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'Dastardly': Dad's furious post blasting Coles for mini collectables

An angry dad has taken to Facebook to vent his fury over having to collect Coles Little Shop collectables for his little girl.

Father-of-two Greg Hughes, who blogs on the page Dad Minus One, has labelled the Coles marketing team as a “cunning group of evil geniuses” and said he’s been left in “the depths of despair”.

Mr Hughes wrote that the moment he saw the advertisement for the Coles Little Shop collectables, he told his wife: “Not in this household. No way. No how”.

Greg Hughes, who blogs on the page Dad Minus One, has labelled the Coles marketing team as a ‘cunning group of evil geniuses’ over the Coles Little Shop campagin. Source: Facebook/ Dad Minus One
Greg Hughes, who blogs on the page Dad Minus One, has labelled the Coles marketing team as a ‘cunning group of evil geniuses’ over the Coles Little Shop campagin. Source: Facebook/ Dad Minus One

“Then it happened,” he wrote.

“A relative ‘kindly’ handed over several packs of the minis she’d been holding onto and bam! My daughter is obsessed. Schoolyard trading begins and her collection grows with minimal effort.

“I’m suddenly being encouraged and marketed to by my six-year-old personal shopper that ‘We should go to Coles, I think we need some shopping’.”

The father wrote he decided to do the “only rational thing” and try to help her complete the collection as soon as possible so he can “stop hearing” about Coles.

“Trouble is, the stakes are getting higher and the other day I hit rock bottom when, like some kind of ultra-shady unit, I found myself scoping out the self-serve counter in the hopes someone had left their collectables behind,” Mr Hughes wrote.

“Some people (clearly parents) looked at me with pity. Some looked at me with disgust. Others looked at me thinking ‘why is a 32-year-old man attempting to collect children’s toys?’”

The Coles mini collectables include a Nutella jar, Weetbix and Vegemite. Source: Coles
The Coles mini collectables include a Nutella jar, Weetbix and Vegemite. Source: Coles

Mr Hughes’s daughter has eight left to collect and is concerned he won’t be able to deliver.

“I look at the graveyard of mini laundry detergents, water bottles and Tim Tams and think to myself that this is what my life has become,” he wrote.

“Just a man surrounded suspiciously with miniature plastic shopping items.”

The 32-year-old labelled the campaign as “dastardly brilliant” but begged Coles to “never, ever, ever do something like this again”.

“You don’t know anxiety until you’ve experienced the tense emotion associated with caressing a packet in the hopes you’ve found the coveted mini-Milo tin or if you’ve just been cursed by the dreaded mini laundry detergent of doom for the 18th time,” the father wrote.

Coles supermarkets to host Little Shop promotion swap days around Australia
Coles has copped criticism over its introduction of the collectables after banning single-use plastic bags. Source: Coles

Mr Hughes’s post has drawn the sympathy of many parents, with some even adding advice and offering to swap doubles.

“Let me know what you need,” one woman wrote. “I’m happy to post any we have to your gorgeous girl.”

The collectables have been source of much furore and obsession since being released.

Earlier this week, Sunshine Coast man Tyson Jones was left outraged after finding a plastic Coles Little Shop Mini Collectable washed up on Buddina Beach at Point Cartwright while walking his dog.

“As usual I collected any signs of plastic and fishing material along the high tide line when I came across the Coles product,” Mr Jones told Yahoo7.

“When I first heard about the promotion I thought to myself, how long would it be before these items started ending up in our ocean and surely enough in no time I was picking one off my local beach.”

Coles was criticised last month over its continued use of plastic by introducing 30 miniature versions of everyday supermarket products on the back of its ban on single-use plastic bags.

Coles has been contacted for comment.