Star Wars display at Coles praised by shoppers and fans

A PHOTO posted to a supermarket’s Facebook page of a table of Imperial mandarins topped by Star Wars decorations in a Brisbane store has been praised by shoppers and fans.

COULD these mandarins be the fruit we have been looking for?

A photo posted to a supermarket’s Facebook page of a table of Imperial mandarins topped by balloons and Star Wars decorations in a Brisbane store has proven popular overnight.

Andrew Sparke, 28, of Carina, posted the photo to the Coles Facebook page about 6pm Wednesday, with the caption “Hi Coles, just letting you know your produce manager at Rode Rd (Stafford Heights, QLD) needs a pay rise!”

By Thursday, the photo had already received 14,000 likes, 1,600 comments, 1441 shares and was rapidly growing.

The Star Wars display at Brisbane Coles store. Picture: Andrew Sparke

The photo shows a sign saying “The Imperial is back” and listing the imperial mandarins for $2.50.

A large Darth Vader and Stormtrooper toy stand among the fruit, with a background of black and orange balloons and one large Darth Vader balloon floating above the lot.

The Coles social media team responded saying they “always love to see the creativity of our team members”.

Mr Sparke responded with: “Yes, the force is definitely strong with this one.”

Mr Sparke told The Courier-Mail the display caught his eye when he stopped into the store on Wednesday.

“My entire family are Star Wars fans, so I sent it to them and they thought it was amazing,” he said.

“So then I thought I’d let Coles know.”

Mr Sparke said he had to turn his phone off as thousands of notifications started to make his phone beep.

“It’s a great display and obviously more people think like I do than I realised,” he said.

“I have not seen anything like it. I actually bought some mandarins on the way out.”

The Coles social media team soon started to win the votes of those coming to look at the photo, by responding to many posts by using popular Star-Wars-esque quotes.

Brendan Richards wrote “To anyone who doesn’t get this...I find your lack of humour disturbing.”

The Coles Facebook team replied with “Good, good...Let the humour flow through you.”

When Bec Muscat tagged friends and discussed getting creative, the Coles Facebook team replied with “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

“Coles replies win the internet for me today. Thanks for the laughs,” wrote Mirren Hogan.

“We have our moments,” the person working for Coles replied.

Underneath the photo post, Nicole Klemra wrote that this was her local store and the display had already been a hit.

“I walked into this store at 7.30am with my 6yr (sic) old grandson who was still in his pyjamas and still a little sleepy,” she wrote.

“His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the display. He was so excited and of course we now also have a bag of mandarins too. Well done team.”

Other posters pointed out they would be having words with their local stores to “get their act together” to do something similar.

“This is pretty cool and creative!” wrote Sharon Smith-Hunt.

Although others wrote surmising the display may have been done in time for the annual “May the 4th” Star Wars day, a Coles spokeswoman said it was more of an internal theme.

Jasmine Zwiebel said it was a creative way for the store’s teams

“Our fresh produce teams love to have a bit of fun with their displays to excite customers,” she said.

“The team at Coles in Stafford Heights has gone above and beyond.

“This is a way for our teams to celebrate new season Imperial mandarins from Queensland growers with our customers.”

Miss Zwiebel said it was “fantastic” to read the positive responses the display was receiving from customers but did not believe it was associated with the May the 4th day.

The person who decorated the citrus display could not be reached early Thursday.

Originally published as Star Wars display at Coles praised by shoppers and fans