A Boost Juice store in Western Australia has taken down its gory Halloween decorations following outrage from the local community.
In photos uploaded to a Perth Facebook group on Thursday, cardboard cutouts of hands and feet covered in blood can be seen strung across the Perth store in Cockburn Gateway Shopping Centre, some 23km south of the state’s capital.
Shoppers were left horrified at the images, with one declaring the display looked like ‘a butcher’s shop’.
Boost Juice Australia’s general manager has since confirmed the decorations had been taken down.
Photos uploaded to Facebook showed the gory display of Halloween decorations at the Boost Juice store at Cockburn Gateway Shopping Centre south of Perth
Boost Juice Australia’s general manager confirmed the gruesome decorations had been taken down
‘As soon as we became aware of this type of decoration we asked the team to remove it from display as this is not part of who we are and how we want our brand represented,’ they told Yahoo News.
‘This display has now been removed.
‘Fun Halloween is aligned to Boost however frightening and gruesome Halloween is not aligned with our brand.’
Reactions on social media were varied, with some members of the Facebook page, a local mother’s group, stating their outrage while others couldn’t see what the fuss was about.
‘I think it’s appalling to have something this graphic where people walk by,’ the author of the post wrote.
‘Already some are finding it hard with their kids to even walk into Big W and Kmart where they have the skeletons and ghouls etc. I don’t understand what severed limbs have to do with Halloween. This is just appalling to have for a shop, in my opinion.’
‘With everything happening in the world right now, the horrific images we’re seeing of Palestinian children, this is in very poor taste,’ one person replied.
‘There is definitely a line when it comes to this gory stuff and this is too far,’ another said.
Some locals blasted the store for its decorations, with one labelling the display as ‘appalling’
However, others argued ‘there’s worse things happening in the world compared to a few tacky Halloween decorations’.
‘It’s Halloween, spooky season, not wrap ya kids in bubble wrap season,’ one said.
‘Kids being scared for two minutes isn’t a world-ending sort of moment, it’s really not hard to explain that they’re fake,’ another added.
Another member of the Facebook mother’s group labelled the original poster a ‘Karen’, and argued that the decorations were ‘awesome’.