The original version of "Supermarket Sweep" premiered in beautiful black and white on ABC on December 20, 1965, at 11:00 A.M. Eastern time.
The rules were more or less the same as described above. The major difference was that, instead of taking place in a TV studio disguised as a supermarket, it was taped in actual supermarkets in various cities around the United States, many of them belonging to Food Fair. The promotion didn't seem to help; that chain has been out of business for years. Maybe they lost too much money having to close down their stores so the contestants could run around unimpeded by actual shoppers.
In addition to the actual game, host Bill Malone would also take time out to interview a local celebrity, such as a restaurant owner or a beauty queen.
Still in monochrome and therefore unable to show off product labels to full advantage, the last episode aired Friday, July 14, 1967. On Monday the 17th, Bill Malone was back in the same time slot with a very similar game show called "Honeymoon Race," so it looked like it was all over for "Supermarket Sweep" until it reappeared on the Lifetime channel with host David Ruprecht on February 5, 1990, and the rest is history.
For some reason, the Museum of Broadcast Communications in downtown Chicago has a bunch of episodes of the original "Supermarket Sweep" available for viewing. So if you ever run out of tourist attractions while in the Windy City, you can go and see what the inside of a supermarket in your hometown looked like in the 1960s.