Check-Out

Check-Out
Premiere Date (Barker Era)	January 28, 1982 (#4374D)
Premiere Date (Carey Era)	February 13, 2008 (#4203K)
Pricing Game Location	Center Stage
Previous Premiered Pricing Game	Check Game
Next Premiered Pricing Game	Pick-A-Pair
Finale Date (Barker Era)	May 18, 2007 (#3995K)

A different version of the Grocery Game where the contestant has to guess prices for products and get within a certain limit higher or lower to win.

Gameplay

• One by one, the contestant is asked to give a price for five grocery items. After all five prices are guessed, the contestant's guesses are totaled.
• The actual prices for the five grocery items are then revealed, one at a time. If the contestant's total is within $2 of the actual total above or below, the contestant wins a prize. The words "WIN" or "LOSS" would light up showing if the contestant won or not (the display is in red).
• This is one of three pricing games in which the contestant can go over the actual total and still win, Spelling Bee and Rat Race, which involve pricing small prizes, have this similarity.

History

• Check-Out premiered on January 28, 1982 (#4374D), and was created by Kathy Greco and Barbara Hunter, both production assistants. On its first playing, it was lost.
• The original winning range was 50 cents. On January 11, 1983 (#4752D), Barker thought it was tough when it first premiered and thought it should be $1 if necessary, but 80% of the players at the time were winners. 14 years later, his request came true on April 3, 1996 (#9923D) with the range set to $1, before being raised to its current spread of $2 on October 13, 2003 (#2631K).
• The game's actual price display, where it was originally a vane display, is now an egg-crate display. The display for the contestant's guesses and total remains a vane display. The game was not played from September 29, 1995 (#9665D) until April 3, 1996 (#9923D) in order to fix the display. The current look debuted on December 19, 2000 (#1632K). Also, for many years, the game's set included a "calculator" with a vane display that the models (traditionally Holly Hallstrom) used to enter the contestant's guesses (essentially serving the same purpose as the cash register in Grocery Game). The calculator was removed on February 23, 2001 (#1713K), largely because the buttons no longer actually had a functional purpose, a fact which had inadvertently been made obvious on-the-air during one of its last appearances. The guesses are now recorded from the control booth, which lights them up, as well as the total, on the upper display. On June 7, 2001 (#1844K), the Pricedown dollar signs were removed and a larger display was installed.
• On October 19, 1993 (#8932D), instead of hiding behind The Giant Price Tag, the game was accidentally revealed before its grand prize, with the calculator folded in.
• The first playing with the current set (which still had the calculator attached) is well-known for a remark made by someone from the audience when Bob announced that a guest model named Alicia would assist him with the game. After he introduced her, the audience member asked: "Who the hell is Alicia?"
• The grocery labels were added on March 25, 2004 (#2854K). These labels changed to the Dom Casual font on January 10, 2007 (#3833K), and the prices were also changed to Dom Casual on February 13, 2008 (#4203K).
• On four occasions, including April 4, 1990 (#7613D), and the most recent occurrence on July 4, 2008 (#4405K), the contestant has arrived at an exactly correct total, though never with perfect bids on each item.
• During Price's "Youth Week" on March 23, 2018 (#8265K), Check-Out was played for $20,000 and was won.

Trivia

• The most number of times this game was played in any season was 19 (season 25), while the least number of times this game was played in any season was 5 (season 28).
• On Monty Hall-hosted versions of Let's Make a Deal, one of the trading deals involved a game nearly identical to Check-Out, where traders were shown a row of five items and asked to price them, with at least one a small prize worth $20-50. Hall would then offer the traders a sure thing in exchange for the grand prize (a car or trip) prior to revealing the actual prices. If the contestants took the gamble for the grand prize and were within a specified range, the contestants won.
• Stan Blits erroneously lists this game among the retired pricing games in his book.
• Throughout the Barker era, a buzzer sounded for losses, although a foghorn has also been used, beginning with a late 1982 episode and saw increased use during Season 14 (1985-86). The buzzer was last used on December 15, 2008 (#4551K), during Drew Carey's second season as host.

International versions

On international versions, there was a different range featured on these versions:

• The Price is Right (2012, Australia): The winning range was AU$2.
• El precio es correcto "The Price is Correct" (Colombia): The winning range was COL$2000.
• OK, Il Prezzo è Giusto! "OK, The Price is Right!" (Italy): The winning range was ₤1000 (52c). The actual prices were also revealed manually in this version.
• Atínale al Precio "Succeeds the Price" (2010, Mexico): The winning range was MX$20.
• El precio justo "The Right Price" (1988, Spain): The contestant is shown four prizes, guessing the price of each one and giving a final total that should be within a certain margin (usually 400₧ [€2.40]) without going over.
• Bruce's Price is Right (United Kingdom): The winning range was £1.

Gallery

To view the gallery, click here.

YouTube Videos

Check-Out Perfection (July 4, 2008, #4405K)
Check-Out for a Dodge Dart SE (March 19, 2013, #6272K, aired out of order on May 2, 2013)