Angry shopper confronts baby formula syndicate outside Woolworths

An angry shopper has confronted members of an organised syndicate stripping baby formula from Woolworths shelves.

An angry shopper has confronted members of an organised syndicate stripping baby formula from Woolworths shelves.

The footage, aired by Nine News, showed a group of Asian shoppers frantically running in and out of an Adelaide Woolworths repeatedly buying the two-tin limit.

“Oh you’ve got plenty of babies, plenty of babies, huh?” the man sarcastically asks one of the group as they crouch next to their haul outside.

Belinda Jennings, founder of national mum’s network Mum Central, told Nine News her 800,000 followers were tired of these organised groups stripping shelves of popular brands like A2 Platinum and Aptamil.

The group were running in and out of an Adelaide Woolworths.

‘Oh you’ve got plenty of babies, huh?’ a passer-by asks.

The formula is resold to customers in China for massive profit.

“I think it’s absolutely heart breaking, you’ve got enough to worry about as a new mum, let alone trying to find food and this is sometime the only food you can give them,” she said.

“It’s extremely frustrating you know, we’ve had mums saying they’re driving around late at night trying to find formula for their babies and all the shelves are empty.”

Tins of baby formula are resold by so-called “daigou” to customers in China for massive profit. Despite the best efforts of the supermarkets and chemists to keep shelves stocked, the demand appears insatiable.

Earlier this year, an outraged Sydney dad snapped a photo of a woman outside Hurstville Woolworths with what appeared to be two trolleys full of baby formula. Jason Wu said the issue of bare shelves was getting worse, saying he often had to drive from store to store to find any.

Last month, Chinese military personnel were spotted loading baby formula and face masks onto a warship before leaving Sydney Harbour.

“We have a two-tin purchase limit on baby formula in place and our store teams work hard to ensure stock is available for our customers,” a Woolworths spokeswoman said.

“We encourage any parents who find their chosen baby formula is unavailable on the shelves to speak with their store manager, so we can help get them stock as quickly as possible.”

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