Picture Butte resident wins big by shopping local

By Erika Mathieu
Sunny South News

One Picture Butte resident no longer has to worry about buying groceries for the entire year. Sam Borsato is one of six lucky grand winners of the Great Grocery Giveaway contest, which was held in participating AG Foods stores in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan across 50 stores. “It’s one heck of a way to start off 2022,” she said.

Borsato won by collecting entries from Bert’s AG Foods in Picture Butte. She said she participated in the contest in 2020 as well. “Last year, the most I won was a frozen lasagna,” but continued to try, hoping she would win. She said she was extra careful to keep track of all of the entries just in case, “I have just shy of 200 entries into this year’s contest, using tickets earned with purchases at AG Foods stores. Even when it was my boyfriend’s turn to go shopping, I’d always joke that he better bring those tickets home safe and sound because I was determined to win. Who knew it would actually be true.”

In the age of endless telemarketing and phishing schemes, Borsato said she was initially skeptical she had actually won. “I never thought in a million years that I’d actually end up with a grand prize,” adding she was initially hesitant to believe the news and thought, “this can’t be real; it’s a scam.” Once the shock wore off, Borsato was elated to have a major expense completely taken care of for an entire year, “this was essentially the next best thing to winning the lottery for me,” adding that as much as she diligently played, she never had any expectation of winning.

“I think for almost anyone these days, not having to worry about $5,200 worth of groceries comes as a huge relief,” she said. She added the prize will give her an opportunity to, “put (it) toward other bills or those pesky high gas prices.” She said she is also looking forward spoil her family, friends, and pets.

Keeping with  Picture Butte’s community doctrine of shopping local, Borsato said she easily could have opted to drive to Lethbridge to do her shopping. Ultimately she decided the service at Bert’s, the selection, and the convenience of her experience shopping locally was well worth it. “This all stems from the belief that I wanted to support a locally-owned store in my new community,” and added, and encourages others to do the same. “I hope this inspires someone to check out their hometown stores, and enter any and all of their contests.”