Woolworths shopper infuriated with self-service donation screen

Customers have lashed Woolworths for a malfunction on the self-service check-outs, saying they were being “guilted” into making a donation.

A Woolworths shopper has shared their frustration after a glitch with the self-service checkout appeared to force them to donate to the supermarket chain’s charity partner.

Just before customers pay for their shopping, the self-service screen brings up a prompt which asks them to make a donation by rounding up their bill to the nearest dollar.

The screen then asks the customer whether they would like to round up the transaction and donate a small sum to Variety Charity.

However, one confused customer was only given two options: “Yes Please”, or just “Yes”.

Customers were not give a choice when they were asked to donate to Variety. Picture: Reddit.

Sharing a photo of the machine’s glitch to Reddit, the shopper shared their frustration.

“Thanks Woolworths, very cool,” they captioned the photo.

In the comments, people said they resented Woolies for asking them to donate money.

“Ah yes, giant supermarket chain asking for your charity. How sweet,” one Reddit user wrote.

“Yea after they ask $9 for a broccoli,” shared another.

“There should be a ‘round up and we’ll match it’ button,” another comment read.

“I get that this is a system glitch, but can multi-billion dollar corporations not try guilting their customers to donate to charities?” wrote another belligerent customer.

“They can donate directly themselves. Also if they want to feed people they could start by not throwing away tonnes of perfectly fine food every single day.”

Woolworths has been a partner of Variety the Children’s Charity since 2013. Picture: Supplied.

According to Statistica, the Woolworths Group in Australia made $1.97 billion in profit during the 2020 to 2021 financial year, which was their biggest net profit total since 2016.

However the problem was seemingly resolved after one supermarket worker confirmed that the problem didn’t occur on every machine, while also sharing a workaround.

“Woolies worker here. This is a known issue to my store at least. Pressing yes on the bottom counts as a no. Only happens on one of 16 machines though,” they wrote.

In a statement to news.com.au, a Woolworths spokesperson said that the “donations are intended to be optional”.

“We thank these customers for getting in touch about the incorrect prompt at their local store,” they said.

“We believe this technical glitch is limited to a few stores and we’re in contact with these customers to understand which stores they shopped in so we can fix this localised issue as soon as possible.”

A Woolworths employee said that only one of the store’s 16 machines reported the problem. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett.

Woolworths joined forces with Variety the Children’s Charity since 2013. The organisation works with children who are sick, disadvantaged or have special needs who aren’t able to access government assistance.

While the charity began in Pittsburgh, in western Pennsylvania, the Australian arm of the foundation was established in 1975.