.
 * During the Lifetime era, the giver tried to get his/her partner to say any word or a name beginning with the appropriate letter. The guesser had to identify the product before time ran out. An additional rule was that once a clue was used on one of the words in the list, it was not to be used again (doing so would lead to disqualification of that team).
 * In the PAX run, pre-selected words to which their initials spell out the product's name were given to the giver and s/he simply had to convey them to his/her partner. If the giver was stuck s/he could pass and go to the next word. Also the "no repetitions" rule was lifted. When time was up, that's when the guesser tried to guess the product using the letters revealed, although s/he could guess while the clock was still ticking. Also on early episodes of this version, if the word wasn't completed, it wasn't revealed fully.
 * On some episodes, an alternative format was used with a picture of a product shown. Each clue changed the product's picture.

Mini-Sweep
Beginning in Season 3, a Mini-Sweep was played at the beginning of the first round. A toss-up question (usually a rhyming couplet) was asked with a particular product as the answer. The team that correctly answered the question earned 10 seconds, as well as a chance for one team member to run into the market to retrieve the product. If the product was returned within 30 seconds, the team won $50 toward their Sweep total. In the Mini-Sweep's later playing, the product would be marked with the Supermarket Sweep logo. And from that point on, players now had to find the specially-marked item to receive credit.

If the team member returned with the incorrect product, the correct product that was not marked with the Supermarket Sweep logo (changed to the show's "cart" emblem in 1993) on it, or the right item but ran out of time before they could return it or couldn't find it at all, no bonus was awarded. However, if the contestant found the marked item but the marker fell off of the product, the cash bonus still counted.

In Season 4, the bonus was doubled to $100 if the product was brought back within 20 seconds, with the clock counting up, and starting out in green (then switching to red at 21).

In Season 5, a second Mini-Sweep was added at the beginning of the second round and was later used only during special weeks on the PAX version.

Round Robin
For the final segment, the teammates switched after each question. The contestants were shown the scrambled letters of a brand name, common food, or item, and three clues were given for 10 seconds each. If no one buzzed in and then answered correctly after the last clue was given, all three clues were repeated quickly. On some episodes throughout the entire Lifetime era, an alternative format was used with five clues given and no scrambled name. The Round Robin originally consisted of four questions, but was lengthened to six in September 3, 1990 to give all three teams a chance to earn up to 60 seconds (one minute).

Sweep Quiz
This was used during the final PAX season. At the end of the second segment, a quickie was shown as the show took its second commercial break, which was a question that viewers at home could answer. At the start of the third segment, the answer would be shown.

Another variant was used in some episodes of Seasons 1-4 as well as early in Season 5, where David asked a question to the home viewers at the end of the first segment before going to the first commercial break. At the start of the second segment, David gave the answer, occasionally making a joke afterward.

Big Sweep
The "Big Sweep" was the chance for the teams to run throughout the aisles and to grab whatever they could off of the supermarket shelves. The clock was set to the highest time that was earned by the three teams. The runner for that team was sent out into the market, with the other runners entering when their time had remained on the clock. During the Big Sweep, the show's announcer provided the "play-by-play".

The runner could bring their cart back to the team's register at any time, at which point it was exchanged for an empty cart. Any items in the runner's cart when the bell rang were included in their total.

The three main rules for the Big Sweep were:
 * The teams could only take up to five of each item.
 * Any items dropped and/or upset had to be returned to the shelf or in one's cart, or incur a $25-per-item penalty. Teams were also penalized $25 for running into supermarket displays, cameramen or any other personnel.
 * Only one member of each team could be in the store at a time; the other team member was required to remain at the checkout counter to unload the groceries (with the exception of the doing of some money makers [see below]).

The product limit, which was absent in the original ABC version of the show, was added to prevent teams from overloading their carts with expensive items, such as poultry, laundry detergent, or over-the-counter drugs.

