45 Days, $450,000: How a Grocery Store Endurance Challenge Ended
MrBeast ミスタービースト
Jimmy (MrBeast) buys an entire grocery store, puts a man named Alex inside, and offers him $10,000 in a grocery cart for every day he stays. With no fixed end date, the question is how long someone will stay when the money keeps coming but the cost is time away from home. Alex starts out talking about lasting years. The answer the video reaches is 45 days and $450,000.
The Rules and the Red Line
A red line is painted around the store's entire perimeter. If Alex crosses it, the challenge ends and he keeps whatever he has won so far. Jimmy notes that cameras cover "every square inch" of the store to make sure he stays inside. Because there is no cap, Jimmy says Alex could become a multimillionaire and in theory stay for years.
Alex is confident at first. After Jimmy leaves, he asks, "Why would I ever leave? I could be here for years." He claims a corner of the store as "home base" and cooks a steak for his first dinner, saying that with meals like that every night he would easily last years. On the first morning Jimmy brings the cash, Alex confirms it is $10,000, and the challenge is on.
The Twist: Paying for Each Day with Merchandise
After day one, Jimmy adds a twist. To receive each day's $10,000, Alex must give Jimmy $10,000 worth of products from the store. So Alex has to plan the order in which he gives up the store's contents. Items he can't use should go first, and the food he needs to survive should be kept as long as possible.
His first choice is the electronics section, because it is expensive and, in his words, "I can't really eat a TV." Then he starts planning ahead and sets aside pet food and pet supplies, which he swears Jimmy could never pay him to eat. On day two he sells about $10,000 of dog food. Scanning everything takes a long time, and Jimmy uses an editing transition ("Beast magic") to skip to the register. The total is $9,991.80 before the final item and $10,045 after it. Jimmy also says everything Alex sells will be donated to charity, so none of it goes to waste.
The Early Weeks: Efficiency and Building a Home
The narration says the next several days were "kind of a breeze." On day five Alex sells produce because it will spoil quickly. On day six he sells diapers, and on days seven through nine he clears out another $30,000 in products. He also finds the store's back room, and since he hasn't showered in 10 days, he builds a makeshift shower and laundry system there.
Around day 10, Jimmy asks how far Alex thinks he will go. Alex answers, "I feel like 100 days for sure." Jimmy says this could become the most expensive video they've ever made, but that they're ready for it: "I don't care if you go a year, I got the money." When Alex sells more TVs, Jimmy jokingly asks whether he emptied the boxes, filled them with rocks, and kept the TVs. Alex answers "dogs," which doesn't address the question, and Jimmy decides to trust him anyway.
By day 11, Jimmy says, Alex has gotten good at picking items that land just over the target, such as $10,001.89. Jimmy leaves to shoot a separate video stranded on an island, and someone called "The Money Man" delivers the cash in the meantime. With $100,000 in hand, Alex says he can definitely reach a million.
To pass the time, Alex builds a wall out of cheese balls ("the great wall of cheese balls"). On day 13 he rebuilds his shower, using four store shelves for support and draping plastic liner over them to make waterproof walls, and it works when he tests it. Jimmy remarks that he has built a working shower "out of just raw store parts." Alex then uses every bottle of water in the store to build walls for a shelter, and makes a bed from all the toilet paper, which he describes as cozy.
He also starts selling higher-priced, low-volume items. Gift cards and greeting cards turn out to be expensive enough that he reaches $10,000 using only cards.
The Forklift and the Cardboard Jimmy
When Jimmy gets back from the island, Alex asks for help getting the forklift from the back room onto the sales floor. They bring it in, and over the next few days the narration says his efficiency went "through the roof." The time this frees up goes into upgrading his bed again.
Alex also sets up a cardboard cutout of Jimmy and says it will watch over him and make sure he doesn't lose count while scanning. Jimmy jokes that this must mean Alex misses him.
Revising the Goal: From a Million to $500,000
Alex's original target was $1 million, and he says once more, "I think we're going for a mil on this one." Jimmy replies, "I hope not." But as Alex writes down what he would spend the money on, he concludes he may not need to stay that long.
