PHILADELPHIA - John O’Donnell demonstrated the greatest ability to keep a running tab on the cost of groceries and as a result beat out five other members of American Heritage FCU here as part of a shopping contest. O’Donnell finished the race with a total of $560 in groceries, and as a result won an additional $600 in groceries and an automatic entry for the credit union’s 60th anniversary grand prize, a 2008 Chevy Malibu Hybrid, to be awarded in November.
The contest took place at Landis Supermarket in Perkasie, Penn., with the six winners, all chosen at random from entry boxes in AHFCU’s 21 branches, challenged to accumulate at least six unique items from seven different sections of the store in 15 minutes while coming as close to $600 in total groceries as possible without going over that target amount. Participants were not allowed to use calculators, cell phones or pencil and paper as they loaded their baskets.
Four of the participants went over the $600 amount, while O’Donnell came closer than the other participant. All were permitted to keep the groceries they had gathered. “The hardest part was keeping a rolling tally in your head,” said O’Donnell, who acknowledged his wife usually does the family shopping.
American Heritage matched the money spent by each of the contestants with a donation of $3,600 to the Kids-N-Hope Foundation, which supports the Music Therapy Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The Supermarket Shopping Spree was just one of many 60th anniversary events being held by the $647-million credit union, founded as the Budd Workers FCU in 1948.
