It's a scene typically seen on television — you have 90 seconds to take as much as you can from three warehouse aisles about 50 yards long, lined with shelves of merchandise.
Whatever you can grab and get into your cart is yours.
"I've thought about how much fun it would be to have that experience," said Kayleen Grant, a 25-year-old cook from Aston, Pa., who used to live in Arbutus. "It would be so cool."
Grant, along with Ronald Taylor, of Catonsville, were among eight people who had the chance to make that scenario a reality April 30 as part of the Maryland Lottery's Warehouse Dash in Chicago.
The winners were selected from a pool of 368,387 lottery players who submitted $10 of non-winning, holiday-themed scratch-off tickets into their My Lottery Rewards account between Oct. 16 and Jan. 17.
"I couldn't breathe I was so excited," Grant said after finding out she was going. "My boyfriend said I was bright red. Red as a tomato."
The winners received a three-day, two-night trip for two to Chicago, complete with airfare, hotel accommodations, spending money and the shopping spree.
Taylor, a retired research analyst, had a plan for the shopping spree. He previously looked up videos on YouTube for other contestants doing similar contests.
In the minutes leading up to his turn, he was able to scout the aisles and keep in mind locations for what he wanted. He kept an eye on what he called proxy boxes, which were boxes with photos of items one would get if they chose them.
When his time started, however, most of his planning went out the window. Mania set in, he said.
"You can't be lollygagging and exactly identify the items you were after," he said. "You have to cover a large amount of space in those 90 seconds."
One thing was for sure, the goal was to fill the cart.
"I didn't want to leave any space in the cart," he said. "In the process of grabbing stuff, I grabbed things I didn't know I picked up. I'd pick it up and figure out what it was later."
Taylor made sure to get items at the top of his wish list: a laptop for himself, a Coach bag for his girlfriend and a proxy box containing a grill and $800 worth of steak.
"Given the value of the grill and the meat, for the value, that was an item worth selecting," he said. "I think every contestant went for that grill because it was a really nice, high-end grill."
Grant counted down the days, then hours, until the trip. In her race against the clock, she pushed the cart, while her boyfriend, Josue Tejada, picked the items from the shelves.
Her plan was to get big-ticket items. Her haul included the grill, along with a Sony speaker system, kitchen equipment and a 65-inch television. She also wanted to grab items for her two children, 5-year-old Kayden and 4-year-old Kerianne.
"We weren't going to go for the little stuff," she said. "We tried to get the things we wouldn't be able to afford, normally."
The time went by fast and it was important to focus, she said.
Grant and Taylor were happy with what they ended up with and enjoyed the experience. For both, it was their first trip to Chicago.
"It was amazing," Grant said. "It was the best thing I have ever done, other than having my children."