Grocery Game

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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 between $3,000 and $10,000 (although it has also been played for cars).

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 or by spending less than $20 after using all five items.

Grocery Game was created by Goodson-Todman staffer Imie Lane Camelli. Its original winning range was $6.75 to $7.00. This was adjusted on January 26, 1989 due to inflation. In shows produced during the first week of tapings, 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.

From its 1972 debut until 2000 (when she departed from the show), Janice Pennington was traditionally the Grocery Game's "cashier". Since 2000, any one of the models appearing that day will run the cash register.

The first four times Grocery Game was played the contestant was awarded supplies of all five groceries regardless of the game's outcome.

The first contestant to play Grocery Game made a return appearance to the show in Season 37 after the ten-year contestant rule was implemented, and the game was in the rotation on that episode. While she did not win her way up to play it again, she, like the other contestants who returned under the new rule, played a pricing game that had not existed during their first appearance on the show. ^[1]

The game is played in many other countries with the same rules, only the win ranges are completely different.

A list of examples:

• Australia - $10 to $10.50 on Larry Emdur's version; Ian Turpie's version used the US pre-1989 range of $6.75 to $7.
• Canada - $9 to $10
• France - 95₣ to 99₣ (€14.48 to €15.09)
• Germany - DM12 to DM13 (€6.13 to €6.64) (earlier DM27 to DM30 {€13.80 to €15.33})
• Italy - ₤45,000 to ₤48,000 (€23.24 to €24.78) (later ₤75,000 to ₤80,000 {€38.73 to €41.31})