He explains why. A million dollars is nice in theory, but he is missing time with his sons. Both of their birthdays are within the next two months, and he says he has never missed one. After thinking about how he wants to use the money, he decides he needs at least $500,000. At this point he has $200,000, so he calculates 50 days in total and says he is almost halfway there.
On day 22 he sells every bag of Goldfish crackers in the store, $10,000 worth, enough by his description to feed "an army of toddlers." When Jimmy says he's getting paid $10,000 a day to miss his family, Alex agrees. The edit then repeats "however long you want" several times to show the days blurring together. Alex eventually sells the water he used for the shelter walls. Since the empty metal shelving can't be sold, he uses it to reinforce his home instead.
Day 30: A Family Visit
Jimmy then tells the audience that when they bought the store, they stopped paying the electricity bill, so the power could go out at any point, taking the freezers and lights with it. Before that happens, they decide Alex has earned a reward.
To mark 30 days, Jimmy brings in Alex's partner Sarah and their children. Jimmy says he felt bad after hearing the day before how much Alex missed his family, so they get to spend the day together. The kids ask about the boxes on the floor, Alex shows them a race car track he made out of cardboard, and they ask whether the car can actually be ridden. When they leave, Alex says it was amazing to see them, that the kids looked different, and that at their age they change week to week. He is looking forward to going home and spending time with his family.
The Power Cut
The next morning the lights are off. Alex finds a flashlight, wonders whether it's a joke, and says, "Houston, we have a problem." Jimmy explains that when they bought the store they got a form to transfer the utilities into their name and simply never filled it out. Only the cameras and cash registers run on a generator, since the production needs them.
Alex had $60,000 worth of products ready to sell, but with the freezers down, his plans change. He switches to selling the frozen food, especially the meat, before it spoils. Chandler from the crew works a register for the first time, and Jimmy helps scan the meat. Jimmy then announces a week-long trip to Africa to film a video building 100 wells. Alex spends the rest of the day rushing to sell the frozen food so it can be donated.
The Lowest Point
Jimmy says the power outage hit Alex much harder than expected. Alex calls the store a wasteland, opens the loading dock door in the back, and says the daylight and fresh air will get him through "the dark days."
On day 36 he has $360,000. He says, "Why stop now?" and keeps loading carts, but also says he is just waiting for the days to pass. He calls being close to the red line the most exciting part of his day, describes himself as "a sad, old miserable boy," and says nothing in his life has been sadder than living in a grocery store. He says only the line stands between him and his wife and kids, and that with the lights off and the line so close, the temptation to leave grows every day.
While digging through pallets in the back he hasn't touched yet, he finds five battery lanterns. With all of them lit, he says he can actually hang out in the space again. When Jimmy brings the next $10,000, Alex says it's strange to have all this money and nothing to do with it except look at it. Jimmy says they'll bring in lights, but only "for filming purposes."
The Pool and the Forklift Accident
Alex spends a day clearing out shelves with the forklift. In the newly opened space he sets up a pool he found in the back and fills it with a hose. When Jimmy returns after more than a week, the crew has refused to say what happened, and Jimmy is surprised at how different the store looks. Alex says they did "a little remodeling." Jimmy and Alex get into the cold pool together.
Afterward, Alex is tired and moving pallets with the forklift when he turns one way and the forklift goes the opposite direction, puncturing the pool. Water floods into his living area and across the store, and he says a lot of products are ruined. He says, "Dude, I'm done, man. I just want to leave."
When Jimmy and the crew come in, they find him in bed and say he looks like a defeated man. Asked how many weeks he has left, he says he's taking it day by day and agrees he would leave immediately if he found a spider in his bed. Jimmy predicts he doesn't have many days left. When Alex asks if they want to hang out for a bit, they turn him down, saying "You're depressing." The video then shows before-and-after comparisons of the store.