Bonuses
Many bonuses were available during the Big Sweep at different times during the show's run. Each contestant was only able to take one of each bonus type. Some of these included:
 * Bonus Specials (Value: $50–$200, later up to $250; $100-$300 during the Twin Car Giveaway) – The only bonus feature to appear in every episode. Three jumbo-sized stuffed animals, giant inflated balloons of products, or cardboard promotional signs for products with bonus tags attached to them were scattered throughout the market. In order for the bonus to count, the runner had to bring the item back to the checkouts and over the red line (without destroying it or the tag) before the time expired. A runner was allowed to steal an opposing team's item if it was left unprotected before getting it to the checkouts. These over-sized products and/or signs were worth $50, $100, or $200. In July 1993, a fourth bonus worth $250 (dubbed the "Super Bonus") was added to the market. During the Twin Car Giveaway tournament at the start of Season 6, a $300 bonus (dubbed the "Super Super Bonus") replaced the $50 bonus. In all cases, only one bonus was allowed to a customer.

Bonus Sweep
The winning team was given 60 seconds to find three products in the market one at a time. The products were marked by the show's logo or emblem (just like the Mini-Sweep), and were numbered 1-3. Before the show, the teams randomly choose 1 of 3 bonus envelopes, which contains their first Bonus Sweep clue should they win the Big Sweep. They were given a clue to the first product, after which the time started. The second clue was affixed to the first product, and the third clue was on the second product. If the team found the third product, they won $5,000. Originally, finding just the product won the money; later on, a fan of play money was placed behind the product. If they found the final product before one of the other products, originally the team would automatically be disqualified, but after the first two seasons, the team that found the $5,000 too soon were just reminded to find all three products, then return to find the money. If the team was unsuccessful, the team still won $200 for each product found. The team had to have their hands on the money before the bell sounded. The record for the fastest Bonus Sweep win was 28 seconds, set in Season 3 in 1991, which happened to be a $10,000 Super Sweep of Champions episode.

Clues had several formats in the series. Some clues were two-line rhymes describing the product, with its brand name as the final missing word in the rhyme. Other clues used a play on words of the product's title. Others had important words underlined. On occasion, clues led to a household item other than cleaners, a movie in the movie rack, a fruit or a vegetable in the produce section, a flower in a special kiosk located at the front of the market that was used only during the Bonus Sweep, or a greeting card near the magazine rack.

Tournaments
During both runs of the show, special tournaments were held periodically, as well as other individual shows in which former teams were invited back for a chance to win more money or a trip.

Twin Car Giveaway
From September 19 to October 14, 1994, at the beginning of the show's final season on Lifetime, a month-long Twin Car Giveaway tournament was held. During the first three weeks of the tournament, a standard game was played each day. The twelve teams with the highest Big Sweep totals from these episodes at the end of the third week returned for the fourth and final week, in which games were played with no Bonus Sweep. The six teams with the highest Big Sweep totals during that final week returned for the Friday show to play for a pair of Geo Trackers.

On the Friday show, the first three teams played an eight-question Round Robin game, where each correct answer was worth $50 toward their Sweep total. Each of the first three teams then had a flat three minutes in the Big Sweep. This process was repeated for the other three teams. At the end of the show, the team with the highest Big Sweep total won the two cars (a combined value of more than $25,000) in addition to whatever else that they won on their previous shows. All other teams kept their prior winnings. Team #1, James and Rick, won with a Big Sweep total of $1,598, and won a grand total of $28,710 (the highest grand total ever). A total of $84,562 in cash and prizes was won by the contestants over the four-week period.

