Supermarket grows engagement

A Trade Me auction for the complete range of New World’s Little Garden seedling kits has attracted more than $150 in bids.

New World’s latest promotion gives customers a seedling kit for every $40 spent in store and one Trade Me member put all 24 kits up for auction last Wednesday.

Since then, the listing has attracted more than 90 bids, taking the value of the items to $153. In the listing, the seller said they won the set.

Trade Me spokesman Logan Mudge said there were often a lot of listings each time a supermarket launched a new collectables range, and Little Garden was no exception.

He said that so far there had been about 8000 searches for the kits since the promotion started this month.

The highest price a supermarket collectables kit has sold for on Trade Me was $715 for a New World Little Kitchen set. A Countdown Dominos set sold for $500.

‘‘It’s early days for [Little Garden] and we reckon it will be just as popular,’’ Mudge said.

Spokeswoman for Foodstuffs Antoinette Laird said there was no need for people to be buying Little Garden sets when they could get them free with their shopping.

One of the kits, containing petunia seedlings, went on sale on Monday for $1 to raise funds for Starship Hospital.

This was also included in the Trade Me seller’s auction.

‘‘[The petunia seedlings] have almost sold out in-store and it is disappointing to see individuals profiting from a charity initiative,’’ Laird said.

First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said the Little Garden kits could not get any better in terms of sustainability and the idea had wide appeal, connecting New World’s brand with a large cross-section of age groups and demographics.

‘‘The fact that the little pots need to be nurtured and cared for creates a terrific ‘long-tail’ of engagement, further reinforcing New World’s brand in the customers’ psyche.

‘‘Every brand wants to build its future audience. In this case New World reaches and engages the youngest members of the community successfully.’’

Last week students at Auckland’s Dominion Road School planted Little Garden seedlings in their school garden, designed by landscape gardener and Little Garden ambassador Xanthe White.

For young kids, it was a fun and easy way to start. For experienced gardeners, it was a chance to play with plants they may have not worked with before.

‘‘Even if you don’t have a backyard and can only grow in pots, now is the perfect time of year to get growing, and it’s amazing what you can grow even on a small balcony,’’ White said.