Day 44: Alone
On day 44, as it gets dark outside, Jimmy still hasn't come. Alex has stuff to sell and waits, saying it's really lonely and that maybe they forgot. When the money finally arrives, no person brings it in, and he complains that they couldn't even send a human. He says that not even Jimmy wants to come by because the place is so depressing, adds that he can't really blame him, and says he misses his family badly.
On day 45, Chandler describes Alex as completely bored, tapping a bat on the ground. Jimmy says they would feel bad for him, except he has won $450,000 and can leave whenever he wants.
The Decision to Leave
Jimmy tells Alex they've been watching on the cameras and he looks very sad, then hands over another $10,000. Alex says it helps a little. Asked how many weeks he has left, he says he isn't sure he has even an hour left. Jimmy shows him the pile of cash, $450,000, and then brings in Sarah as a surprise.
Alex shows Sarah the list of things the money will go toward. He says he could probably do another five days, and asks whether it's worth it. They weigh it: keep earning more, or keep what he has already won. Alex concludes, "Honestly, it's not worth staying," and decides to leave.
When Jimmy pushes the money cart toward the red line, he reminds Alex that stepping on it ends the challenge, but they can still put the money back and keep going. Alex jokes, "bring it back in," then says "just kidding" and crosses the line. He spent 45 days in the store and left with $450,000. That is short of the $500,000 he had set for himself, and the deciding factor in the end was time with his family, not the money.
I just bought this entire grocery store, which includes enough food to literally feed an entire city. And then I decided to trap this random guy inside. And every day you live here, I will give you $10,000 in a grocery cart.
That's wild, dude. Let's go. Well, I'll give it to you in 24 hours. Okay.
This challenge could literally make Alex a multimillionaire, which in theory means he could be in here for years. And it starts right now.
All right, Jimmy's gone. Why would I ever leave? I could be here for years. Time to go grocery shopping, baby.
Now, if Alex crosses this red line that we painted around the entire perimeter of the grocery store, the challenge is over, and he walks away with his current winnings. And to make sure he stays inside, it's worth noting here that we have countless cameras covering every square inch of the grocery store.
For my first meal on night one, I guess I'll cook this steak. I think this is just going to be home base, this little corner of the grocery store. If I have meals like this every night, I'll easily be here for years. Day one, complete. See you in the morning.
Alex. Hey. Can you feel this and confirm it's $10,000? It is. I believe you.
Now, we introduced the twist of the challenge. Basically, to receive the daily $10,000, you need to give me $10,000 in product from the store. And so you have to strategize what order to get rid of these items to stay here as long as possible.
Okay. Conveniently, there's a lot of electronics over there that are pretty expensive for day one. That's probably a good idea. I can't really eat a TV, so it's no use to me.
All right. Here's your cash. I will see you tomorrow with another $10,000 in cash. You should start strategizing what you're going to sell me.
This changes everything. I got to start strategizing for the future. I have to figure out all of the stuff that I need to get rid of. Pet food, pet items. Jimmy cannot pay me to eat this stuff, I swear. I got $10,000 worth of dog food right here. I think I'm just going to get some rest, wake up early, because I'm going to have to prep more items tomorrow. I got a lot of work ahead of me.
Alex. What's up, Jimmy? Is that what you're selling to me today? Today it's dog food. Oh, my gosh. It's going to take us forever to move. Wait, can we do like a... I let him clap. Transition, go for it. There we go. It's all over here at the register. Isn't that a cool effect? I love Beast magic.
We're at $9,991.80, and for the final item, we are now at $10,045. And something you should know: every single item Alex sells to me, we're literally going to donate to charity. So don't worry, none of this is going to go to waste.
The next few days were kind of a breeze for Alex. On day five, he sold me $10,000 worth of produce. All this produce here, they're going to go bad very fast. On day six, he sold me a bunch of diapers. And on days seven, eight and nine, he cleared out an additional $30,000 worth of products. He even discovered the backroom of the store, and since he hasn't showered in 10 days, he built his very own makeshift shower and laundry system.
