R2,000 for a little pink trolley

Shoprite Checkers’ latest Little Shop promotion has been an enormous success, with the mini collectables selling out in roughly six weeks.

The promo has also spawned a big secondhand market where customers are reselling and trading the collectables online.

At the time of publication, sellers were listing the individual collectables at prices ranging from R25 to R2,000.

Checkers ran its first Little Shop promotion in 2013, rewarding customers who spent a minimum amount with a random free mini collectable of common household items sold at its stores.

While initially made to appeal to children, adults have seemingly also joined in on the craze.

The latest Little Shop promo started on 23 September 2024. It required customers to spend R200 to get a random collectable, with up to 10 minis per shop.

For the first time, shoppers also had to be members of the Checkers Xtra Savings rewards programme to get the collectables.

This year’s collectables included 44 miniature items from well-known brands like All Gold, Oros, Sunlight, Sixty60, and Showmax.

To ensure these would not add extra plastic waste to the environment, the items were all made from 100% recyclable materials sourced from refrigerators, washing machines, safety goggles, water bottles, and plastic bags.

Some of the collectables feature scratch-and-smell or glow-in-the-dark.

As an additional incentive, Checkers ran a competition wherein customers who bought any of the participating brands got entered into a draw for a 7-night cruise on the Icon of the Seas.

Shoprite told MyBroadband that the Little Shop Mini stock started running low two weeks ago, and all stores had completely run out this week.

Customers with unwanted or duplicate minis are able to hand them into a store for recycling or donation to occupational therapists and charities.

The retailer is even holding swop days for those customers who are missing certain collectables.

The trolley controversy

One particular mini that has been highly sought-after in this year’s promotion is the pink Discovery Vitality trolley.

Numerous listings on online secondhand marketplaces like Bob Shop, Yaga, and Facebook Marketplace had it selling for anywhere between R300 and R2,000 in recent weeks.

Charity and animal rescue organisations have also auctioned off the collectables for thousands of rand to fund their operations.

South African Reddit users expressed disbelief at people being willing to pay the high price for the trolley.

Some were poking fun at the craze. One user said he had seen someone offer a trolley to trade for a Toyota Hilux.

Commenting on another Reddit user’s post saying he had gotten two of the trolleys, another user asked “Have you decided where you will be retiring?”

“Your only problems forthwith will be ‘Lamborghin or Ferrari?” a second user said.

Others believed the offers were put up in jest and suspected that some of the listings were Discovery employing clever marketing tricks.

MyBroadband asked Shoprite whether the collectables were distributed in different quantities.

Although it noted the demand for the trolley was similar to the “elusive” golden trolley in the second Little Shop, the retailer did not state whether it had fewer of certain collectables.

Therefore, it is impossible to know whether the high asking price of the pink trolley was justified based on its rarity or if it was driven purely by consumer perception.

Another factor that may have contributed to its high secondhand price is that Discovery was running a concurrent campaign that earned its customers a draw into a competition for a photo with the trolley.

Discovery Vitality members could win one of two R8,300 Discovery Miles prizes every week from 1 October 2024 to 12 November 2024.

Whether the trolly’s value was reflective of its scarcity or not, the campaign seems to have been another success story for Shoprite, whose clever marketing and store strategies have seen the retailer dominate its main rivals in recent years.

The retailer’s strong share price, which has climbed 130% over the past five years, is a testament to this.