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Coles relaunched its Little Shop promotion with 30 new mini-replicas, despite continued criticism from environmental advocacy groups about plastic waste.
The promotion contributed to the company's record growth when it took place in 2018.
The new line of mini-replicas includes Arnott's Barbecue Shapes, a Coles gift card, Campbell tomato soup, Eclipse foundations, Chobani Greek yogurt, Vegemite and Heinz bacon beans. Buyers will receive one toy for every $ 30 spent.
The Little Shop toys were immensely popular at the last launch, with Facebook exchange groups set up to allow people to exchange the items. Some of the rarest Little Shop items sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. But the customers quickly got tired of the toys and the prices quickly fell on Ebay, because the people started to give the toys, even to throw them.
Distinctive Options, a non-profit disability support organization that has collected unwanted toys from Little Shop to use as communication aids for people and programs, said earlier this year that the organization was flooded of toys.
Distinctive options had to post on Facebook to tell people to stop sending the toys.
The toys were then discovered by environmental groups cleaning beaches and water courses. A Nutella toy from Little Shop was also found on a Bali beach, though it was more likely that he was stopped by a person carrying him from Australia rather than being beached.
This promotion follows that of Stikeez in February, consisting of 24 plastic fruit or vegetable toys designed to encourage children to eat healthy.
At the time of Stikeez's promotion, Jayne Paramor, badistant director of the Boomerang Alliance environmental waste activists, said the rapid succession of campaigns showed that there was not much longevity in the toys.
"[Coles] have once again put profits before sustainable development, using these "collectibles" to bring consumers to their stores, regardless of the environmental impact of this plastic tattoo on the way to landfill ", she said.
A Coles spokesman told Guardian Australia that a poll conducted by the supermarket had revealed that 96% of customers who were recovering minis still owned them and that the packaging could be recycled.
"The campaign lasts only for a limited time and customers can recycle packaging at their nearest Coles through our in-store RedCycle program. For Coles online deliveries, collectible mini-packages can be returned to the driver and recycled via our RedCycle program. "
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