Hey, how's it going? What's up, Jimmy? All right, as of now, give me an honest answer. How far do you think you're going to go? I feel like 100 days for sure. Oh, boy.
Depending on how long Alex lasts, this may just become my most expensive video ever, but I'm prepared for that.
I don't care if you go a year, I got the money. Who put all this in here, is what I want to know? The bank. You will get this once I get my $10,000 in items.
All right, today I have more TVs. Who goes to a grocery store to buy a TV? Why are these here? Now, Alex, be honest with me. Did you empty out any of these TV boxes, fill them with rocks and keep the TV? Dogs. All right. I trust him, even though that was not what I was asking.
Approaching day 11, Alex began to get pretty efficient at picking which items to sell. $10,001.89. And since I had to leave to go film a video where I stranded myself on an island... This is not comfortable. But let's pray we get like 30 minutes of sleep tonight. We had someone else drop off the money for Alex. We call him "The Money Man."
It's "The Money Man." Thank you, sir. $100,000. I can definitely reach a million.
And what he did with the rest of his time to keep himself entertained was interesting. I am building a cheese ball wall. It's done. The great wall of cheese balls.
On day 13, Alex decided to upgrade his shower. I'm taking it down, folks. What I'm going to do is use four of these shelves to reinforce the shower. Okay, here we go. I am going to use plastic liner, drape it across here. The walls are waterproof now.
All right, you got to give it to him. This man is literally constructing a functioning shower out of just raw store parts. And there it is. Shower's done. Time to test it.
Okay. It's been a few days in here. I'm going to build a wall. Now, I never thought I'd see this, but Alex literally used all the water bottles in the entire store to build walls for his makeshift shelter. He even created a bed using all of the toilet paper, and it looked kind of comfortable. This is pretty cozy. I could fall asleep right here.
I got to get to scanning. Kind of had my eyes on these bad boys for a while. Gift cards. These things are freaking expensive. It is actually surprising how expensive birthday cards are, because Alex was able to hit his $10,000 mark only using the cards.
And after I got back from filming at the island... Hey, Jimmy. Hey, it's been a while. Alex wanted to see if we could help him use the forklift in the back of the store. If you could get it in the store, that'd be super helpful.
All right. Not the bakery. Yeah. Hey, it's in. Yes! Enjoy your forklift. We'll see you tomorrow.
Even though it's only been a day since he last saw me, it seemed like Alex really started to miss me. At least that's the only explanation I have for what he's about to do.
I saw this cutout of Jimmy over here. We're going to be hanging out a lot, you and I. He's just going to watch, make sure I don't lose count. Just scanning away for another 10K. $10,000.33.
Over the next few days, Alex's efficiency was through the roof, thanks to his new forklift. So he even had enough time to upgrade his bed, and it was quite the improvement. It's so much better.
And even though Alex's original goal was to get a million dollars... I think we're going for a mil on this one. I hope not. He started documenting what he'd spend the money on and came to realize maybe he didn't need to stay as long as he thought.
A million dollars is nice in theory. I'm still missing out on time with my boys. Both their birthdays are coming up in the next two months. I've never missed a birthday yet. So after thinking about what I want to put the money toward, I realized that I need to at least make $500,000. But right now, I only have $200,000. So in total, I got 50 days I got to be in here. Almost halfway there.
On day 22, Alex decided to absolutely decimate all the Goldfish in the grocery store. Oh, my God. Okay, so this is $10,000 worth of Goldfish. I could feed an army of toddlers.
All right. Thank you, sir. You're living a regular life now. Almost. You're getting paid ten grand a day to miss your family. Yeah. And you can just do this however long you want. Yeah. And you can just do this however long you want. However long you want. However long you want.
As you can see, the days started blending together for Alex. But eventually, the day came where he decided to sell the water that he originally used for his shelter. But since he couldn't sell the empty shelves in the store, he realized they make pretty good walls. I'm going to reinforce the house with metal shelves. This is the way.
