Before I had kids, I never really paid attention to the big supermarket campaigns.

Then I had kids.

Pick’n Pay have launched their second Stikeez promotion.  I’m a huge Pick’nPay fan, and religiously follow the Smart Shopper programme, as well as loving the Fresh Living monthly magazine (which is free for Smart Shoppper subscribers – I love freebies).

1 Stikee for every R150 spent in store. Yesterday I went and did my ‘beginning of the month’ grocery shop. The result was the pic above (less one lunch box which went to school today).

In addition to the Stikeez themselves there are Addis lunch boxes (R39.95 each) – I needed 2! Plus there are album’s available too for R50.00. I decided against that. They looked a bit flimsy and would only end up causing a fight – whilst I considered buying one, I had no intention of buying two. I will get a lot more use out of the lunch box than a cardboard album.

I see there are also Stikeez toys to buy, and you get extra Stikeez for buying certain items.

And don’t forget the app to download for free on the App Store and Google Play

Last year my girls were a little young for it (2 and 4), but this year they are super excited about it and I will be able to teach them about swapping extras to get ones they don’t have. I will a little hacked off to say the least when I noticed that the older son of a friend of ours took advantage of their age and generosity during the last promotion of the animal cards, and just took the cards he needed without exchanging in kind for the ones they needed.

So this time instead of moaning about the fact that they are a choking hazard (which they still are and should definitely NOT be left around for small kids), I am going to use them as a way to teach the girls to share, exchange and collect. Life skills I’m sure they could do with.

I was pleasantly surprised too yesterday when paying for my groceries, the tellers asked if I wanted my Stikeez. Last year they were just dumped in my shopping bags. I like this idea because it gives parents the option of whether to expose their kids to these marketing ploys, as well as to have the option to decline to receive them if they are worried about their kids choking on them.

This is just my initial review of the promotion (in no way sponsored or endorsed by Pick’nPay). Let’s see how long it takes me to start throwing them out. Either that or I’ll get as hooked as the kids!