“I Peaked in Aisle 4”: 66-Year-Old Man Still Chasing High of 1993 Supermarket Sweep Appearance
By Nina J., Co-Editor, The Witless Wire
DAYTON, OH — While most 66-year-olds are exploring senior discounts or watching birds with growing emotional investment, Craig Eddleman remains fixated on a single goal: recapturing the high he felt sprinting through a grocery store with manic intensity and a cart full of meat in 1993.
“I peaked in Aisle 4,” Craig said, gently adjusting the zipper on his original Supermarket Sweep windbreaker — a relic of the early ’90s. “It was a simpler time. I was hopped up on Crystal Pepsi. David Ruprecht was calling the shots. I was thirty-four and filled with purpose.”
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” Craig said. Host David Ruprecht, he insists, “wore the loudest sweaters ever knit by human hands. Undeniably Gitano. Like if your grandma had a seizure while knitting.” Contestants like Craig and his teammate, Deena, were decked out in matching sweatshirts in baby blue, pink, or yellow, with their team number on the front and the Supermarket Sweep logo emblazoned across the back. Craig still owns his original Team 3 sweatshirt.
Craig was the designated runner on the episode, while Deena stayed back at the register and shouted support. In addition to grabbing high-value groceries, contestants were given a special shopping list of three specific items that, if all found, earned an additional bonus.
“I screamed Hershey cocoa powder, Slim Jims, and Dawn dish soap at the top of my lungs,” Deena recalled. “What did Craig bring back? A family-size box of Tide and a five-foot-long salami. He even ran right past an inflatable California Raisin bonus prize. WTF?”
Craig insists he heard the list.
“I just went with my gut,” he said. “You see a salami that long and you take five of ’em.”
Despite the misfire, the pair placed second and received a $200 grocery gift card and commemorative aprons. Craig still wears his around the house. Deena put hers in a donation box labeled ‘Unresolved Trauma.’
Since then, Craig has tried and failed to recapture the euphoria of that sweep. He auditioned for Jeopardy! but was dismissed after answering three history questions with “What is Crystal Light?” On The Price Is Right, he made it to Contestant’s Row only to bid “Sizzlean” on a luggage set.
His deepest heartbreak came in 2020, when Supermarket Sweep returned with Leslie Jones as host. At 61, Craig launched a social media campaign from his Twitter account @SweepCraig93, posting daily videos of his “training regimen” — mostly footage of him power-walking through Kroger. Many tweets included #LetCraigSweep.
He also submitted an audition video titled “A Cart Full of Dreams”, featuring slow-motion footage of Craig retrieving a frozen turkey to the tune of Eye of the Tiger, followed by a whispered “Dawn dish soap” directly into camera.
He was not selected.
“They said I came on too strong,” Craig scoffed. “Too strong? It’s a sprint-based meat-grab game show. You want intensity.”
In the wake of rejection, Craig now runs a highly detailed Supermarket Sweep Fantasy League, which he claims includes 12 active members.
“Linda from 1991 is on fire this season,” Craig explained, pointing to a laminated draft board with headshots, item stats, and a metric labeled ‘Ham Efficiency.’ “She cleared the shopping list in under 45 seconds. That’s elite.”
Deena refuses to participate.
“He still texts me every Sunday: ‘HERSHEY COCOA POWDER, DEENA.’” she said. “We got second place. It wasn’t Vietnam. It was a grocery game show that aired before Friends.”
But Craig can’t let it go.
“The windbreaker still fits. Sort of,” he said. “The hunger’s still there. And so is the bonus banana.”
“I don’t need therapy,” he said. “I need a cart. And redemption.”
