Coles Mini Money

Hi Scott,

I’m sure I’m one of hundreds of people emailing you about this, but thought I’d better, just in case. As someone who is slowly paying down $70,000 worth of debt using your book, I was horrified when my three-year-old son opened a Coles ‘Mini’ with a pretend credit card inside. And the best bit ‒ the QR code on the back takes you straight to Coles financial services. What a disgrace!

Tammy

Hi Tammy,

The Coles Little Shop phenomenon reminds me of the Tazo card craze of the mid-90s.

As a kid I remember working at Woolies (okay, mainly standing around, trying to flirt with the checkout girls), and seeing grown men hunting the aisles for ‘limited edition’ plastic pog Tazos.

“Buy Woolies shares instead, toy-boy”, I thought to myself.

The Little Shop is big business for Coles: analysts estimate that it has boosted their profits by around $11 million.

I had a look at the pack (cheap plastic that would cost a few cents to make in China), and saw the card you spoke of.

It’s actually a Mastercard Coles Gift Card, so it’s not a credit card. However, retailers love prepaid gift cards because they get the money up front, and all too often the card gets lost in the sock draw, thrown out, and never fully spent.

There’s a reason big financial corporations (hello Coles Financial Services, and CommBank) give kids plastic toys with their logos plastered on them. It’s smart marketing and excellent brand association for them.

Yet this is also why I get my kids to use good old jam jars and coins for their pocket money: it makes money visual (“The more I work, the more money goes into the jars”). That way I -- not the marketers -- get to control the message.

Scott