The West Rome IGA played host once again for the fourth annual Grocery Grab, and this year two regular customers ended up being rewarded for their loyalty to the store.

The two winners combined for a total of $658.66 in free groceries to take home.

After her time ended, Cathy Mabry said the effort wore her out.

“It was exciting and fun,” she said. “I intended to grab a lot of meat, but I decided to grab what I could grab on my way through. So I grabbed whatever I saw that caught my eye. I kind of had my grocery list in mind when I started and so I just went on through.”

Luck was with Annette Hall, who took home $396.71 of the grand total in groceries. Even though she’s a regular customer at the IGA, she only entered her name once to be chosen to participate.

“Well I’ve never been lucky much before, so I was shocked that I was one of the last ones chosen,” she said.

Her strategy was to go completely after the store’s meat selection — a strategy most grocery grab contestants have used over the years — simply because she hoped to restock her deep freezer, which broke recently and took with it all her frozen food.

“Every one of them (the customers) this year that won, I recognized as regular customers,” said West Rome IGA owner Keith Clark after the race for groceries ended Saturday.

Clark said he plans to continue the annual grab for years to come, not just for the boost during the winter months but to give back to the community with a few extra groceries.

“It creates a lot of excitement in the store in January and February, which are normally the slowest months of the year,” Clark said.