Aldi outrage: Shoppers angry they missed out on amazing ride-on toys
Aldi’s world-famous Special Buys sparked disappointment over the weekend, with many who missed out on coveted ride-on electric toys taking to social media to express their anger and sadness.
Backyard fun?
The popular supermarket chain were selling motorised ride-on toys for a very reasonable $199 a pop, promising families some “backyard fun”. The 6V Mercedes-Benz Ride and the 6V Caterpillar Tractor with Dump Bucket were such a bargain, in fact, that shoppers queued around the block from the wee hours of Saturday morning. Many shoppers were bitterly disappointed. Many didn’t have any fun at all. Nu-uh.
As patiently-queueing shoppers realised they’d missed out on the ride-ons, rumours swirled that each store had just one Mercedes-Benz and one tractor. It appears, however, that this is not totally accurate. Stock seems to have been allocated in different ways to different stores – according to Aldi Australia’s Facebook followers.
Mixed results
While some stores indeed had just one or two of the electric ride-ons in stock – which were speedily snapped up – others had several units sitting on the store floor, minding their own business, while others still had no stock of the ride-ons at all.
The Aldi Facebook page ran the gamut of emotions, as shoppers expressed their anger, excitement and… ambivalence.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about these electric cars. One of my local stores had 4 of them this morning and no one was bothering with them,” Facebook user Paul commented on Aldi’s page, confirming his local store was one of the lucky ones.
Birthday disappointment
Others were not so fortunate in this lucky dip of stock.
“Very disappointed in the Belmont, NSW store specials today. I arrived at 7am this morning as I know there are limited numbers of stock. I wanted to purchase a tractor for my sons 2nd birthday. I spoke to the store manager and he advised me there was not one issued to the store,” Facebook user Kristy posted.
“So it’s 8.36am as I write this and put local Aldi store opens at 8.30am …. there would have been at least 40 or 50 people lined up as a result of your latest catalogue which is a lot for a small town like Lithgow. Most people were lining up hoping to score a Kids ride on… we were hoping to get one for our sons upcoming birthday… we knew it would be competitive and we may well miss out but when we got into our store we find they had only been supplied ONE of each,” mum Beth wrote.
“Pushing and yelling”
Some shoppers were not only upset about the very low stock levels – and about missing out – they were worried about getting out of the store unscathed as people scrambled to snaffle the specials.
“You need to start providing more stock for sales. Having only 4 cars is not providing enough stock for a promotion,” Aldi shopper Steve posted.
“Also you need to ensure a safe store for customers. Because of lack of stock you are causing riots in store, people pushing and yelling at each other. Store security should be in place at all times if you keep having only small amounts of stock levels.”
Sorry not sorry
Others still celebrated gloated about snaffling the sought-after toys, borderline trolling parents who had missed out.
“I have to say a HUGE thank you to Aldi. I’m not sure who’s happier in my household today. My Chihuahua that’s patiently waiting for the battery to charge in her new Mercedes-Benz or my 2 cats playing in the bigger than life box,” pet-lover Melanie wrote on Aldi’s page.
“Managed to get a tractor and a Benz this morning! Probably won’t use it, just look at it then put it in the shed,” Facebook user Kass posted.
There’s no doubt that these special buys from Aldi are the focus of much anticipation and anxiety.
Were you at Aldi on Saturday? Did you score a ride-on toy, or merely witness the madness that ensued in some stores? Have you been disappointed and missed out on an Aldi Super Buy?
