Frantic shoppers filmed snapping up scarce baby formula at Coles store

SHOPPERS have been filmed frantically stuffing tins of baby formula into their baskets straight from a supermarket trolley as the craze gets even worse.

AN OUTRAGED mother has confronted Coles after filming frenzied shoppers snapping up tins of baby formula before they even made the shelves.

Melbourne parent, Hannah Dixon spotted more than a dozen shoppers lining up for the valuable formula — before stuffing the tins in their baskets.

One of the shoppers became angry at being recorded and told Ms Dixon she wasn’t allowed to film them because she didn’t have their permission.

The concerned parent can be heard saying in the video that the shoppers keep going through the checkout.

“I know it’s legal, but it’s still wrong,” she told shoppers on the video. “You’re cheating the system.”

Incensed by what she saw, Ms Dixon decided to post a public message to Coles on Facebook.

“All these people were running through the supermarket,” she wrote. “Going through the checkout and coming straight back over and over again.

Hannah Dixon confronted Coles on Facebook.

“I talked to other workers in the area and they’ve said that these people do it all the time — almost barrelling other customers over in the process.

“I understand it’s legally allowed, however surely there should be a limit on how many they can purchase in a given time frame.

“What happened today and many other days is just ridiculous.”

Some supermarkets now keep emergency tins locked away with the cigarettes.

Coles responded to the video, saying it was committed to ensuring its “genuine” customers had access to baby formula.

“As we are currently experiencing unprecedented demand, we are limiting sales quantities to four units per customer,” Coles wrote.

“We’re continuing our work to ensure our policies are strictly adhered to store to store.”

It is not the first time shoppers have stormed stores for milk formula — leaving customers furious over the nationwide shortage.

Mums have been complaining of shortages for more than two years. Source: Facebook

Brisbane mum, Jessica Hook, 27, snapped photos of similar scenes in August.

She had arrived early at her local shopping centre, after receiving a tip-off that a shipment was due.

Ms Hook spends “a couple of hours” every week travelling to different supermarkets to find Aptamil Gold, the brand of formula she needs for her eight-month-old daughter.

“She goes through about a tin every week, and so I usually try to find a couple at a time,” she said. “But in the last few months it’s been such a nightmare, and trying to track down even one is considered a win.

She said she had originally assumed she could buy a different type, but learned you shouldn’t switch babies once they were on a particular formula. “It can make them really sick and give them upset bellies,” she said.

“Last week, when I really struggled, I was phoning up stores asking if they had any. A lot of Woolies and Coles now will put a tin of each type in the locked-up cupboard where they sell cigarettes, to sell to desperate mums.”

Aussie products are sold into China at inflated prices.

The long-running infant formula shortages show no signs of abating, and it’s not hard to see why — a 900g tin of Aptamil Gold currently sells for about 200 yuan ($38) on Tmall, compared with $25 in Australia.

Despite four-tin purchase limits introduced by supermarkets and chemists, retailers are largely powerless to stop determined daigou — the online traders making millions by recommending and shipping their products to China.

And, fears that big Australian brands selling directly into China would kill of the daigou trade do not appear to have been borne out.