PHOTO: Shelley Silvester spent the morning of Aug. 26 racing between 10 Langley businesses in the Langley Advance Shopping Spree.
Shelley Silvester saw the entry box at Bonetti Meats.
“Win a shopping spree.”
Is there a catch, she wondered. She read it over and put in her entry, knowing Bonetti wouldn’t ask customers to take part in anything questionable.
“I thought wow, that’s a great contest. I have to enter that,” Silvester said.
The only catch in the Langley Advance Shopping Spree 2016 was the winner had up to 2,016 seconds to spend up to $2,016.
When all the entries were amassed, it was Silvester’s name that was chosen the winner, and on Aug. 26, she made the rounds of 10 participating businesses.
“A lot of the stores were places I already shop at,” she said.
A stretch limo took her and two nieces from the Advance office to Nature’s Fare Market, Petfude.ca, the Langley Liquor Store, Hudson’s Bay, Heritage Meats, Canadian Tire, North Langley Paint & Decorating, Bonetti Meats, Otter Co-op, and Spa Utopia.
Before that she had scouted out the businesses, picking out a few items for herself and family.
“I asked family members what they wanted,” she said. “I tried to spread it around.”
Her big get for herself – and one for which she is taking some ribbing – oven mitts.
“There’s a pair of oven mitts that finally fit me so I grabbed those,” she said.
Silvester took a practical approach, snapping up unglamourous but useful things like a battery charger, a potato ricer, dog food, paint brushes…
She also knew she wanted to spread around her good fortune. Upon entering Otter Co-op, she asked for a hand basket even though she had the whole store of merchandise from which to choose.
She picked up three items for the family and started loading bags of non-perishables for the food bank into a cart to round out her spree.
““I had decided this in advance,” Silvester said.
Otter is looking after delivering the bags of food for her and the general manager matched the donation.
As the winner of the first Langley Advance Shopping Spree, does this take care of Christmas shopping for her?
“No,” she chuckled.
PHOTO: Shelley Silvester picked up meat, groceries, household and decor items and more during her shopping spree.