Other Tournaments and Specials
Occasionally, former teams were invited back to the show to play for additional money or a trip. These consisted largely of "Sweeps of Champions" (later called "Second Chance Weeks"), which gave previous Big Sweep winners after they lost $5,000 on their first appearance a chance to go on another Bonus Sweep for the opportunity to play and get a second chance at $5,000. During Season 3 in 1991, there were five "Super Sweep of Champions" episodes, where previous teams who won $5,000 were invited back for a chance to go on another Bonus Sweep for the opportunity to win an additional $10,000. Others include:


 * Gourmet Week – Allowed the teams to play for a trip to France.
 * You Can't Lose! – Like the Sweep of Champions and Second Chance episodes, but no Bonus Sweep was played during this week. At the end of that week, one team was guaranteed to win $5,000 after they lost on their first appearance.
 * Double Your Money Week – Similar to the five "Super Sweeps of Champions" episodes from the Lifetime version, except in the PAX version the winning team with the highest Super Big Sweep total at the end on the final day didn't have to run around the market looking for another $5,000 as in the "Super Sweeps of Champions" episodes, they automatically doubled their money to $10,000.


 * Tournament of Heroes – Troop teams were to win the $5,000 at the end of the week. No Bonus Sweeps were played during this week.

1989 Pilot Rules
The show is sort of a hybrid of both the 1965-1967 shows and the upcoming shows. For the question rounds, they had the old school pricing games featured on ABC. The time however was diminished to 10 seconds with an exact guess awarding double or 20 seconds. The fifth item allowed everybody to play and once again offered 15 seconds to the team with the closest guess, but if the team was within 10 cents of the answer, they get double of 30 seconds. In case of a tie in guesses, the tied teams each get the seconds. Now for the "buzz-in-to-answer" questions, correct answers still scored 10 seconds, but in this pilot, incorrect answers deducted 10 seconds. There was no Round Robin game.

At the Big Sweep, the teams can grab more than one bonus cash item which in the pilot were all shown at the outset. This makes a possible total of $350 for each team.

For the Bonus Sweep, the clues shared a common theme. The answers to the clues were never revealed on screen.

Board Game
A board game based on the original ABC version was published by Milton Bradley in 1966. Played in two parts, players guess the price of grocery items during the game's first part and sweep through the supermarket represented by the gameboard during the game's second part. The player who accumulates the most points in cards during the sweep wins.

While Supermarket Sweep is most recognized for its Lifetime (1990s) and PAX (2000s) revivals, only the original ABC series tried a home conversion.

The box contents include:
 * 1 Instruction manual
 * 1 Gameboard
 * 1 "Quick-tick" timer
 * 4 Wooden pegs
 * 4 Shopping cart tokens (red, green, yellow, blue)
 * 8 Round bonus pieces (2x blue, 2x green, 2x red, 2x orange)
 * 8 Aisle pieces (2x blue, 2x green, 2x red, 2x orange)
 * 8 Aisle signs (2x Dairy and Frozen Foods (blue), 2x Fruits and Vegetables (green), 2x Meat and Fish (red), 2x Groceries (orange))
 * 120 Food cards (40x blue, 40x green, 40x red, 40x orange)
 * 1 Price List

Video Slot Machine
A five-reel Video Slot Machine based on the Lifetime/PAX version was released by WMS Gaming in 2004. In the game, the prize check symbol shows up during the shopping spree Free spin bonus round, all line wins will get prize checked up to 8X! In the Supermarket Sweep bonus, the show starts as players pick grocery items for awards. Finding hidden prizes advances the player to the next aisle for bigger awards and eventually to the last aisle where the hidden grand prize is waiting to award the big money.

Music

 * 1965: The Dave Brubeck Quartet/Score Productions
 * 1990/1993: Christopher Rhyne

Inventor
Al Howard

David Susskind: A Televised Life
In the Stephen Battaglio biography of producer David Susskind, a passage is provided to further expand upon the rich background that built upon a gameshow that would transcend its ephemeral roots and emerge as an iconic legend in television gameshow history:


