Are Spar’s Angry Bird collectables a rip off?

Selected Spars around South Africa are running an Angry Birds promotion, which rewards customers with Angry Birds merchandise. The promotion is available through selected SPARs in Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape and runs till the 24 July 2016. The promotion started on 16 May.

What does the deal entail?

Customers will receive Angry Birds collectables when they spend money at the participating SPARs, as well as discounts on other Angry Birds merchandise.

In many ways this is reminiscent of the Stikeez promotion that was run by Pick n Pay nationwide last year. This promotion saw Pick n Pay shoppers rewarded with one Stikeez for every R150 spent. There were 24 to collect, and near the end of the promotion people were able to purchase any of the outstanding Stikeez that they hadn’t yet collect for R4.99.

How does Spar’s promotion work?

Like Pick n Pay’s Stikeez deal, customers will be rewarded for every R150 spent with “an Angry Birds pack with a 3D lenticular card and a SPAR sticker.” Again, there are 24 of the 3D lenticular cards to collect, and you can purchase a lenticular album to store them in for R39.99.

With Pick n Pay’s Stikeez there were add-ons to buy. You could purchase the collector’s bag for R10.99 and album for R29.99. For more on the Stikeez promotion, click here. So there should be no suprises if Spar decides to add other products to the promotion to make more money off it.

How much do you need to spend to get the entire collection? Customers will need to spend R3,600 to collect all 24 lenticular cards, and there is no guarantee that you will get different cards with each purchase. You may end up with multiples of certain cards, while others are missing from your collection.

During the Stikeez promotion parents resorted to swapping the toys on Gumtree or selling them on to get all the collectibles for their children.

How do I get the Angry Bird discount?

The Spar sticker that you receive with your purchase, goes together with a collector card that you receive free in store. Once you have collected four of these stickers (which will in essence cost you R600), you are eligible for a discount on an Angry Birds plush toy or keyring. The toy usually retails for R229.99, but with the stickers, you will pay R89.99. Meanwhile, the keyring goes for a discounted price of R29.99.

Is the deal worthwhile?

Unless you shop often at Spar it’s not worthwile to go buy R600 worth of items to get the stickers when the Angry Bird toy retails for R229.99.

Just like Pick n Pay’s Stikeez promotion, the Spar Angry Bird deal is a gimmick to encourage people to spend more money at their stores. It works if you are a frequent shopper at Spar already. But if you aren’t, and you want to get the toy, it may be more worthwhile to buy the toy outright.

The Angry Birds craze

Angry Birds has become an international phenomenon, with the video game giving way to merchandise and a movie currently on the circuit at Ster Kinekor and Numetro.

On Gumtree, some people are already appealing for the Spar Angry Birds 3D lenticular cards, while others are selling the stickers that you receive with the cards. However, despite the popularity of Angry Birds in general, the promotional items from Spar do not appear to be as popular as the Stikeez were last year. Last year, Justmoney noted farm more Gumtree requests for Stikeez, as well as many people selling the additional Stikeez they had collected.

The contained popularity may in part be due to the limited Spars running this promotion. When contacted, Spar confirmed that the promotion available through selected stores across Gauteng, Eastern Cape and Western Cape, unlike the Stikeez promotion which was run at Pick n Pay stores nationwide.

Should you shop at Spar to take advantage of the deal?

In our opinion, unless you regularly shop at Spar, it does not seem worth it just to get the discount on the Angry Birds plush toy.

However, from a money saving point of view, Spar recently came out second cheapest in a store comparison conducted by our sister website, Moneybags. In the first comparison, Spar was the second cheapest store compared, and in the second comparison Spar again come out the second cheapest.

So while it may not be worth it to shop exclusively at Spar for the Angry Birds promotion, being the second cheapest store in Moneybags comparison means that regardless of the current promotion, it may be cheaper to shop at Spar in general.

For more information on the Angry Birds Spar promotion, click here.