Read an article on news.com.au exposing a 'Secret Hack' to get a free Hot Roast Chicken from Coles.
Selected stores have a sticker (see photo in link) on the hot chicken cabinet that states:
"If you’ve missed out on a Coles hot roast chicken from 11am to close, your next one is free"
Credit to Facebook page Our Thrifty Family for the initial discovery which led to the press coverage.
If your store is participating, let your fellow OzB'ers know in the comments!
It's not even that. Its just common practice.
I'll be sure to walk by the hot oven every visit, in case it IS empty :)
Okay, shall it be posted on OzHack instead?
Oh wait it doesn't exist, looks like we'll just have to leave it here.
I like the sound of OzHack or OzTricks or OzWorkarounds.
what about OzATO ?
The OP posted a deal, not a bargain. Still, good to see the deal/bargain police working so hard! What would we do without you?
PS, I found this post quite interesting, as I assume did the other up-voters.
WORK IN TEAMS (like the baby formula people)
TEAM 1: Empty all contents of BBQ Chicken, walking around the store with 20 birds in the trolley.
TEAM 2: Grab vouchers
TEAM 1: Return product to shelf
TEAM 1: Return chickens
thanks :)
And to close the loop…
TEAM 2: Using your vouchers grab free chickens. Any left over chickens can go back into the trolley used by team 1 until case is empty
TEAM 1: Grab vouchers
…and repeat.
Perfect plan for a hungry footy team after training……
I know this is a joke but I effing hate those baby formula groups. Here I am with a baby who needs lactose-free formula and I follow the law and buy only 2 (it's gone up now in some places I think) while these effwits buy the entire stock. Irritates me even further when the specialised formula goes on its annual sale and this happens.
A2 can have my money!
@ozy: It shits me when people criticise other people's decisions that are perfectly normal and reasonable decisions to make, such as feeding their baby formula. Raising babies/children is hard enough without criticism…
Try the karicare soy formula. My baby loves it and its relatively cheap.
What happens to baby when it has lactose? Poor thing.
I follow the law and buy only 2
There is no law about how much baby formula you can buy.
Yeah well their not Australians doing it, why does no one call it for what it is? Baby formula groups, you mean Asian black market syndicates?
Have you tried buying from the daigou shops directly? Some are actually cheaper than Coles/Woolies and they do sell you.
I have a young child too and struggled until this was told to me by my ex colleague's wife.
How many ppl do u reckon in each team? Anyone wanna come over, let’s arrange time
I volunteer for TEAM 3, eat all the chicken while shopping ;-)
that's a good one, but i liked the free Nexus 7 tablet
and hundreds of dollars of Google Play credit for the KitKat Oreo 'hack'
got a free Nexus-7 tablet out of that & more than $100 of Google Play credit
Link?
@ireadtermsofuse: i didn't find out on OzBargain…
…and it was about 6-7 years ago (from memory)
EDIT: it was in 2013
—> https://ausdroid.net/2013/10/01/nestle-android-kit-kat-promo…
@chriise: Nexus 7 tablet winners - https://www.nestle.com.au/productnews/winners/kit-kat-androi…
the promotion was for Android Kitkat and Nestle KitKat chocolate bars
every KitKat chocolate bar wrapper, had a code, which you needed to enter into a website,
to reveal whether you won Google Play money or a Nexus tablet.
it wasn't the wrapper that determined your luck,
but the time of the day that you entered the code,
so people on Whirlpool began sharing their efforts and
also the times of the day, so eventually, the success rate was very good
at predicting the wins…between what you needed to enter and when.
i ended up buying several boxes of KitKats but at the end, came out on top with a tablet :-)
@whyisave: I remember that. I won two tablets and my brother won four.
What I tried to do was have a few codes prepared then enter one every minute.
My brother won more I think because he downloaded a watch app on his phone that shows the seconds, as you had to enter on the minute.
What constitutes "missed out"? If they are temporarily sold out, with new ones in the oven to be ready in 5-10min, does that count?
If it isn't in the cabinet then you missed out. One in the oven doesn't count
Try telling a pregnant Mrs that. :P
How is getting one in 5 minutes "missing out" ?
Maybe if you are in a hurry and need to go. Time sensitive.
Arguably you've finished you're shop, just paid and go to claim on it, there are none in the cabinet so none were available. The point of the promotion is that you'll never miss out. I'd say they have enough sales data that the cabinet will never be empty.
