An unexpected wrinkle has developed in U.S. 24-hour Wal-Mart mega-stores, with college students spending late hours playing games with merchandise.

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Citing one incident in Flagstaff, Ariz, the Wall Street Journal told of Northern Arizona University freshmen traveling in groups of six to play a game called "10 in 10."

The captains of the two teams each spend 10 minutes putting 10 items into a shopping cart. The carts are turned over to the opposing team, which has to return the items to the shelves where they belong in a store stocked with more than 100,000 different items. The first team back to the checkout counters with an empty cart is declared the winner, the newspaper said.

Students at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., play a version called "A-Z," in which the team that first finds an item for every letter of the alphabet wins.

Mona Williams, a corporate spokesman at Wal-Mart, said the college competitions were news to her, and mused the company just might use scavenger hunts itself to train stock clerks.