As you can see, Alex is feeling pretty at home now. But what he doesn't know is when I bought this grocery store, I stopped paying the electricity bill. So at any point now, all the power's going to cut off, and his freezers won't work, the lights won't work, and so much more. The challenge is going to get way harder. But to give him some motivation before things get pretty crazy, we thought Alex deserved a reward.
Are you excited to see your dad? Yes. You ready to do this? Yeah. I think he might literally cry. This is gonna be crazy.
Alex, we have a surprise for you. Hello. Oh, my babies! We brought some special guests. Hi, buddy! Yesterday, you were telling me about how much you miss your family. I felt kind of bad. So to celebrate 30 days, we're going to let you spend the day with them.
What are you doing? You crazy boy. Daddy, I need to go pee. What's happening with all the boxes on the floor? I made a race car track. Is that the car? Yeah. Wait, can he ride that? What do you think, dude? There they are.
I can't believe that you guys are here. I know. Dada. Come here. Today, I got to see Sarah and the boys. It was amazing. And Sarah was as beautiful as ever. I love you. I love you. Bye. Bye, buddy, I love you.
Heartbreak. When I saw my kids, they looked different to me. At that age, they grow weekly. I just look forward to going back home, spending time with my family.
What's up? I better get up and start scanning stuff now. We're gonna... What the heck? Why are the lights off? What are these shenanigans? There's a flashlight. Is this some kind of joke? Houston, we have a problem. Did you do this, sir?
Knock, knock. This is so much creepier. My power's out, Jimmy. Yes, so when I bought this grocery store, they gave me a form to put the utilities in my name, and I just never filled it out. The cameras and cash registers are hooked up to a generator because we need those. So what am I looking at over here?
Okay, so I had originally $60,000 ready to go. Oh, my gosh. But I assumed now that the power went out... You're going to sell the frozen stuff... Yeah. Things have changed. We need to get to scanning. Let's get rid of these hot meats.
Chandler, have you ever been a cashier before? Wait, did you double scan that? I'm going to go help them scan some meat. All right, here's our meat receipt. Here's your ten grand. Thank you for the meat. Oh, by the way, Alex, I'm going to Africa for a week.
At this point, I once again had to leave to go film a video in Africa where I built a hundred wells. Well number one is a success. Alex spent the rest of his day rushing to get all the frozen food sold so it can be donated.
Guess I'll just be scanning stuff in the dark from now on. I really hope Jimmy turns the power on. I'm not going to lie.
Being left without power affected Alex way more than I thought it would. I guess the food wasn't the only thing getting checked out.
This store is turning into a wasteland. So I'm going to the back. I'm going to open up this dock door and let some daylight hit my face, breathe in some fresh air, because this is not going to do it. It's so nice. This right here will get me through the dark days.
It is day 36. I got $360,000. Why stop now? Got to keep loading these carts up. Got a lot of food to get through. Just carts and pools of money. And waiting, waiting for the days to go by.
The most exciting part of my day is being this close to the red line. I'm just a sad, old miserable boy back here. Nothing's ever been sadder in my life, except living in a grocery store. Coffee, food, and a lot of money. I'm way ahead on checkouts still. I don't want to do anything, there's nothing to do.
All that stands between me, my wife, my kids is this line right here. The lights being off, being this close to the red line, realizing I can go see my family. It's super tempting every day now.
I know there's a bunch of pallets back there still that I haven't even dug into. Some glasses. Ice packs. What the... Look what I just found. InstaStart QuickPack lantern. Nice. I got five of them. I just lit them all up. They're on full blast right now. It definitely lights up the entire space really well. I feel like I can actually hang out in here again.
Alex, are you here? Another 10K? Yeah. Let's go, dude. It's crazy I have all this money. But there's nothing I can do with this money while I'm in here, except just look at it. Well, you can't look at it. It's so dark in here. So I'm going to bring some lights in. Are you serious? For filming purposes. All right.
What are you going to do for the rest of the time you're in here? Something I definitely want to do is go ahead and just run through all these shelves with the forklift. What is going on?
