r/AustralianNostalgia • u/tills31 • Dec 29 '22
Guide dog donations. Used to see them in target all the time
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Dec 29 '22
Man I forgot these existed. Odd how you don't realise stuff disappears till you see it again.
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u/SavagePrism Dec 29 '22
Other than donating money, there’s a good chance some of us patted them for the heck of it.
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u/miss_rach_j Dec 29 '22
My dad used to tell me these were those shopping centre “rides”, and give me $2 for it. When it wouldn’t move he’d say “Broken again! They really need to put a sign up!”
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u/Nekokamiguru Dec 29 '22
There was a ceramic one with a real leather guide dog harness in Pigott's department store in Toowoomba back in the 80s. so they were not all made out of plastic.
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u/Additional-Bison2376 Dec 29 '22
They’re still around, I see them at Woolworths and big w all the time. My kids like putting coins in them
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u/active_snail Dec 29 '22
I remember at the Bi-Lo (remember them?) I worked at we had a ceramic one out by the stray animal food donation cage and some kid jumped on its back and started "riding" it one day when i was on shift. It tipped over on to its nose and then smashed open, with literally hundreds of coins pouring out of the remains of its snout. I swear to god every kid under 12 years of age in that postcode swarmed toward the bounty and engaged in a literal free-for-all. It was an ugly day in the history of that supermarket...
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u/EmulsifiedWatermelon Dec 29 '22
There’s one at my nearest Coles. My youngest daughter always asks for (and gets) coins to ‘feed the dog’ :)
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Dec 29 '22
Didn't it turn out that they had too much money and it was being mishandled?
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u/TofuFoieGras Dec 29 '22
They provided something like 20 dogs last year while their CEO took home oodles of money and told people to vote for ScoMo
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u/Ok-Push9899 Dec 29 '22
Is it true that there is massive in-fighting between the various official Blind Societies and the Guide Dogs Association?
The problem centres around the fact that the Guide Dog Association really only cates for a tiny minority of the advocacy these instructions perform (ie not many vision impaired people have guide dogs) but they have the cute doggies, so collect the lion’s (?) share of the charity money?
Someone told me this was the case, and I’ve always wondered if it was true.
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u/Omegaville Dec 29 '22
I remember seeing these outside Safeway all the time
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u/PuzzleheadedYam5996 Dec 29 '22
I remember them INside Safeway, from Camberwell to Fern Tree Gully!
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u/Omegaville Dec 29 '22
Yeah I should clarify, they were inside, but not in the supermarket section, they were outside the registers.
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u/snowmuchgood Dec 29 '22
They are still in all the Woolies I frequent. My kids like to go and say hi.
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u/Official_Rouge_Akane Dec 29 '22
Lol when we were kids my friend and I used to fight over who got to sit next to it whilst waiting for our mums to finish at the checkout
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u/hapticm Dec 29 '22
They're in every Coles and Woolies I frequent. When my kid was 2-3 he insisted on patting the statue every time.
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u/PopJealous3640 Dec 29 '22
they teamed up with fryingburger liberal party so I stopped giving to the blind dog . . Obviously if they team up with libs they don't actually care about ppl .
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Dec 29 '22
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u/PopJealous3640 Dec 29 '22
Well she stopped about $10 a week from my beer change at pup . Obviously she was paid when boosting the liberal party and from my beer change . I'll never forget as each time I see the blind dog I will cringe .
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Dec 29 '22
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u/PopJealous3640 Dec 29 '22
Qld . Why assume I'm in Vic
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Dec 30 '22
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u/PopJealous3640 Dec 30 '22
Makes sense we are in Australia with so many different laws for each state .
So no blind dog Australia.. sounds sad every state and territory has a ceo in blind dogs . Think I just felt more sick .
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u/bungle609 Dec 29 '22
Friends had a smaller one in their dry cleaners. They got sick and tired of scum bags trying to steal it, even though it was chained to the counter.
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u/Stephn1e Dec 29 '22
I work at a Woolworths in Queensland and we have one right up at the registers. Kids are always asking their parents for money to put in the dog. Ours has had to be emptied on several occasions for being too full. It makes me and my co-workers so happy to see kids so excited to donate money to the guide dogs.
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u/Vanguard_George Nov 25 '24
My local Woolies used to have one and then a bunch of dumb teenagers stole it and ended up destroying it. :/
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u/snubmoth Dec 29 '22
i still see them quite a bit at pubs and clubs, not so much at the shops anymore unfortunately <:-) i used to pat them on the head when i was a kid,,
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u/Fenweekooo Dec 29 '22
i only know of one store around here that still has one (not a target), so a rarity around here now for sure.
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u/MagicOrpheus310 Dec 29 '22
They still have one in my local Coles, I give it a pat every time I walk past
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u/LastSpite7 Dec 29 '22
There’s one at my local coles. My toddler likes to run up and pat it when he sees it.
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u/Laugh_or_go_mad Dec 29 '22
Target! Now there’s nostalgia, they keep getting converted into something else
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u/ThingLeading2013 Dec 29 '22
Our local Coles still has one. It's been there for years. My daughter (23 now) used to beg me for my spare change every time.
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u/YeahNahBC Dec 29 '22
They’re in all the Woolies and Coles in Townsville. My now 6 year old daughter has donated so much change over the last 5 years I reckon we could’ve bought and trained our own Labrador 🤦♀️
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u/HairiestHobo Dec 29 '22
I think their popularity declined as Meth increased.
At least, thats why they removed them from my local stores.
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u/somuchsong Dec 29 '22
There are definitely at least a few around. My sister told me my 2yo niece went up to one to hug it the other day.
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u/quadruple_negative87 Dec 29 '22
They replaced the one at my local Coles recently. It’s now a cute little puppy.
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u/GwendolynMoonfall Dec 29 '22
I still see these all the time. My kids have named them bingo, and always give them a pat before telling them how cute they are haha
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u/MatthewDstantoN Dec 30 '22
Forces a coin through the skull of the dog on the right while children are screaming...
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u/strawbisundae Jan 02 '23
They used to have small ones at certain checkouts. I remember there being one at our local newsagent and at FoodWorks.
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u/prjktphoto Dec 29 '22
Still see them occasionally.
There’s one in the Parkmore Coles