4 collecting promotions we all used to run to the supermarket for
There are 3 reasons why you went to the supermarket as a child or teenager: 1. because you wanted candy, 2. because you secretly had a crush on an attractive shelf stacker or 3. because there was a cool collecting promotion. Especially in the latter case, we were just short of pitching our tent outside the store to beg other customers for their haul. These are 5 collecting promotions we used to be absolutely obsessed with.
Flippos
Now we’re going way back in time. Back to the 1990s, when Lays was still called Smiths and had Flippos in its bags. The craze surrounding the Flippo was HUGE. No fewer than 95% (!!!) of children between the ages of 6 and 12 collected the round plastic discs. Some supermarkets even placed dumpsters next to their entrances so collectors could dump their bags of crisps after taking out the Flippos. (Then I have to wonder again: who throws away a full bag of crisps?!)
Fox Kids TV Cards
Another thing from a long time ago. Disney XD was once called Jetix, and before that Jetix was called Fox Kids. At Super de Boer (which was taken over by Jumbo – why do I suddenly feel so old?!) you could collect Fox Kids TV Cards: cards featuring various Fox Kids series. For example, there were cards from Totally Spies, Braceface, Hamtaro, What’s With Andy… With a mini screen, which you could buy separately, you could make the images on the cards move. Oh yes, and there were glitter cards too. It was absolutely amazing.
Wuppies
Every time there’s a European Championship or a World Cup, Albert Heijn comes up with another fun promotion that makes us all run to the supermarket. The most popular orange-themed collecting promotion of all time was the one with the Wuppies, in 2006. For every €15 spent on groceries, you received one fluffy orange Wuppie. You could stick them everywhere, so of course you did – much to your mother’s annoyance. You could also save up for a really big Wuppie. Naturally, you wanted 20 of those too, so eventually the entire house became one big Wuppie paradise. With the famous Wuppie song (yeahhh with a Wuppie Wuppie Wuppie, we’ll grab that World Cup – you’re welcome), you simply COULD NOT escape the Wuppie in the summer of 2006.
Albert Heijn Minis
In 2012, you could collect Minis at Albert Heijn: small groceries in miniature form. You could also buy mini shopping carts and mini checkouts, allowing you to build a complete supermarket. I know people who actually did that. So cool! The promotion was so successful that after just 3 days, customers could no longer get any extra mini items. Fortunately, that was fixed quickly, allowing customers to continue collecting happily. I wonder if there are still people whose attics are completely filled with these things.
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