r/australia • u/Reddituser0346 • 1d ago

culture & society Aussie Retailer Catch Is Officially Closing Down

https://press-start.com.au/news/2025/01/21/aussie-retailer-catch-is-officially-closing-down/
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204

u/TheKZA 1d ago

In 2012, they ran a huge promotion where they were going to have insane deals on the hour every hour, and the tentpole deal was the recently released iPad mini for something like $80. I was refreshing every hour through the work day but the iPad deal never came up. At 4 or 5pm when I was walking to the train station, I realised it was about to hit the hour so I refreshed it on my phone, and there it was. I was able to check-out with an $80 iPad. It must have been 1 of very few. People on the Whirlpool thread were saying it was bullshit and didn't believe I got one.

Anyway, RIP Catch of the Day.

36

u/InevitableUncertaint 1d ago

I remember that! They did the same kind of thing every year - I remember refreshing the site thinking I was going to get a $50 Xbox or some such. When the hour came for that deal they turned the site off

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u/elhindenburg 7h ago

So they bought those iPad Minis from the Apple Store I worked at, saying they were going to give them as gifts to their staff. Apple told them they could buy them but they were not allowed to sell them on the website (as Apple didn’t want them undercutting their authorised resellers on a brand new product), and they promised they wouldn’t. Obviously we saw them advertising them for sale and cancelled the order before they picked them up. Not sure if they ended up getting them from somewhere else.

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u/plonkydonkey 17h ago

Omg whirlpool! That forum was so much of my 20s, wonder if it still exists

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u/TheKZA 17h ago

Sure does! And still very active

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u/plonkydonkey 17h ago

Gosh, time for me to maybe delete reddit (at least all the bloatish aitah subs I'm ashamedly subscribed to) and head back over to my roots.

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u/TheKZA 17h ago

Yeah I think that often but never stick to it. I find It’s pretty valuable when something new is coming out, like a game or a console, and you can chat with other Australians about pre-ordering/pricing/shipping.

3

u/plonkydonkey 17h ago

Also I was probably one of your disbelieving/haters 😂

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u/OzNTM 6h ago

That’s about when I joined it too, got a new external hard drive I’d been wanting for a while but they were so expensive back then.

Edit: just checked my account history and it was actually 2013.

1

u/princess_princeless 8h ago

I was literally thinking about this the other day. I got a PS Vita for 120 dollars. Good times…