A Melbourne-based cafe has apologised after a promotional offer regarding Rapid Antigen Tests backfired.
St Ali is a small business cafe based in South Melbourne. In screenshots shared on Twitter, a spokesperson for the cafe told customers on Monday night that they were offering a limited number of RATs after distributing some to its staff, friends and families.
Basically, they claimed to offer customers a free two-pack of RATs with free shipping if they spent $159.99 on their online store.
“Stay safe, stay calm, stay caffeinated,” they wrote.
Cursed timeline pic.twitter.com/Rjx97VvQs3
— Elyce Phillips (@ElycePhillips) January 17, 2022
A few hours after the original text, St Ali issued an apology.
“We believed this was a way of supporting our customers whom purchase from us regularly, but the message has been lost,” the spokesperson wrote.
“We can see in hindsight it was inappropriate.
“We are very sorry.”
They added that once they receive more tests, they plan to donate them to a local charity that can fairly distribute them. They also encouraged customers to get in touch if they wanted to talk further.
Just this moment got an apology text – yes pretty gross pic.twitter.com/9U3HQCpPq7
— niall harden (@furiousniall) January 17, 2022
While the business decision may have been intended out of good faith, some have called out the cafe for what could be argued as gross exploitation of people’s desperation to find tests that really should’ve been available for everyone at all times.
However, I don’t know if it’s fair to wholeheartedly blame the people who work at St Ali. Much like the woman behind a candle-making business who was giving RATs away in a competition and the South Australia burger joint trying to sell a two-pack of RATs for $50, this incident is a product of the chaotic dystopia our government has led us to via their own incompetence and lack of decisive thinking.
FYI, if you’ve been wondering what the deal is with Rapid Antigen Tests — including which one is most effective — we’ve answered all of your pressing questions here. There’s also an Insta account that gives real-time updates on the Sydney stores that have RATs in stock.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to St Ali for comment however they did not reply at the time of publishing.