After spending an entire day cleaning up, Alex took advantage of the newly opened space to set up a pool he found in the back. Off we go. I'm going to drag the hose out here, stick it in this pool, and sometime tomorrow we'll have a grocery swimming pool.
It's been over a week, and Chandler won't tell me what happened while I was gone. This place looks completely different. Oh God, open the doors. I got to see this. Where did everything go? We did a little remodeling while you were gone. Everything makes sense now.
Can you show me the pool? Yeah, you want to get in? Do you wear socks? Yeah. That's crazy. It's freezing. Cannonball. What do you typically do in the pool? I just kind of float around. This was fun and all, but I think we should check out. Thanks for the groceries. Enjoy your pool.
All right, I'm just going to grab everything from the back and just put it up here, organize it. And who knows? Maybe there's some fun in there.
It's no secret at this point, Alex was pretty tired, and while he was making his rounds in the forklift, something unexpected happened.
No! No! Oh God! Dude! No! Oh my God. I was trying to turn one way, and it just went the opposite direction. Oh, my God. This is soaking wet right now. There's a bunch of products ruined. It's so deep right here. It's in my space. It's all over the grocery store. Dude, I'm done, man. I just want to leave.
We're going in. Alex! Buddy. Why is it so wet in here? Yeah. Oh, Alex. Your golden chariot awaits you. Look at you in bed. You good, dog? I'm all right, man. You look like a defeated man. Yeah, I busted the pool. How does one bust a pool?
So I was driving by to drop off some pallets, and I tried to turn, and it just turned the complete opposite way. I was like, "No!" So all this got wet?
How many more weeks do you have left? Weeks? I'm just taking it day by day right now. Depends how much longer I can go. So if you just see a spider in your bed tomorrow, you're leaving? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. I don't think he has many days left. This is ending soon. You guys want to come hang out for a little bit? Heck no. You're depressing.
This is what the store looked like when Alex started the challenge. And this is what it looks like now.
So day 44. It's almost dark outside. Jimmy hasn't come by today. I have stuff I need to sell. I'm just going to move this stuff to the back. Hopefully somebody brings me the $10,000 today. Maybe they just forgot or something. It's really lonely in here. I'm just going to go sit in my chair till they bring me some money.
Yo, what? Are you serious? Are you there, Jimmy? It's the first interaction I get all day. You can't even send me a human? Thanks for the money.
Not even Jimmy wants to come here for a minute. That's how depressing this place is now. Can't say I blame him, honestly. This sucks, man. God, I miss my family so bad.
It's day 45. And Chandler, how would you say he's doing? That is complete boredom. He's just tapping the bat on the ground. I would feel bad for him, except he's won $450,000, and he can leave whenever he wants, so he'll be fine.
Alex. Hey. We were watching you on the cameras. You looked very sad. Yeah, I'm pretty bored. Well, here's $10,000. So are you less bored? Helps a little. How many weeks left you got? Well, I don't even know if I got an hour left, Jimmy.
Really? Here, let's go look at your sea of money over here. This is all the money you've made so far. 450 grand. Are you saying you're content with it? Give me one second. I've got a surprise that might help you decide.
What? Are you serious? Hey, babe. What the heck? Don't cry. I can't help it. Okay. Why aren't you wearing your shoes? And your shirt? To be clear, I didn't take his shoes. I don't know why he's not wearing shoes. These are all the things that this money's going to go toward.
Isn't this crazy? I can't even wrap my head around it. I feel like I could do another five days. Do you think it's worth it?
What's the verdict? We've weighed the options. Make tons of money. Keep tons of money already made. Honestly, it's not worth staying and I’m leaving.
Okay, then let's push the money out.
All right, Alex, the second you step on the red, it's over. I can move all the money back. We can keep going. It's your decision.
All right, bring it back in. Okay, bring it back in. Just kidding. Let's go!
Alex spent 45 days in the store and walked away with $450,000. Congratulations, Alex. I'm going to go find him a shirt.
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