A small army of Australian mothers is pressuring Woolworths to strictly enforce a four-tin limit on infant formula, after photographs emerged of people stripping shelves of product so they can sell it online to China.
Anger about the bulk buys – where Chinese tourists or people with friends and relatives in China buy up huge amounts of precious infant formula and mark-up the price to sell it on eBay, or overseas – has reached crisis points in many supermarkets, with customers arguing that a limit must be set so Australian mothers can feed their babies.
Fairfax yesterday published photographs of two people moving through a supermarket queue with at least two, possibly three trolleys, filled with dozens of boxes of formula.
There are reports of shelves being stripped bare within minutes of being stocked, and of mothers having to drive for hours to find a supermarket with formula in stock.
The maker of Bellamy’s Organic, which is prized by many mothers, says this week’s supermarket shortage has been fuelled by an online shopping day, China’s Singles Day. Meanwhile, shares in Bellamy stock have rocketed from around $1 to more than $8 as the company’s business booms.
One Australian mum told Fairfax she snapped a picture of the bulk buying because “my blood was boiling for the mothers having problems … I was feeling sensitive because I’ve got a newborn.”
She said another customer begged a Woolworths employee to intervene and stop the bulk sale but they did not. Some stores do have limits but they aren’t always strictly enforced.
