Coles collectibles set social media alight

Last month Coles supermarkets launched a campaign which offered customers one collectable little plastic replica of well known grocery items for every $30 spent in store.

Since then, social media has lit up with people trading the items and, in some cases, selling them for large amounts of money.

A quick search on eBay reveals individual collectibles are being sold for as little as a couple of dollars, full sets for up to $70 and a “rare Power Clean bottle” for $1000.

Bathurst mother Ms Mason has the full set of 30 collectibles and said the promotion had encouraged her to complete all her weekly shopping at Coles, rather than swapping between that and Woolworths.

And, while she did not pay for any online, she did trade.

“I’ve also did the animal and Disney cards from Woolies and I thought no it’s not happening again, but then I saw my niece collecting them and I thought they were really cute,” Ms Mason said.

She did acknowledge that it was good advertising for the brands included in the set.

“I’m OK with it because these products you have in your home everyday,” Ms Mason said.

Some people have claimed that the promotion was ill-timed following the retailer’s push for people to stop using single-use plastic bags.

However, Ms Mason said she was not planning on throwing them out and that “they might sit in my house for the next 20 years”.