 * "Everyone in the meeting laughed. But it surely did not seem as funny when Susskind and Melnick bought an idea that was well out of the realm of the classy programs on which Talent Associates had built its reputation. An ad agency executive had told the partners about a soft-drink company promotion that had given contestants a chance to race through a supermarket while jamming as many items as possible in their shopping carts. Susskind and Melnick had veteran game-show producer Jeroe Schnur develop it into a program. Schnur was a highly cultured man and a talented live-TV director. Later in his career, he staged ballet performances for PBS and produced a special on the Sistine Chapel. But in 1965, he designed the program called Supermarket Sweep, "the show that lets you run wild in your supermarket." The game required contestants to play a game, not unlike The Price is Right, already popular at the time, in which they guessed the retail price of various products. The players were rewarded with minutes to race through supermarket aisles and accumulate items from the shelves. The player with the highest total value of items at the checkout counter was the winner. Unlike every other game show, Supermarket Sweep would not be in a studio, but on location in actual supermarkets. "We had a lot of jokes about it," said Ed Vane, and executive at ABC at the time. "But just imagine going to a different supermarket every week and trying to get the camera locations and everything. Technically it was a very difficult thing to do. Only true professionals could make it work."


 * Vance had recently arrived from NBC to take on the unenviable job of head of daytime programming for ABC. Still a weak number three in the ratings at the time, ABC's daytime shows were not even carried in about 15 percent of the country. "That was a major handicap and we had to scramble and do all sorts of different exciting things to get sampled," Vane recalled. He also rememberd the advice he received from the man who gave him the job, ABC's president Tom Moore. "Now, remember, boy, in daytime we ain't improving the breed," he'd say in his Mississippi drawl. "Don't you bother your little head about quality or Peabody Awards. Just go get the money, kid." It was with those instuctions in mind that Vane bought Supermarket Sweep from Talent Associates. "Perhaps it was too literal a translation of Tom's guidance," he said, looking back.


 * Schnur and the Talent Associates staffers assigned to the show needed to perfect the game format before ABC could put it on the air. "Little by little the format developed and we'd go out into real supermarkets and try it out," said Emily Perl Kinglsey, who worked on the series. "In those days supermarkets were not open on Sundays. We'd come in Saturday night and we had to rig the place. We had to hang lights, set up bleachers for the audience, and have all those cameras, and so on. It wasn't like it is today with all this handheld stuff. There was huge equipment." A game-show casting expert went out into the community to find what the producers called "happy worthies." Kingsley described them as "cheerful people who needed the food" given away on the show.


 * The notion of people humiliating themselves on television for money and prizes was hardly novel in 1965. ABC had been running Queen for a Day, which started as a radio show back in the 1940s. Female contestants told sob stories before a studio audience about some pitiable life circumstance, such as caring for a physically or mentally disabled child, or having an out-of-work husband. And applause meter measuring the response determined the winner, who was crowned and showered with prizes. "The one who would go on to win Queen for a Day was the one who had the saddest story," said Bill Chastain, who was Schunur's longtime partner. "so it was not something that's totally foreign." But Supermarket Sweep was an optimistic glorification of consumerism set in the brightly lit shiny palaces where Americans celebrated it every day. "The only thing that makes Supermarket Sweep sort of impossible to believe was that it was the product of David Susskind and Dan Melnick," said Chastain.


 * From the start, Susskind tried to distance himself from the show. Susskind was known for his ability to hold a room spellbound when he pitched a program proposal, but he was nowhere in sight when Schnur and Ashley Famous agent Sy Fischer first presented the concept for Supermarket Sweep to Vane at his ANC office. "Even in the first meeting there were some giggles to explain why he wasn't there," said Vane. "It just struck me as unusual that the head of a production company would sort of disown his presentation." Fischer wasn't surprised. "David Susskind would never admit to having food from a supermarket," he said.


 * Campus remembered when Susskind journeyed out to a store in Paramus, New Jersey, to watch one of the early tapings of Supermarket Sweep. "He was crushed," Campus recalled. "He was saying, 'I don't care if we close the place down, I can't do this.' He walked off to his car. I guess someone else was driving him. And he left because it was too much for him."


 * After a few test shows, the producers decided that the average woman watching TV at home during the day didn't want to see herself portrayed as a crazed harridan scrambling through supermarket aisles. So the female contestants would play the pricing game and have male runners, either a relative or firned, race through the store for them. One runner in a test show had a heart attack. After that the runners had to be forty or under and have a note from a physician certifying they were healthy enough to participate. "The designated runner actually made it better because they were faster and greedier and there was more action," said Vane. "And when they collided - we always hoped they would - it made for good television."


