Note from NerdMom: This is a guest post by Shauna Fleuridor who was a lucky Sprouts Spree winner!!! I appreciate her guest post!!! I will write my thoughts on Sprouts soon!

Fresno has a brand new Sprouts Farmer’s Market, and the grand opening celebration included a Sprouts Spree – 2 contestants, 2 minutes to fill their carts, the one with the highest total at checkout wins a $500 gift card.

It’s not everyday when an everyday mom like me gets a chance to win something big … So, I put on my lucky tennis shoes, picked out a well-oiled shopping cart, and made sure my cheering squad (my two kidlets, mom, and cousin) were there to well, cheer me on.

My strategy – pick a good spot and get as much as I could in the cart. I avoided the local fresh fruits and veggies, bakery, seafood, cheeses, freshly ground beef, nuts, spices, oils (off limits were alcohol, vitamin/supplements, bulk foods) and, I definitely avoided the grand opening $1 sale of pineapples, watermelons, eggs, and coconut water … and went straight for the pet section. That’s right, I loaded my cart with $50 bags of dog food. And kitty corner to that was a shelf of $20 camelbak bottles. Ka-ching! I was the clear winner and, they say I broke the record of sprees at other store openings. Gotta love it!