Winner winner, free Coles chicken dinner for enterprising shoppers
Linda Parri and Carl Menezes enjoyed free hot chooks from Coles this year. They laughed about it and became friends along the way.
This is the story of a resourceful mum, a drifter – and their tasty victory over a supermarket giant.
Linda Parri and Carl Menezes enjoyed free hot chooks from Coles this year. They laughed about it and became friends along the way.
Linda first saw Carl on a warm evening in March as she rushed from her car into a Coles in Perth’s inner north. By then Coles and its rival Woolworths had relaxed into a pattern of trickery against shoppers, according to the ACCC which is now suing the supermarkets for “illusory discounts” and other underhand tactics.
But Linda knows how to tip the scales in her favour. She showed Carl too, and some pensioners who were also interested in free roast chicken.
“Coles has a little-known policy that entitles you to a voucher for a free roast chicken if they have none when you want one. It’s clearly displayed on a sticker, on the bain-marie,” Linda says. “That day, a Coles deli manager declined my request for a voucher, despite a bare cabinet, telling me the chickens were cooking.”
Linda got her voucher after some discussion with the store manager, who tried to explain the policy was not the law and she should wait 15 minutes because more chickens were cooking. She could buy one then for $12.
Then it got a little unpleasant. For Coles. Linda says that as the store manager grudgingly handed her the roast chook voucher he told her: “We’re here to make money not to give stuff away.”
That remark made Linda cross, so she eyed the empty bain-marie and walked the aisles alerting customers that they, too, could get a free chook if they were quick. She coached five aged pensioners on how ask for the voucher. A queue formed at the deli counter.
Then Linda found Carl. She tapped him on the shoulder as he was busy searching for cans and bottles to recycle for cash. “Want a free chicken?” Linda asked him.
“I thought she was a nutter,” Carl said. But he wanted that chicken. He went inside and Linda helped him get a voucher.
“She’s a lovely lady,” Carl says. Now they cluck when they see each other.
Linda loves a bargain. She made her name reporting on the lifestyles of the powerful and the beautiful in Perth. She went to work on the red carpet in floor-length gowns bought cheap from eBay China. On her feet she wore thongs that nobody could see.
Linda was raised by practical Italian migrants.
Carl works three days a week at a charity for people with disabilities. He says he moves around a lot. He tried to take advantage of the chicken rule by himself but he says it never worked without Linda. He has tallied up eight roast chook rejections while alone.
“They ignore him because he’s so polite,” Linda says. But together, they are formidable.
“I call Linda the Chicken Lady,” Carl says.
Annoyed by Carl’s treatment, Linda spread the word about how to get a free hot chook. When a friend told her a manager at a nearby store was refusing to give vouchers, she went there too and coached customers.
Eventually, Coles has tried to factor in the Linda and Carl effect by having hot chooks ready early. As the pair approached the bain-marie at their favoured Coles this week, a staff member hurriedly began putting the cooked chooks on the shelves.
The new friends don’t often see an empty bain-marie these days. But when they do, they pounce.
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