It's in the title - Hot Box Is Empty
Ah yes, the contractually binding ozbargain post title.
Hot tip - it isn't in the sticker 'promise' from coles,
I'm not sure how else you would interpret "if you miss out on a Coles hot roast chicken" other than if the chicken hot box was empty as that is how you would miss out. /shrugs shoulders…
@brad1-8tsi: You don't miss out if they are actively cooking more.
I would interpret it as they've run out of stock and don't have any more to cook.
If you go to a restaurant do you feel that you've "missed out" if the chef has to cook your meal?
lotsa crook chooks
Because I can imagine idiot OzBargainers doing that to claim freebie :(
Because it'll be thrown out dipshit
Exactly!
Why not take all chicken in the trolley, snap a picture and put it back.
Imagine the stand off when there is only one left
I'd pay someone $4 to take the last chicken
Win Win
Now you're out 4 bucks and have no chicken…
No idea why you were neg'd for that comment as its so true and funny! Have a + vote from me.
I can see this going wrong in sooooo many ways
Just get your mate to clear them out, go grab your free chicken coupon, then your mate puts them all back.
So let me get this straight - they're offering a free chicken… When they've run out of chickens? Riiiiiiight.
It's for when they've next stopped up.
Not exactly a complex problem to figure out.
But does it mean that you'll get your free chicken the next day (because it says "…..11am to close….")?
You get the free chicken with the voucher when your mate who raided all the chickens comes back.
They give you a voucher with a barcode on it, for the next time you shop.
Nah, some worker is not honouring it, asking to wait for 40min
Speak to the manager, its their policy.
Get a haircut first. You need the appropriate hairstyle if you want to talk to the manager.
I dont get it
The manager will just back the worker, chick protect.
Sticker overrules manager. Sticker has highest authority at coles.
Well the sticker doesn't say anything about "if the cabinet is empty", it just says if you've missed out. Waiting for a new one to be cooked is not "missing out", it's just having to wait.
Exactly. We need some black on white conditions. Otherwise they will definitely just ask you to wait.
Indeed. "Oh, you didn't miss out, just wait here 72 hours and we'll give you one straight away".
"I can't wait, I've finished my shop and have to leave now"
If you have to leave and you can't get one then you've missed out. The solution is photo of the empty cabinet and a post on social media. Fielding a complaint to the ACCC would also cost them more than the cost of a chicken.
Not going to embarrass myself over a hot chicken.
@pennypincha: For good deals, and I'm not saying this isn't a good deal. I'm just not going to make a fool of myself on social media over a $9 roast chicken.
@GregRust: My point was supposed to be that I view the declaration to be pretty clear and that there are escalation pathways if the store tries to skirt around the agreement, whether it be through media or regulation channels.
To be fair, I wouldn't go the social media route. I would however send through a ACCC complaint if the staff and management were rude, and refusing to follow their legal obligations. I'd offer that if they didn't want to do it then take down the sign, easy fix.
You're right, its only a $10 chicken, but having a major chain ignoring consumer advertising laws is not a good thing. The reason the offer exists at all is that Coles sees the chicken as a draw card to getting people in to shop. I see the failure to honor it as an example of bait advertising.
TLDR: I wouldn't make a fool of myself for a BBQ chicken, I would make a fool of myself to make life harder for a billion dollar company who is doing the wrong thing. To be clear, I don't mean the floor staff, I mean the company.
Is there a sticker there?
They did that to me, I waited and then ate the whole chicken in the store browsing around.
This happens pretty regularly at my local Coles.
Its going to be interesting if all of a sudden they always have chickens as they don't want to give out free chickens.
I wonder how long they can keep them in there before they have to dispose under their food safety policy.
Potentially it may be a fine balance between chucking and giving out free ones.
back in my safeway days, 4 hours was the max, after that they get reduced… if its busy though they might get forgotten about for a bit extra
4 hours would be quite conservative though, so if they do forget about it, it’s still safe etc.
I'm not sure about Coles but WWs policy is:
" If roasted chicken left after four hours, WW conduct half hour temperature checks as per our hot food manual. After five hours the chicken can go to markdown and after six hours must be removed from shelf and dumped"
How is the next one free if there is none to actually buy?
Not a bargain, its a "work around/trick"