"Supermarket Stakeout" is a Food Network game show that premiered in 2019, hosted by
Alex Guarnaschelli. Each episode has four cooks competing for $10,000, but on the show it is claimed to be a year's worth of groceries.. They have $500 to start the show, but that must last three rounds, To get the groceries which they must use to cook their dishes, the cooks must buy them off of shoppers who had already paid for them, offering to pay above what was spent. If two or more see the same shopper and want what they have, they often start trying to outbid each other.
This show provides examples of:
- Alliterative Title: Supermarket Stakeout
- Anti-Frustration Features: In the first round it is being able to buy from any number of shoppers. In the second round it is getting to look into the bags before purchasing. In the third round it is being allowed in the last 10 minutes to purchase one item of your choice.
- Auction: Contestant chefs often have to outbid each other to get the items they need for their dish.
- Celebrity Edition: One of the fifth season episodes had prior judges of the show compete against each other, and some of them were well-known Food Network personalities.
- Game Show Host: Alex Guarnaschelli, who also does Alex Vs America.
- Grocery Store Episode: More like Grocery Store Game Show.
- Luck-Based Mission: Round One is a "blind buy" where the cooks can't see what the shopper bought, and must buy the whole cart of groceries the shopper has: they have to judge the shopper and hope food they could use for cooking was what they have (although they could buy from more than one shopper). Some things might be in the purchase that are inedible by human standards, so they have to hope to get lucky. As this round often requires particular items to fit the theme, this can be the downfall of many chefs.
- Mystery Box: The chefs can only get their groceries from people who'd already shopped in the market, and in the first round must "buy them blind" (which means they can't look inside the bags before buying them).
