10 Items or Less (TV series)

Did You Know?

• The series was made available on Crackle in 2015.
• A blog posting in November 2009 stated the show had been cancelled and would not be picked up for a fourth season.
• The fictional supermarket Greens & Grains is located at 5th Street and Tiberius.

Characters

Leslie Pool runs Greens & Grains, the grocery store he took over when his father passed away. He’s the owner and manager, and his style is clueless but endearing. Across the street, Super Value Mart is the main rival. For the first two seasons, Amy Anderson managed it; she and Leslie went to high school together. In season three, Mercy P. Jones steps in as manager, fiercely competitive and dead set on shutting down Greens & Grains. The staff includes Ingrid Wakowski, a quiet customer service rep with a passion for Renaissance fairs. Yolanda Nelson runs the produce section with a no-nonsense attitude. Todd Sykes works as a butcher, but his real dream is NASCAR. Carl Dawson is the sweet, dim-witted stockboy who has a big crush on Yolanda. Richard Mednick is a dignified cashier who wants to be a professional figure skater. Buck Washington bags groceries while studying at night school to become a doctor.

Production

Each episode had a detailed script outlining the overall story arc, but the script was not shown to the actors; instead they received a loose outline of the plot, often learning about it as they filmed. All dialogue was improvised spontaneously on set, with a typical 22-minute episode edited down from roughly 30 hours of raw improvised material. John Lehr described the production style as similar to Spinal Tap. During the first season, the actors demanded to see the script, but after receiving it they collectively decided they did not want to see scripts again. The series was filmed in a real grocery store called Jon's in Reseda, California, often using actual customers as extras.