Grocery grab delivers a feast

ELISE VOLLWEILER

First, the meat.

In went a flurry of Christmas hams and some luscious salmon.

Next, some hastily tossed cheese, and a swag of bacon. Finally, with seconds remaining, the ice cream and chocolate.

It was a fast minute, but Sue Armstrong reckons she made the most of it.

Sue was the winner of Māpua Four Square’s 60-second grocery grab, and last Tuesday evening, as ‘Eye of the Tiger’ played over the store’s speakers, she had her minute of glory.

With vocal encouragement from family, and some enthusiastic assistance from store owners Taryn and Shaun McFadden, who held open fridge and freezer doors for easier access, Sue raced around the store, whipping goodies from the shelves as her granddaughter sped behind her with the trolley.

“I saw a video of myself, and I looked like a little rabbit on a mission,” she laughs.

She packed the trolley full, managing to grab everything that she had hoped for.

“Christmas should be quite tasty this year.”

The Tasman township resident is a regular at the Māpua store, and so she already knew her way around the aisles.

She reckons the Māpua store is a great venue for such an event.

“It’s well stocked and has a great variety of goodies.”

She bought tickets to support her grandchildren’s school – which is also the school that she attended as a child.

Taryn and Shaun personally donated the prize, to the value of $1000, as a raffle fundraiser for Māpua School, where their children attend.

She was delighted by Sue’s success, saying that they had primed her to “just go for gold and get the most out of it”.

“Clearly she did very well in that minute,” Taryn says with approval.

Taryn says that the event was “epic”, raising about $17,000 for the school, and the couple was keen to make it an annual event.

“We can’t wait for next year,” she says. “We actually can’t wait.”

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