 * As the weeks passed, the producers worked the kinks out of the program during the trial runs. ABC executives knew they had a potential hit. In test showings held at movie theaters, Supermarket Sweep received the most enthusiastic reaction the network had ever seen for one of its daytime shows.


 * But supermarket owners were put off by how the game disrupted their stores. Five weeks before Supermarket Sweep was scheduled to make its debut on ABC in December 1965, Talent Associates still didn't have a commitment from enough store chains to make a five-day-a-week show on location. Susskind, who was used to wooing the likes of Laurence Oliver and Ingrid Bergman for high-toned television specials, steeled himself to get on the telephone and use his persuasive powers to convince store executives to participate. So did Melnick. The survival of Talent Associates depended on it."


 * "Melnick, Susskind, and Stern made the deal. Shortly afterward, Talent Associates finally got Supermarket Sweep up and running at ABC and it was an immediate sensation. Sweep tripled the size of the audience of the show it replaced. When the Allied Van Lines trucks arrived outside of a supermarket with the sets and technically equipment used to set up the game, overflow crowds showed up. Unlike Get Smart, Sweep was lucrative for Talent Associates as soon as it went on the air.


 * While Supermarket Sweep saved Susskind's company, he made sure the press was aware that he was not involved in the show. "I have nothing to do with it," Susskind told TV Guide. "We have given it a home an provide necessary facilities to put it together. But that's all. These programs are produced by people who know and love them. But I couldn't get within a mile of it as a producer. I wouldn't know how." Susskind occasionally visited Schunr and Emily Perl Kingsley in the office they shared at Talent Associates. "Once a week David would sort of stick his head in the door sheepishly to find out how much money they'd made," said Chastain. "He was embarrassed about doing the show, but he loved the income.""

--"David Susskind: A Televised Life", pages 173-175; page 181

In popular culture
An episode of Laverne & Shirley was named "Supermarket Sweep". The title characters were Slotnik's one millionth customers. The man behind the counter said that they won a free shopping spree in the supermarket. They had 3:00 to grab everything they could get their hands on and whatever stuff they had must be over the line to be won. The hilarious duo shop like crazy. As soon as they have a heap of stuff, they get tired and all they win are two items.

On Late Night with David Letterman, Dave makes an appearance on Supermarket Sweep as one of his clips of the week. Dave coaches the shoppers while wearing an Ithaca sweatshirt and a whistle around his neck.

On the Married...with Children two-parter "You Better Shop Around", Al & Peggy Bundy compete against a rival in a shopping spree in the supermarket in which the Bundys are seeking refuge due to a broken air conditioner.

In an episode of Family Guy, Peter runs through Joe's house for a whole minute and grabs a majority of his stuff.

After Elmo watches a video about sleep on the popular Sesame Street ending segment, Elmo's World, there is a parody mentioned called "Supermarket Sleep".

A Nickelodeon kids' game in the 1990s better known as Nickelodeon Super Toy Run, hosted by Mike O'Malley had kids given 5 minutes to grab everything, which would be toys, before time was up. This was a similar concept to Sweep but it was toy shopping at Toys R Us.

In 2005, Supermarket Sweep was briefly mention on a 1990 episode of VH1's I Love the 90s: Part Deux.

The Red Tag Special prop was used in the set of GSN's 50 Greatest Game Shows of All Time.

In 2016, as part of the "Cut For Time" unaired skit, Saturday Night Live (SNL) spoofed "Supermarket Sweep" as "Supermarket Spree", where (Melissa McCarthy) will stop at nothing to take out her competitor (Vanessa Bayer).

More Trivia
The Lifetime version taped at Stage 9 of the KTLA studios in Hollywood; the PAX version initially taped at the Santa Clarita Studios before moving to NBC Studios in 2000 (possibly due to NBC's alliance with PAX at the time).

