After Woolworths finished up its Disney+ Ooshie promotion due to high demand, the supermarket has announced it will trial swap days in most South Australia stores.
Customers can visit participating Woolworths supermarket stores in South Australia this Saturday, October 3, between 10am and 2pm and Sunday, October 4, between 12pm and 4pm for the chance to swap with other collectors and complete their sets.
Most stores in South Australia will hold the swaps, except for stores located near the border of a neighbouring state or territory.
Woolworths said it will hold the swap days as a trial in South Australian stores only from this weekend in a “COVID-safe way”.
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Woolworths will have hygiene and physical distancing measures in place, in addition to existing measures, including team members who will clean Ooshies with alcohol-based spray before they are swapped, social distancing decals directing customers where to queue, and providing hand sanitiser for customers.
The popular Ooshie promotion ended sooner than expected because high demand depleted stock levels in most stores across Australia, disappointing many customers.
The trial swap days gives customers the opportunity to come into stores and swap their extra Ooshies for the ones they’re missing since the retailer isn’t able to give customers new Ooshies.
In previous years, Woolworths has held swap days for its collectibles as a way to help customers complete their collection, however this year’s planned swap days were initially cancelled due to COVID-19.
The South Australia swap days will act as a trial for the supermarket to determine whether it will introduce similar swap days in other states and territories to help support customers attempting to complete their sets.
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Woolworths’ South Australia state manager Karl Weber said: “Our Disney+ Ooshies resonated well with customers of all ages and their demand completely exceeded our expectations.
“Swap days have historically been an important way to help customers fill the gaps in their collection, but these plans were initially paused due to the COVID-19 community infection rates in many states at the time.
“However, with positive COVID-19 cases continuing to fall across Australia and state borders beginning to open, we’re confident we can apply our learnings from the last six months and implement COVID-safe measures. We will adjust how swap days operate to help keep our customers and team members safe while giving customers the opportunity to try to complete their collection,” he said.
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“These swap days will be more organised than in previous years,” Mr Weber added. “Customers will queue to drop off their extra Disney+ Ooshies where they will be cleaned by a team member, then they have the opportunity to pick up available cleaned Disney+ Ooshies to add to their collection.
“If the trial in South Australia is a success and customers adhere to store signage and follow team member instructions without incident, we will consider running similar swap days in other states and territories with appropriate hygiene and social distancing measures.”
Customers can also still drop any pre-loved or extra Ooshies – including last year’s Lion King Ooshies – and wrappers in dedicated recycling bins to be recycled through a partnership with TerraCycle, until January 31. The paper wrapper can also be recycled at home in the yellow bin. Recycled Ooshies can be turned into plastic pellets, used to make outdoor products such as park benches.
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