11.11.2008

Our Annual Media Frenzy

What do you get when you mix local media personalities, shopping carts, a 3 minute shopping frenzy & fierce competitive drives? You get the 16th Annual Shop O Rama at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage. To kick-off the 2008 "Check Out Hunger" program, an easy way for people to donate to children’s programs through Food Bank of the Rockies' Nutrition Network. At local Natural Grocer locations, shoppers can add $1 or $5 coupons to their grocery bill November 1st through December 31st. Natural Grocers will match all customer donations up to $50,000. It's one of our favorite events and yesterday was proof why we look forward to this day each and every year!

The line up...CW2's Tom Green, Channel 4's Jim Benemann & Karen Leigh, FOX 31's Melissa Mollet & husband Jake, Denver Magazine's Katie Shapiro & Adria Marin and Natural Grocers owners Kemper & Heather Isely. Teams took off with their carts to load up with food as close to the total of $169.11 as possible (without going over!). Some teams carried calculators to keep track as they went and others threw in product and hoped for the best. You can guess which tactic brought about the winning total:)

Never before have we had totals like we did in yesterday's fierce shopping battle. Every team went over the total.....Channel 4 set a record for the highest total over the allotted amount! And yes, that includes the items Mr. Benemann is conveniently hiding behind his back in the photo below. Their spunk made up for their 5th place score!
Tom Green paired up with Heather Isely, but even the Vitamin Cottage expert wasn't enough to claim him as the 2008 winner. Note the spunk referred to above in the shot below.

The ladies from Denver Magazine couldn't have been closer to gaining bragging rights! They took 2nd place by a mere 15 cents. That's the closest runner up to date for this event.
Melissa stood by nervously awaiting the final results....

After a few dedicated years of determination, our friend Melissa Mollet brought home the title and shopping cart trophy for FOX 31. They were $2.29 over the total. She and Jake couldn't have been more proud. HUGE THANKS to Natural Grocers and all our media participants for another fantastic Shop O Rama! We'll look forward to next year's festivities!



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