Joanna Erichsen of Junction City was the big winner in the Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce Grocery Grab Promotion at Wal Mart Saturday.

She was the winner of a five minute Grocery Grab shopping spree, and promptly used it to load up five shopping carts of free groceries with a total value of $1,916.80. She took numerous items off the shelves ranging from meat and soda to candy, coffee, and peanut butter.

“I went after meat for sure, and then the big price items like peanut butter and the pop, the soda.” Steaks, pork, and big cuts of meat that could freeze well were among her targets.

Erichsen was happy but tired after the dash for the food. With a chuckle she added “I’m tired. I don’t have to work out today.”

There were six finalists in the promotion, but only four were represented at the drawing on Saturday to determine the winners. After $25 and $50 gift certificates were awarded to two of the finalists, Sharon Brooks ( representing Bill Brooks ) was the winner of a three minute grocery shopping spree. During that time she managed to pick up enough groceries to fill two shopping carts, with the total value of those groceries $412.08.

“Very exciting. I just really enjoyed it. Got my exercise.” Brooks explained her strategy as she grabbed the groceries. “Just grab as much stuff as I could as fast as I could throw it in. I didn’t really look to see what some of the stuff was, just get it in there as fast as I could.”

Chamber of Commerce Activities Division Director John Terry was asked about Joanna’s grocery grab, and  indicated she did an excellent job. “I mean really excellent. It’s one of those things that makes you hurt, but it was for a good cause . She had things planned out. ” Terry added Erichsen had “scoped everything out” and knew what she was doing.

The Chamber of Commerce pays for the groceries after selling tickets for the promotion for $10.

Chamber CEO Tom Weigand confirmed after all expenses are factored in that the Grocery Grab Promotion finished about $800 in the red.  But officials were pleased. “It’s one of those things that we started with the intense selling a little late. We learned a lot by this and we will do this again next year.” One change will probably be to extend ticket sales right up until the grocery grab hour to get people in the Wal Mart store an opportunity to buy tickets.

Weigand noted the Chamber might share the promotion with a local charity next year and get more volunteers selling tickets. He indicated the Chamber did not expect to make money on the promotion the first year.

The Open Door Homeless Shelter was the recipient of the $50 gift certificate in the Promotion.