The Supermarket Sweep supermarket looks like the grocery store of our dreams — just look at the immaculate food displays! Those spacious aisles! That coffee bar! Unfortunately, the Supermarket Sweep store isn’t a real supermarket.
As the Los Angeles TimesThe new game show was revealed in August 2020, just a few months before its latest version premiered on ABC. Supermarket Sweep is filmed in Barker Hangar, a 35,000-square-foot aircraft hangar at California’s Santa Monica Municipal Airport.
You’ve likely seen that versatile space on screen if you’re an award-show buff: According to IMDb, the same hangar has also hosted the People’s Choice Awards, the Teen Choice Awards, the Kids’ Choice Awards, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the MTV Movie & TV Awards, among other ceremonies.
The set for ABC’s ‘Supermarket Sweep’ had to be durable — and fully stocked.
Source: Christopher Willard/ABC
Set decorator Rae Deslich revealed behind-the-scenes secrets about ABC’s Supermarket SweepTo Set Decor Magazine in December 2020 — saying, for example, that the fake grocery store “had to be so durable to deal with the gameplay and the enthusiastic contestants.”
Rae also added: “Even before the Big Sweep happens, people would jump around, wave their arms, run into things, grab things, etc. We knew everything had to be as real and as solid as possible for their safety.”
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Alycia Rossiter was the executive producer. The A.V. ClubThe shelves were full a year ago. (And the food is authentic.)
“The thing about Supermarket Sweep is that you can’t control that fast motion,” Alycia explained. “A human being that’s grabbing as fast as they can might upset the apple cart. We don’t want there to be emptiness behind those three boxes of cereal that have toppled over.”
Rae and other set decorators assisted in designing the space. “had a great time searching out all of the little everyday things that make a grocery store feel real — produce scales, bag dispensers, twist ties, standing signs, and more!”
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Rae also noted the quirky design elements found in the store. This included the apple cart that resembles a giant apple and the milk case that resembles a large milk carton. “The art department [conceived] so many cute, whimsical displays because we needed the grocery store itself to have a lot of fun built into it,”Rae was also added. “Our set was just so big; every idea we came up with had to be done times ten because that’s how much space we had to cover.”
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