Coles catalogues will be scaled back, at least for the printed medium. Investment group IVE was informed these will stop September 9th.
I feel bad now for labelling my mailbox with “no junk mail,” because I just think of the older citizens who rely on these Coles catalogues for the weekly specials. I also feel bad for using an outdated Coles jingle but I digress.
In a statement by IVE Group, the marketing group that’s behind the big red shopping guys, they say their revenue will fall by $35-40 million dollars per annum. That’s a lot of Coles mudcakes being chucked into the dumpster out the back of the store.
“It has been informed by Coles Group Ltd (Coles) that they intend to scale back the use of the printed medium for catalogues. From September 9, 2020, Coles will cease the distribution of the weekly catalogue that is currently printed and distributed by IVE to circa 7 million Australian households weekly through approximately 14,000 walkers nationally.”
Tell your little cousin that he should not apply for a walker job, and RIP seeing those people in the street with the Coles catalogues in a baby pram. Such an odd, yet comforting staple of the neighbourhood walk.
Coles say you can still get the weekly printed catalogues in-store, but again I come back to senior citizens with limited mobility and/or internet access. You could just show Grandma the specials on your iPad or fetch it in-store yourself, I suppose. But something about that shiny, glossy page that advertises the box of Favourites just won’t be the same in a digital space.
“We’ve also seen an increase of more than 50 per cent in readership for our digital catalogue since March,” says Coles Group CEO Steven Cain.
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“As customers add more fresh food to their diet they’re shopping more often, and their appetite for immediacy and digital information means a weekly, one-size-fits-all, catalogue in their letterbox is no longer as relevant for them as it once was.”
It’s still relevant for me, Coles. Even if I use the catalogue for wrapping up shards of broken glass or complaining about the lack of artisan and vegan supermarkets.
Check out Casey Donovan in the Coles ‘Down, Down’ ad, if you have the inclination:
