Coyote Captain Rainer Glimpel quickly filled a grocery cart with boxes of mean products during a 50-second shopping spree at Buy-Low Foods while Manager Brian Fry (right) looks on. Glimpel was filling in for spree winner Kay Patterson, who is unable to run. (Richard McGuire photo)
If you were given less than a minute for a free grocery-shopping spree, where would you go first?
For Kay Patterson, who won a 50-second spree at Buy-Low Foods, and Wendy Mellace, who won a 30-second spree at AG Foods, the answer was obvious – the meat section.
Patterson won the spree by filling out entry ballots that she got every time she shopped. The contest marked the 50th anniversary of Buy-Low Foods.
There was just one catch, she realized, when she got the call and learned her win was a shopping spree and not a blender.
“I can’t run,” she said. “I’ve got arthritis in my knees and I’m not a runner.”
Randy Bedard, owner of the Osoyoos Coyotes, came to the rescue, volunteering the hockey team’s captain Rainer Glimpel to do the running. Glimpel is the Coyotes’ and league’s leading scorer.
Before store manager Brian Fry gave the go, Patterson led Glimpel on a tour of the meat department, pointing out the items she wanted him to get. The two strategized.
When Glimpel got the signal to start, he tore down the coffee aisle and headed straight for the boxed meat products, loading them into his cart. He deked around freezers like they were opposing hockey players.
When it was all done, Glimpel’s loot scored slightly over the $500 limit.
Patterson said she was shocked to learn she’d won because she’s never won a big prize in her life before.
“I was totally shocked,” she said. “Because I don’t win anything.”
The following morning, AG Foods ran its Great Grocery Giveaway, a similar contest, but with only a 30-second limit.
Mellace came in the day before her spree to devise a strategy.
“I knew what I wanted,” she said. “I scoped the joint yesterday. When I came in this morning, I made sure I had a cart with rack and pinion steering so that I could make it around those corners. I made sure I used my best running shoes.”
Mellace grabbed fresh and frozen meats – a goose here, a turkey there. She was allowed no more than two of one item.
Thirty seconds went very quickly, but she managed to complete her list, even ending off with a carton of eggs.
“I got everything that I had set my sights on,” she said.
Store employees, including manager Derek Morgan, watched Mellace do her sprint and then gathered with her for photos when it was over.
She said when Morgan called her, she thought at first it was another job sewing aprons. When she heard she’d won, she thought it might be something like a barbecue that she didn’t need.
“A 30-second spree, that’s what I do need,” she said, smiling. “So I was quite happy when they told me I can take anything in the store, and particularly from the meat departments.”
While her spree exceeded the $300 limit, ringing in at $387, Morgan let her keep the extra items.
She said she and her husband Tony will be eating well in the coming days.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Kay Patterson, right, won a 50-second shopping spree at Buy-Low Foods, but since she is unable to run, she asked Osoyoos Coyotes Captain Rainer Glimpel to do the legwork. He filled the cart with about $500 in meat products. At left is store manager Brian Fry. (Richard McGuire photo)
Wendy Mellace shoves a frozen turkey into her shopping cart during a 30-second shopping spree at AG Foods. She had her route planned ahead of time and managed to grab all she was after — $387 worth of groceries. (Richard McGuire photo)
Wendy Mellace shows her shopping cart stuffed with meat products after winning a 30-second shopping spree at AG Foods. Posing with her are store employees, who watched the excitement. (Richard McGuire photo)