Supermarket Sweep celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday, December 20, 2015.

Raycom Media is currently developing a new version of Sweep called Superstore Sweep.

The sound effects used in the first season included the buzz-in sound from The $1,000,000 Chance of a Lifetime, and a buzzer for an incorrect answer (the latter was eventually used for the 30-Second Shootout when the 30 seconds ran out). Beginning with the second season, the sound effects were taken from the unsold pilot People on TV.

The $5,000 win bells and siren sound was used on an episode of In Living Color in a game show skit called The Dirty Dozens

The 30 second shootout think theme was used in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode Eyes on the Prize when Jazz and Will were on the show, Double Trouble. The music played while Jazz and Will were fighting in the isolation booth.

In the first three seasons, when players buzzed in to answer, the red light flashed three times and faded out. For the rest of the run, the red light stayed on after three flashes when players buzzed in to answer.

From 1990 to 1991, David's question cards were red during the main game, blue for the Round Robin Game, and yellow for the Mini-Sweep. Starting in late 1991, David's question cards were now used with the Supermarket Sweep logo on it. In early 1993, David's question cards now showed the new Supermarket Sweep logo with yellow background with purple text on it, and starting in September 1993 all the way through the end of the run, David's question cards were yellow with the Shopping Cart logo. On some episodes during the final 1994-1995 Lifetime season, David's question cards showed the Supermarket Sweep logo with blue and yellow background with white text.

When Lifetime aired in reruns from September 1996 to August 1998, they used their own commercial fee plugs instead of Johnny Gilbert announcing.

When PAX aired in reruns of the final Lifetime season, they edited out the contestant's hotline of the Lifetime era, and used the old commercial fee plugs that was used on Lifetime from September 1996 to August 1998.

When David announced at the loud speaker for the Manager's/Red Tag Special, the $300 Movie or the Bonus Envelope in the PAX era, they used the winning alarm sound, which was oddly still in use for the Bonus Sweep if $5,000 was won.

On October 13, 2017, FremantleMedia announced that they had acquired the global rights to the format and that a revival of the show was in the works. A representative stated that "the time is ripe to bring back this all-time favorite game show which has traveled with such success over the years" The company also stated that the new incarnation of the show would incorporate "modern technology" into the program which reflects 21st century shopping habits. Information about what network it will air on, who the host will be or if the format will remain similar to previous versions are not yet determined. In the meantime, Buzzr aired repeats of the Lifetime/PAX runs starting January 15, 2018. When Buzzr (1991-93) and Amazon Prime (2000) reran the entire Lifetime/PAX run, in the 1991 version they edited out fee plugs, and in the Amazon Prime version they edited out fee plugs and the contestant's hotline.

Taping Locations
Various Food Fair Stores (December 20, 1965–July 14, 1967)

Hollywood Center Studios, Hollywood, CA (February 5, 1990–June 16, 1995)

Santa Clarita Studios, Santa Clarita, CA (April 3-November 17, 2000)

NBC Studios, Burbank, CA (November 20, 2000–May 23, 2003)

Spin-offs
Arrasa con Todo con Kmart – A short-lived Spanish-language version of the show that aired ion Univision in 2011.

The Honeymoon Race – Similar premise, except that it was taped in shopping malls across the country, this show also ran on ABC in 1967.

Ridiculous Cash Bash – A Holiday-themed special created (and sponsored) by Kmart that aired on GSN in 2017.

