Grocery Game: Difference between revisions

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Grocery Game is a pricing game on the American television game show The Price Is Right. It uses grocery items and is played for a prize usually valued at least $3,000.

Having debuted on Price's second episode from September 5, 1972 (aired out of order on September 8), Grocery Game is one of the original five pricing games.

The contestant is shown five grocery items. The goal of the game is to buy a total between $20 and $21 inclusive. To do this, the contestant chooses an item, and a quantity of that item to buy. The price is revealed, multiplied by the quantity purchased, and rung up on a cash register. If the total is less than $20, they may choose another item and quantity, which is added to their total. This continues until they have spent over $20 or used all five grocery items. The player loses by spending over $21 at any point, or spending less than $20 after using all five items.

Grocery Game was created by Goodson-Todman staffer Imie Lane Camelli. The game still uses the same Diebold mechanical cash register with "win" or "over" show lights mounted on top.

Its original winning range was $6.75 to $7.00. This was adjusted on January 26, 1989 due to inflation.

From its 1972 debut until 2000 (when she departed the show), Janice Pennington was traditionally the Grocery Game's "cashier". In 1998, she began wearing reading glasses at the cash register after a typing error on the previous playing. Since 2000, any one of the models appearing that day will run the cash register.

The first two times Grocery Game was played, the contestant was given $100 at the start of the game; if they won the game or exhausted all five grocery items (but did not exceed $7.00), they kept the $100. On the first four playings, the contestant was awarded supplies of all five groceries regardless of the game's outcome; the amounts varied, but always totaled at least $100 and counted toward the contestant's winnings.

Grocery Game is played in many other countries with the same rules, however different win ranges.

• Australia - Ian Turpie's version used the original US range of $6.75 to $7; this was increased to a range of $10 to $10.50 on Larry Emdur's version.
• Canada - $9 to $10
• France - 95₣ to 99₣ (€14.48 to €15.09), now €10-€11
• Germany - Originally DM27 to DM30 (€13.80 to €15.33), later DM12 to DM13 (€6.13 to €6.64).
• Italy - Originally ₤45,000 to ₤48,000 (€23.24 to €24.78), later ₤75,000 to ₤80,000 (€38.73 to €41.31).