# "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores"
"You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores" is a scripted line delivered by a rotating cast of amateur actors at the Sarantos Studio of Acting in Oak Park, Illinois, which surfaced online in 2010 as a montage of awkward auditions. The clip spread through Reddit's r/cringe and BuzzFeed between 2013 and 2014, and by 2017 it inspired lip-sync parodies set to Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda."
## Origin
The audition took place at the Sarantos Studio of Acting in Oak Park, Illinois, which runs the ActingClassSarantos YouTube account used to showcase student demos[3]. On May 1st, 2010, YouTube user Architect posted the earliest known excerpt titled "The Billy Smith Post," which later passed 300,000 views[3].
A longer compilation of the same session was uploaded on February 4th, 2014, by a YouTuber credited as Josh, under the title "you could stop and five or six stores"[3]. That version pulled in millions of views and became the one most people quote and link to when discussing the audition[4].
- **Platform:** YouTube (origin) / Reddit (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Sarantos Studio of Acting
- **Date:** 2010
## Overview
The clip is an audition reel in which a parade of hopeful actors try, and mostly flub, a single commercial tagline about comparison shopping at retail stores[3]. Deliveries range from flat and confused to wildly overacted, with long pauses, strange gestures, and off-camera cues bleeding into frame, which is what turned a routine studio demo into cringe entertainment[1].
Online reuse tends to focus on the awkwardness itself rather than the phrase's meaning. Side lines from the same session, including "Can I ask you kind of a weird question" and "I can't stand it when she touches me," became their own search terms on YouTube and Reddit[3]. The montage format also gave remixers raw material to cut against music, most visibly in a 2014 edit that syncs the actors' mouths to Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda"[2].
## How to Use
People typically quote the line verbatim, often with the misspelled "stop and five or six stores" phrasing from the 2014 upload title. Reaction posts pair screenshots of individual actors mid-delivery with captions about shopping, indecision, or bad takes. Remixers also cut the montage against songs so the actors appear to lip-sync, as the "Anaconda" parody did in 2014[2].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores"?
A scripted line from a commercial audition at the Sarantos Studio of Acting in Oak Park, Illinois, delivered awkwardly by a long rotation of actors in a montage reel that spread on YouTube starting in 2010[3].
### Where did "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores" come from?
The earliest excerpt was uploaded on May 1st, 2010, by YouTube user Architect, and a longer compilation went up on February 4th, 2014, by YouTuber Josh[3][4].
### What does "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores" mean?
In the script, the line is a pitch about comparison shopping at multiple retail stores, but the actual commercial it was for is unknown, which is part of why the audition reel baffled viewers[1].
### How do you use "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores"?
People quote the line, share screenshots of the actors' awkward deliveries, or remix the footage against music, as in the "my anaconda could stop at five or six stores" lip-sync edit[2].
### Is "You Could Stop at Five or Six Stores" still popular?
It is a classic cringe clip on YouTube, with the main uploads holding millions of combined views by 2017 and related phrases like "I can't stand it when she touches me" still searched on their own[3].
## References
1. [https://sobadsogood.com/2014/03/04/can-someone-anyone-please-explain-this-ridiculous-video/]()
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZMQ5bNs4C0]()
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-could-stop-at-five-or-six-stores]()
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuCjn_A44pY]()
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Source: https://meme.com/memes/you-could-stop-at-five-or-six-stores
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