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Coles website down after viral Reddit post sees customers buy cases of alcoholic drinks at nearly 80% discount

The Guardian · 🇬🇧 public United Kingdom · · 460 words · By Penry Buckley
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What to know about Coles website down after viral Reddit post sees customers buy cases of alcoholic drinks at nearly 80% discount

The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks.

Claims checked 16
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Center coverage
Left50%
Center0%
Right50%

2 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks.

Why it matters

For several hours on Saturday, both the Coles website and app displayed a message advising “we’re currently offline – but not for long”.

Common ground

The website and app came back online, before the website went down again during the afternoon.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/22/coles-website-down-after-…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 16 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 6
check_circle Corroborated 3
info Single Source 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
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Claim 1: “The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web sources (The Guardian, and two other news-style reports) confirm that the Coles website and app went offline following a viral Reddit post about discounts on premixed alcoholic drinks.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On December 13, 2025, a mass shooting occurred at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, during the second day of final examination week for the fall semester. The shooter, Cláud…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Brown_University_shooting
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The dead Internet theory is a concept that asserts that the Internet consists primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. Originally conceived as a conspiracy …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Blip (also known as the Decimation and the Snap) is a major event and period of time depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The Blip began in 2018 when Thanos, wielding all six Infinity …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blip
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 2: “The Coles website and app came back online briefly on Saturday afternoon, with the beer and premixed drinks categories removed.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided for this claim.
verified
Claim 3: “The operators of CW Scanner told Guardian Australia that the post had received more than 180,000 views.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of Reddit history tools and unrelated Wikipedia entries. There is no mention of the 180,000 views figure in the provided text.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On December 13, 2025, a mass shooting occurred at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, during the second day of final examination week for the fall semester. The shooter, Cláud…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Brown_University_shooting
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The dead Internet theory is a concept that asserts that the Internet consists primarily of bot activity and automated content manipulated by algorithmic curation. Originally conceived as a conspiracy …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Blip (also known as the Decimation and the Snap) is a major event and period of time depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The Blip began in 2018 when Thanos, wielding all six Infinity …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blip
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 4: “the discounts, which did not appear on the Liquorland website itself”
CORROBORATED
The Trustburn source explicitly states discounts were not necessarily visible on the Liquorland website, and the Guardian source discusses the discounts in the context of the Coles platform.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Liquorland has been part of Kiwi's lives since 1981. Find great value on wine, craft beer, spirits & mixers. Enjoy reliable service with Click & Collect or delivery from your local store.
https://www.liquorland.co.nz/
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The discounts were not necessarily visible on the Liquorland website itself, making the discovery particularly dependent on Coles' online pricing data and the Reddit community spreading the informatio…
https://superligmacozetiizle.com/?live-blog-32869196-2026-09…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The Coles website and app have gone offline hours after a viral Reddit post highlighted a nearly 80% discount on 24-packs of premixed alcoholic drinks. For several hours on Saturday, both the Coles we…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/22/coles…
verified
Claim 5: “It was back up at about 4pm AEST.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of generic time zone converters and unrelated Wikipedia entries. No source confirms the specific time (4pm AEST) the website returned online.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2023 AFL Grand Final was an Australian rules football match contested between the Collingwood Football Club and the Brisbane Lions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, 30 September 2023. I…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_AFL_Grand_Final
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — 2024 was the seventeenth competitive season for the Cairns-based Kenfrost Homes Northern Pride Rugby League Football Club. They were one of 15 clubs that compete in Queensland's top rugby league compe…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Northern_Pride_RLFC_seaso…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2025 AFL season was the 129th season of the Australian Football League (AFL), the highest-level senior men's Australian rules football competition in Australia. The season featured 18 clubs and ra…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_AFL_season
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 6: “Due to a technical error, select 24-pack beer and RTD [ready-to-drink] products were incorrectly priced on our website”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 7: “a post by an Australian Reddit account on Friday about a discount on 24-packs of Jack Daniel’s & Cola 330ml bottles sold via Coles by subsidiary Liquorland which were marked down from $130 to $27”
CORROBORATED
Two independent sources (The Guardian and another news report) specifically confirm the Reddit post on Friday regarding 24-packs of Jack Daniel’s & Cola 330ml bottles being marked down from $130 to $27.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Fox Corporation, commonly known as Fox Corp or Fox, is an American multinational mass media company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan with offices also in Burbank, Cali…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Corporation
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries; the main subject articles…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions_…
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. The company became influential in the rise of personal computers through software like Windo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 8: “promotional prices switched on and off at Coles and Woolworths largely in sync over the past two years.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 9: “Earlier this year, a court found Coles’ “Down Down” promotions in some cases falsely led customers to believe they were enjoying a true price reduction.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
schedule
Claim 10: “CW Scanner identified at least 20 24-packs – or cartons – of beer and 46 cases of premixed drinks affected by the discounts”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 11: “For several hours on Saturday, both the Coles website and app displayed a message advising “we’re currently offline – but not for long”.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The specific wording of the offline message ('we’re currently offline – but not for long') is mentioned in The Guardian evidence, but other sources only mention the platforms were 'temporarily offline' or 'crashing' without quoting the specific message.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — CVS® makes it easy to redeem OTC benefits. Pay nothing out of pocket for select over-the-counter eligible products like vitamins, cold, medicine, eye care and more.
https://www.cvs.com/content/otc-benefits
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Your local CVS Pharmacy® accepts most insurance plans* for your prescription refills. With an online account, you can get your prescriptions refilled automatically, choose the same refill schedule for…
https://www.cvs.com/content/refill
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jul 21, 2026 · Do I need an appointment to get a vaccine at CVS®? Scheduling an appointment online or through the CVS Health® app is recommended to help reduce wait times and confirm vaccine availabil…
https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/get-vaccinated
schedule
Claim 12: “The largest discount, on 24-packs of Smirnoff Crush Mango & Peach Zero Sugar 6% 440ml cans, provided a saving of $173, down to $29 from $202.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 13: “a Coles spokesperson said it was aware of a technical issue affecting its website and app”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided for this claim.
info
Claim 14: “some later wrote that their orders had been cancelled by Coles.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of academic papers on neural networks and LLMs, which are completely irrelevant to Coles order cancellations.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Feb 15, 2018 · Our analysis yields a novel robustness metric called CLEVER, which is short for Cross Lipschitz Extreme Value for nEtwork Robustness. The proposed CLEVER score is attack-agnostic and is…
https://openreview.net/forum?id=BkUHlMZ0b
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Feb 21, 2026 · This survey on spurious correlations uses the Clever Hans metaphor to motivate the problem, formalizes a group-based setup g= (y,a) with core metrics (worst-group, average-group, bias-c…
https://openreview.net/forum?id=kIuqPmS1b1
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — While, as we mentioned earlier, there can be thorny “clever hans” issues about humans prompting LLMs, an automated verifier mechanically backprompting the LLM doesn’t suffer from these. We tested this…
https://openreview.net/pdf?id=X6dEqXIsEW
info
Claim 15: “the account, which is run by the operators of price tracking website CW Scanner.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The connection to 'CW Scanner' is mentioned in the Trustburn source, but not corroborated by the other news reports provided.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Austin ( AW-stin) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census, it is the 12th-most populous city in the U.S., fifth-most populous city in Texas, an…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — An electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) or vape is a device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Ins…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_cigarette
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The reliability of Wikipedia and its volunteer-driven and community-regulated editing model, particularly its English-language edition, has been questioned and tested. Wikipedia is written and edited …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia
+ 3 more evidence sources
schedule
Claim 16: “the average discount on beer about $49, and premixed drinks $111.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.