International Versions
Here is a list of countries that did their own version of Supermarket Sweep:
 * Argentina (Sume y Lleve, 1987-1988/Clink Caja, 1996)
 * Australia
 * Brazil (SuperMarket)
 * Canada (both in French and English)
 * Chile (Supermarket)
 * Greece (Super Market)
 * Japan
 * Spain
 * Turkey (Supermarket)
 * Thailand (Shop Champ)
 * United Kingdom (renamed Dale's Supermarket Sweep in 1998, after host Dale Winton)
 * Vietnam (Siêu Thị May Mắn)

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Additional Pages
Supermarket Sweep/Quotes & Catchphrases

Supermarket Sweep/Gallery

Supermarket Sweep/Video Gallery

Links
A Journey Through Supermarket Sweep

Jay Anton's Rules for Supermarket Sweep

Josh Rebich's Rules for Supermarket Sweep

Rules for Supermarket Sweep @ The Game Show Temple

Supermarket Sweep's Monster Squad @ Game Show Garbage

Official Pearson site for Supermarket Sweep (via Internet Archive)

The Supermarket Sweep Facebook Page

Audio
Theme - 1993-1994, 2000-2003

Theme - 1994-1995, 2001-2003 Remake

Theme - Round Robin

Theme - 1993-1995, 2000-2003 Big Sweep

Video
An intro to Classic Supermarket Sweep

A 1967 regular episode of the show.

Part 1

Part 2

The 1989 Pilot Episode

The first episode of the show

A 1990 Sweep of Champions episode with "Mr. Yuck" in the Big Sweep

A 1990 Episode with the Round Robin permanently increases to six

A 1991 Sweep of Champions Episode of the Show

A 1992 Episode of the Show

A 1992 Episode with no buzzer for a wrong answer in the Question Rounds.

A 1992 Sweep of Champions Episode with an error of adding 10 seconds for a correct answer

A 1992 Everything is Super Episode where three questions are answered in the Jeopardy! style (I.E. in the form of a question), plus the $200 Super Sandwich debuts.

Another 1992 regular episode of the show.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A 1992 Sweep of Champions episode of the show.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

An early 1993 episode with yellow displays, plus a new theme music.

Part 1

Part 2

Another episode

$250 Super Bonus debuts, plus permanent blue displays.

Part 1

Part 2

Another episode

A 1993 episode, with a misgrab in the Mini-Sweep.

Part 1

Part 2

A 1993 episode, with first part missing

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A 1993 episode, where the winning team was so close to winning the $5,000 Bonus Sweep

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A 1994 episode where the winning team was so close to winning the $5,000 Bonus Sweep

Part 1

Part 2

A 2000 PAX episode, with two questions answered Jeopardy! style (i.e. in the form of a question) that would be completely frowned upon on Win Ben Stein's Money; plus the most big-money makers in one Big Sweep

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A 2001 PAX episode, with a goof-up in the 30-Second Shootout, and the Bonus Envelope

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

A 1993 Episode with an updated TV Mystery Product with a button underneath it, plus $100 Candy debuts.

A 1993 episode featuring the Instant Coupon Machines and the Cake-decorating kit

A 1993 Episode where a Pasta Sauce Jar breaks on the floor after winning the $5,000 Bonus Sweep.

A 1993 Episode where Pricing Items Game is not played, plus an error in the 2nd Mini-Sweep.

A 1993 half-episode featuring just the Instant Coupon Machines

A 1993 Sweep of Champions episode

The Twin Car Giveaway finale from 1994

A 1994 Episode with a repeated clue incident during the 30-Second Shootout.

The Cruise to Paradise Finale from 1994

A 1994 episode with the 1990 theme played after the Bonus Sweep

A 1994 episode with an error in the Checkstand Headlines game and the Super Sandwich

A 1994 episode with the Super Sandwich, a $7 difference in the Big Sweep, and a close $5,000 win

A 1994 Sweep of Champions episode

A 2000 PAX Episode

Another 2000 Episode with an error in the 30-Second Shootout.

Another 2000 Episode with a misgrab in the Mini-Sweep.

Another 2000 Episode with an error of adding 10 seconds for an incorrect answer.

A 2001 PAX episode with a goof-up in the 30-Second Shootout, the Video Envelope, and the $5,000 found before the second item

A 2001 Double Your Money episode (also includes a regular episode up to the Mini-Sweep)

Another 2001 PAX Episode

"Supermarket Sweep" Reunion Show