What do you think, mums and dads? Is this pet food mix-up a massive #mumfail? Or clever marketing gone wrong?
Can we blame Woolworths? Or should we chalk this one up to sleep-deprived baby brain?
You be the judge…
Like many of us, Sydney mum-of-three, Tania Toomey sometimes finds herself sneaking pre-packaged snacks into her children’s lunch boxes. To change the pace of the normal individual snack size packages of Arnott’s Shapes, she picked up a 10 parcel of Scooby Snacks which were placed “next to the Tiny Teddies at Woolworths”.
Dog Treat Dilemma
Source: Jane Slack-Smith
Considering the treats were in the snacks aisle and not the pet food aisle, Tania assumed that the treats were for children and dropped a package of the bone shaped biscuits into each of her children’s lunch boxes.
As expected, the kids came home and said they were disgusting. On closer inspection, Tania noticed the label on the packaging stating, “Pet food only”.
Yep. Scooby Snacks are for Scooby. Not for Shaggy. Or Velma or Daphne. Or any HUMAN!!!
Of course, Tania did what any enraged mum would do. She took to social media to vent her anger. Tania’s post on the Woolworths’ Facebook page has since been removed, but don’t worry, we have a screenshot (above).
As Tania warns, “Be careful. The store is very disorganised… I think I might have to stick to Coles!”
Woolies in the Dog House?
Okay… so let’s recap, shall we? The Scooby treats do have a clear label stating “Pet Food Only”. Plus, the package is also riddled with words like “doggy bags”and “choc friendly carob”. And they are shaped like dog bones…
But then again, they DO look like all those pre-packaged kiddy snacks apart from the fine print. AND they were in the snack aisle (which would appear to be a MASSIVE mistake on the shelf stocking front). And who reads the fine print, anyway?
It could happen to any of us. Well, it could happen to me, at least. Sometimes parenting is hard. And sometimes reading the fine print just doesn’t happen.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156444188434202&set=p.10156444188434202&type=3
As it turns out, this isn’t the first time a Woolworths supermarket has made this very same mistake. Another disgruntled Melbourne shopper also experienced the very same problem back in July.
Woolworths has since apologised to the Toomey family, blaming a staff member for the dog bickie debacle.
“Woolworths can confirm that a single packet of Scooby Snacks dog biscuits was accidentally placed in the biscuit aisle at the Woolworths North Strathfield store last week and subsequently purchased by a customer,” a company statement says.
“We can confirm that the product is stocked as intended in the pet food aisle in the stores where it’s sold, with the product marked as ‘Pet Food Only’.
“Store teams have had further communication this week to ensure that no packets are mistakenly placed in the wrong aisle.”
The bottom line? Check the label before you load it into the lunch box. And check out these lunch box friendly snacks that you can make at home (no dog snacks in sight).
