The Ultimate Price is Right Strategy Guide: It's in the Bag

It's in the Bag

Rules

6 grocery products are shown as are 5 prices on 5 "bags". The contestant must choose which grocery products cost the amount shown on the 5 bags. If the contestant gets the first one right, they win $1,000. After that, they must make a choice: continue or quit. If they quit, they leave with whatever money they've accumulated. If they continue and are right on the next item, they double their money. If they continue and are wrong, they lose their money. They continue until they quit, are wrong, or have won $16,000.

Random fact

Whenever this game is won, it's a special moment due to its rarity, but I was lucky enough to see this one in the studio. It's easily my favorite It's in the Bag win ever. I got to meet Sharon after the show and she's a wonderful woman. Here it is:

(Jump ahead to the 3:30 mark to watch the It's in the Bag playing.)

Win-loss record

• Actual (seasons 29-46): 24-313 (7.12%)
  (Note: it only counts as a win if the top prize was won. Thus, bailouts count as losses.)
• What it would be by random chance: 1/720 (0.14%)
• If you know the first two items and pick the rest by random chance: 1/24 (4.17%)

How often each item was in each bag (seasons 45-47)

Bag #    BL TL BM TM BR TR

None      2 15  1 13  5  9

1 (left) 10  0 17  5 13  0

2        15  3  8  2  9  8

3         8 10  3  9  9  4

4         9 11  5  4  2 11

5 (right) 1  5  9 11  7 10

(How to read that table: B stands for "bottom", T for "top", L for "left", M for "middle", and R for "right". For example, "BL" stands for "bottom left"; the item in the bottom left corner of the initial display has been in no bag 2 times, bag #1 10 times, bag #2 15 times, and so on.)

Strategy

Know the prices. This game may be the purest test of grocery pricing the show has. That said, the first two bags are always set up to be easy--the first bag is usually the obviously cheapest item and the second bag is usually the obviously most expensive item. Sometimes, they're even nice enough to make the third bag easy--it's often the obviously second-most expensive item. But bags 4 and 5 are where this game is won or lost, and there are no real patterns to suggest here, except maybe that the top left and top middle products are the most often to not be in any bag at all. That's not a very large sample size I have to work with, though, so use that fact with care. But if you know your grocery prices, $16,000 is yours!