She trained, plotted and planned. When the time came, Tammy Smith of Jefferson was ready.
Saturday morning, Smith arrived bright and early at Fareway in Jefferson with her own cheering squad. She was ready to make the most of her two-minute shopping spree.
Smith is one of six winners in Our Iowa’s “Extreme Kitchen Makeover.” She won by finding a tiny drawing of a key hidden somewhere within the copy of the February/March issue of the magazine. She reported her finding to the magazine staff. Her name was drawn out of all the correct entries.
Each issue, another winner will be selected. At the end of the year, the six will meet in front of a locked door leading to a kitchen display. Each one of the six will receive a randomly selected key but only one will unlock the door which will determine the grand prize winner.
Larry Wiebel, managing editor of Our Iowa, explained the rules and ran the stop watch at Fareway Saturday. He started and stopped her race with a cow bell.
Smith worked with store manager Doug Monaghan in plotting her strategy. She realized the big dollar items were in the meat department so she conducted several ‘dry’ runs, practicing prior to the event to achieve the maximum amount of success.
“Tammy was good to work with,” complimented Monaghan. “She came out and practiced, loading up the cart. But then she put everything back away, just like she found it.”
“It takes me 30 seconds to get from the front of the store to the meat counter,” explained Smith. “That’s where I’m headed.”
When the cow bell sounded, she was off and running, making a direct beeline to the meat department. She grabbed hams, bacon, sausage, pork loins, beef roasts and more. After about 75 seconds and when the cart was getting full, she raced over to the frozen food department where she grabbed shrimp, frozen meat patties, crab and other fish/meat.
As the count down neared the end, Smith struggled a bit trying to keep everything in the cart. When the final bell sounded, she was breathless from the activity but managed a scream of delight.
“I made a mistake,” admitted Smith. “The child seat was extended and I couldn’t get as much in as I should have. Oh, well.”
Smith pushed the heavy-laden cart to the front of the store where Monaghan had the pleasure of ringing up the grand total.
Wiebel stood near the check-out shaking his head. “We talked about this at a staff meeting and had some guesses about how much this was going to cost…. No one was anywhere close to this,” he sighed. “I guess some of the other winners will get smaller prizes.”
When Monaghan hit the total button, the register showed $1,019.16. Fareway meat cutters took the large meat bundles back to the counter to cut and package it to Smith’s specifications.
Smith and her friends screamed some more.
“This was so much fun!” she exclaimed. ~The Scranton Journal
