Huge interest in unwanted beetroot
Money fetched from the auctioning of a beetroot, in Trade Me’s unwanted Christmas presents’ section, will go to an Invercargill food bank, Juliet Woller says.
Interest in the beetroot is growing by the hour since Juliet and husband Graeme, of New Plymouth, placed it on Trade Me on Christmas Day.
Yesterday evening, the leading bid was $121. The auction finishes on Monday at 2.13pm.
Graeme said he was amazed at the publicity the beetroot had created.
‘‘It’s given a lot of people a lot of joy ... everyone wants a laugh over Christmas.’’
The couple moved from Invercargill to New Plymouth nearly three years ago and are holidaying in Southland.
Graeme only thought of the beetroot as a present for Juliet when in Invercargill’s South City New World on Christmas Eve.
They initially agreed not to buy each other presents because they had bought an expensive tent recently.
However, Juliet noticed a book at The Warehouse which she knew Graeme would like and bought it as a Christmas present for him. She told him on Friday.
Graeme then decided to buy Juliet a present but he got sidetracked visiting people until remembering in the supermarket at 8.50pm on Christmas Eve.
At the time, the couple had beetroot that needed to be eaten.
‘‘I had been nagging Graeme to use up the veges in the fridge,’’ Juliet said.
Back in the supermarket, Graeme went looking for a beetroot.
‘‘I picked the one that looked the nicest.’’
The beetroot cost 68c and ribbon was
$2.
Juliet said she was ‘‘deflated’’ when opening her present from Graeme on Christmas Day.
That afternoon the couple thought it would be fun to auction the beetroot in the ‘‘Unwanted Christmas Presents’’ section on Trade Me.
‘‘It would be awesome if we could get
$200 for the food bank,’’ Juliet said.