Woolworths Ooshies: Australian shoppers unleash fury after promo ends early

It was a decision from Woolworths that caused outrage across Australia. But it just showed how greedy and downright nasty we can be.

OPINION

Woolies is under fire.

No, they haven’t breached social distancing rules and caused a COVID-19 cluster. Instead they’ve ended an Ooshies promotion early and parents of the internet are losing it, creating what can only be described as a clusterf**k.

“I’m furious,” said one woman when the news was posted on news.com.au’s Facebook page. “That’s ridiculously (sic) you’re breaking little hearts everywhere,” added another. “Back to Coles for us then,” wrote one man, with the sickest burn he could think of.

RELATED: Woolies responds to Ooshies furore

RELATED: Ooshies debate divides Aussies

For the uninitiated, Ooshies are little plastic collectable toys that come in various incarnations. You get one for every $30 you spend at Woolworths. Previously there have been Frozen Ooshies, Lion King Ooshies and the latest collection is Disney+, with Buzz Lightyear, Thor, Ariel, Yoda, Black Panther and Moana joining the gang. The ultimate aim is to fill a case with the toys to make a full set, much like we used to fill a book with stickers in the olden days.

RELATED: Woolies ends Ooshie promotion early

Disney+ collection of Ooshies from Woolies. Picture: Woolworths.

Now you may be thinking these little guys are just an environmental disaster in the making, destined to choke a turtle, but Ooshies are big business. Beware though, these toys aren’t child’s play. The grown ups have got involved and taken out all of the fun.

The furore first started back in the Lion King days when it was revealed that Ooshies were being sold on eBay for thousands of dollars. These weren’t just any Ooshies but ultra ‘rare’ ones including a furry Simba that could sell for up to $99,000. Opinion was divided on whether this was “fair” collection behaviour, yet the bid kept rolling in.

RELATED: Death threats over Woolies Ooshies

The rare furry Simba Ooshie was hot property in 2019. Picture: YouTube

Then came the moment when farmers Melissa Kate Portingale and Stephen Black cut off the head of a rare furry Simba live on TV after they were abused online by people who slammed them for trying to sell the Ooshie for $5000. They’d needed the money to be able to irrigate their farm to survive one of the worst droughts Australia had ever seen.

“For the people that bullied us and they want to buy this thing because they want it, this is what I say to them,” said Mr Black, taking the scissors to Simba. “It’s done. You can’t buy it.”

RELATED: ‘Ultra rare’ Ooshies confirmed

A furry Simba Ooshie is decapitated on live TV. Picture: YouTube.

And that should have been that. Everyone needed to think about how they’d behaved.

But a Brisbane mother talked about receiving death threats after putting her furry Simba up for sale for $5000.

“I received so many hate and death threat messages just because I’ve put up the rare furry Simba,” Monique told Nine.

Can we just remind ourselves that the people making these threats are fully grown adults? Adults that are presumably old enough to procreate and have children to be able to collect Ooshies for.

The Ooshies saga continued on Monday when Woolies gave the grave news that they were ending their latest promotion early due to “unprecedented demand”.

“We expect the last of our stock to be collected by the end of this weekend,” said Woolworths’ chief marketing officer Andrew Hicks before, presumably, checking himself into a witness protection scheme.

It was mere seconds before grown adults forgot to take a deep breath and instead flooded Woolies’ Facebook page to furiously type their response to what can only be described as the biggest disaster of 2020.

“You are a disgrace!!! Who runs a promotion and has no rewards available for 2 weeks then decides to cancel ???”

“You have left 100s of young kids upset..... and their parents too … I will NEVER EVER shop in your store again … COLES ALL THE WAY!”

The only person speaking any sense was a man named Dan who chipped in with, “I just want to say that you’re doing the right thing by denying Ooshies to these crybaby parents.”

Good on ya Dan.

Look, we all know that 2020 has been a hard year but Australia can do better than tearing themselves in two over plastic toys. If you’re starting to feel the strain over Ooshies ending, how about you go for a walk in nature or sob into a glass of wine like a normal person?

The good news for Victorians is that, due to the Ooshies launch being delayed in their stores thanks to their stage 4 lockdown, they’ve got more time to make the most of the Ooshies promotion.

Victorians, just be grateful the borders are still closed so the rest of Australia can’t flood into the state and rip those rare Ooshies right out of your hands.

Riah Matthews is the commissioning editor for news.com.au and Kidspot.