Katie Bice: Baby formula folly needs real action
Baby formula bandits continue to find ways around supermarket restrictions and profit for their efforts handsomely. Now it’s time for more drastic action, writes Katie Bice.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Baby formula bandits are raiding our supermarkets with precision, co-ordination and stunning regularity.
Technically of course, they aren’t thieves. They are paying for the product, but they must also be profiting from it handsomely or their enterprise wouldn’t be worth the time that clearly goes into it.
The extraordinary thing is no one seems to be doing much about it.
CUSTOMERS FLOUTING BABY FORMULA POLICY
BABY FORMULA SHORTAGE IN AUSTRALIA
I have seen the efficiency of these ‘daigou’ shoppers with my own eyes. Two women in the local supermarket were haranguing a staff member to check in the storeroom for more product and then asked him to call around other stores to try to find some in stock.
What seemed like a two-bit operation turned into something more when I left the shop and noticed the women from inside had at least one companion outside and three drivers babysitting their goods, packed to the brim in nearby cars.
Their method was simple. Each of the women would go in, collect two tins — the limit — each. Go through the checkout, have their receipt stamped, leave the tins in the car and go back to repeat the process until the shelf was cleared.
Like a scene from a bad sketch comedy show when that group packed up and drove off in convoy another carload of rival daigous arrived, only to find the store had already been fleeced.
We know the tins are being sent to Asia where demand for Aussie milk products is soaring. With good reason. No one can blame mothers, particularly in China, from seeking a safe alternative for their babies after a contamination scare in 2008.
This shouldn’t be a debate about whether Australian mothers or Asian mothers deserve the product more, because both of them do. You couldn’t begrudge someone with family overseas from buying a few tins to send home.
But years of relative inaction has turned this into a commercial operation taking place under the noses of shoppers every week. It’s unimaginable how stressful it must be for parents to think they can’t just pop down to the shops and buy some when they need it.
Supermarkets have imposed a tin limit, added security features and claim they are working on a longer term solution. Formula companies vow they are producing more than ever before, but it’s still not enough. Maybe its inaction of convenience — formula companies and supermarkets alike benefit from products being constantly sold out. Perhaps they legitimately don’t know how to deal with the problem.
But it’s time they really bite the bullet and do something — even it requires drastic action.
Katie Bice is the Sunday Herald Sun deputy editor
Human cost of pandemic goes much further than virus
Whether you are pro or anti-lockdown the grim, unintended consequences of the fixation on coronavirus are undeniable, as other diseases — including cancer and heart disease — go unchecked, and despair from joblessness, poverty and financial stress rises, writes Rita Panahi.
Premier must outline his plan so Melbourne can recover
As the community overwhelmingly complies with the Premier’s stage four restrictions, he must clearly outline his virus strategy so we can make plans to rebuild confidence and employment in our city, which right now is a ghost town, writes Jeff Kennett.