Included/Stuff
Countdown’s cutlery promotion in Wiltshire has caused some slop online.
Countdown customers have taken to Reddit, asking for cheaper food prices instead of “free” cutlery.
The post titled ‘Dear Countdown’ has attracted nearly 100 comments on Wiltshire Salisbury’s Countdown cutlery promo, which runs until September 25.
“I don’t need a set of parfait spoons, price cuts would be much more helpful. That’s all. I hope to hear from you soon. Yours in the hope,” the post read.
Countdown customers can earn one eStamp for every $20 spent in-store or online using a Onecard.
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eStamps can be used to redeem any of Wiltshire Salisbury’s six cutlery sets.
The sets include a three-piece children’s set that requires 15 stamps, and a two-piece steak knife set that requires 45 stamps.
Keith Lynch
Grocery promotions like New World’s Smeg knife give-away aim to change the way we shop.
So a $100 store will get you 5 stamps, while a $200 store will get you 10. To get the steak knives, customers would have to spend $900. The range is exclusive to Countdown and cannot be purchased anywhere else.
One Reddit commentator called the promo a “transparent bribe” to persuade customers to switch to Countdown from other supermarkets, while another was not bothered by the promo.
“I shop at Countdown anyway, so I’m happy to get some free stuff,” they said.
A Countdown spokesperson said the 30-year high inflation is currently putting pressure on many household budgets.
“And while we can’t control the industry-wide cost increases we’re seeing, we can reward our customers with programs like this.”
She couldn’t say how much it cost to run the promotion because it was commercially sensitive, but she said Countdown had feedback from customers who said they appreciated household items such as flatware.
But the supermarket chain appreciated that others didn’t, she said.
Countdown continues to work with its suppliers to add more products to its Winter Freeze program, freezing the prices of a wide variety of winter essentials.
The supermarket has also held a number of similar promotions in the past, such as Countdown Bricks, while New World has been running KitchenAid and Smeg Knives promotions.