David Ruprecht, the host, said the best way to win was to stock up on expensive health and beauty items, but few contestants ever used this strategy.
The runner ups were allowed to keep their sweaters they wore during the Big Sweep, but they were not allowed to keep the dickey that was worn with the sweater.
There was no refrigeration of any kind in the show's mock supermarket, and the same food was used for an entire season of tapings, making some of it smell and look quite bad by the end (particularly as a lot of it was repeatedly thrown into carts). Conversely, some of the perishable food items were not genuine.
Very early in the show's run during the "Big Sweep" there would be a guy who would dress up as a product & try to block shoppers from grabbing items. It would normally be 1 of the producers dressed up as "Mr. Yuck" or a can of "Raid". David would say, "Be careful because lurking out there somewhere is Mr. Yuck and he will try to block you from getting to the products." This aspect of the show was dropped early in the show's run because it proved to be too much of a distraction for contestants trying to win the "Big Sweep" & go for the $5000.
Careful camerawork kept it from being obvious, but the show's "supermarket" was actually quite small, only about four fully stocked aisles. In an online interview held years later, one former contestant quipped that "Bodega Sweep" would have been a more accurate (albeit less catchy) name for the show.