The Woolies Ooshies frenzy ends on Tuesday with complaints piling up from frustrated shoppers who changed their spending habits to collect the highly sought-after figurines, only to be left with unfinished collections.
The supermarket giant had advertised the campaign until August 25, offering one of 40 Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars characters for every $30 spent, “while stocks lasted”.
By August 13, Woolworths told 7NEWS.com.au stores were expected to run out by the end of that week, saying demand had been “vastly higher than anticipated”.
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The impact of the promotion was significant enough to show up in Woolworths’ rival’s results.
Coles said its supermarket sales growth had slumped amid a “competitor’s collectibles campaign”, a reference to Woolies’ Ooshies promotion.
That raises a question beyond the hunt for the final figurine: what happens when a promotion has successfully changed the way consumers shop, but the reward runs out before the advertised end date?
Tom Kaldor, founder and CEO of consumer complaints platform Ajust and a former consumer lawyer, said shoppers had contacted the service over the Ooshies shortage, accounting for more than a quarter of all Woolworths complaints handled by the company since the promotion ran out ahead of the advertised date.
In a typical consumer complaint, Ajust helps identify what outcome a customer is entitled to seek, contacts the business and follows up if the matter is not resolved.
Depending on the problem, that might mean pursuing a refund, repair, replacement, compensation or escalation.
But the Ooshies complaints present a more complex question as the resolution the customer wants is no longer available, Kaldor said.
“Most of the consumers still want their Ooshies,” he said.
But once stocks are gone, there may be no equivalent replacement.
Woolworths has attempted to help collectors complete their sets through swap days and exchange jars, but those options cannot guarantee a customer will find the particular character they are missing.
The promotion was advertised as running “while stocks last”, so that condition will be relevant to any complaint, Kaldor said.
But it does not change the fact that some shoppers feel frustrated after altering their spending or where they bought their groceries because of the incentive and were left empty-handed.
Kaldor said the issue went beyond the promotion itself and raised questions about what happened when a business fails to deliver the outcome a consumer expected.
“How much effort does the consumer have to go to, how much fighting do they have to get to the fair outcome and the outcome that is reasonable and they deserve?” he said.
“The answer is, it’s a lot, it’s a lot of effort.”
He said many consumers ultimately chose not to complain.
“Most Australians don’t bother at the outset because they think it’s not worth my time or it won’t change anything anyway,” he said.
“That’s what lets businesses kind of get away with these things falling short.”
For consumers who are unhappy with how the promotion ended, Kaldor said they should still raise their concerns directly with Woolworths or Ajust and explain what they believe would be a fair outcome.
Complaints also gave businesses an opportunity to understand when customers felt a promotion had fallen short, he explained.
If consumers are not satisfied with the response, they then can take the matter to their state or territory consumer affairs body.
For Ooshies collectors, that means even if the missing figurine cannot be replaced, telling Woolworths what happened can still put the frustration on record and give the supermarket a clearer picture of how the early sell-out has affected its customers.
And when the Ooshies craze is over, Woolworths says there is still one option left: unwanted collectables can be returned to stores for recycling until October 31.