Thousands of people turned out at selected Coles stores across Australia on Saturday for the Coles Little Shop swap event.
The Coles Little Shop promotion features miniature replicas of 30 iconic household brands including Vegemite, Nutella and Weet-Bix.
For every $30 spent online or in-store at Coles, customers can receive one of these collectable items.
Thirty seven stores around the country invited customers to come together to swap items in order to reach the goal of a full set. Store reps were armed with tubs of mini items and customers were allowed to swap one-for-one.
Some stores experienced a huge influx of customers keen to add to their collections.
One Twitter user described the scenes at Coles Eastgardens swap day as “mayhem”.
@jasminetea tweeted, “Mayhem and crowd control at the Coles Eastgardens little shop swap day. Bystanders being told to “keep moving”. #coleslittleshop #littleshop “.
In a statement to Inside FMCG, a spokesperson for Coles said, “We are overjoyed with how many customers are collecting, swapping an sharing their minis and are engaging with their families, friends, neighbours and local communities. We know that fans of Little Shop are already swapping and sharing among themselves to complete their set.”
The supermarket giant is encouraging customers to build their own mini supermarkets with the collectable items and even offers instructions on how to do so.
Some customers and environmental groups have criticised the Little Shop toy giveaway as it is adding further plastic during a time when the supermarket giant was aiming to be more environmentally friendly.
The Little Shop promotion continues until Tuesday August 28.
