Dozens of Chinese buyers desperate to get their hands on crates of baby formula have flooded a Woolworths’ stockroom.
The buying frenzy began just minutes after the store in Box Hill, Melbourne, opened its doors in the morning last week, according to witnesses.
Customers queued almost to end of an aisle, prompting staff to simply stack the boxes on a pallet in the stock room’s doorway in preparation of the mad rush.
Bulk baby formula buyers weren’t heading for the checkout of the Box Hill Woolworths, but directly to the door to the stock room where they were handed a box a several tins (pictured)
Customers are filmed hustling through the otherwise empty store to be some of the first to collect the tins, which can sell for hundreds of dollars online.
After grabbing a box from the pallet, which was piled as high as their heads, customers jogged towards the checkout – aware they were being filmed.
The boxes had arrived directly from suppliers and hadn’t even been opened when the impatient buyers formed a queue snaking through the store.
A man filming the stunning sight berated the line for buying so many tins of the sought-after formula just to make huge profits selling them online.
‘Look at all these people… this should be illegal,’ he said, as buyers covered their faces with their hands or hooded jumpers.
Shoppers were shocked to see a huge line of impatient customers almost the whole way down an aisle of a Woolworths in Box Hill, Melbourne, last week (pictured)
In response to the outcry, the supermarket was forced to reinstate a two tins per customer policy from next week
For several years, Australian parents have been outraged at the practice by Asian ‘daigous’, as few tins are left for their own children.
The video prompted a barrage of complaints to Woolworths after it was posted online over the weekend.
In response to the outcry, and to a similar video recently filmed in another Melbourne suburb, the supermarket was forced to reinstate a two tins per customer policy as of next week.
‘We can confirm from next week the baby formula limit will revert to two tins per transaction,’ it said.
‘We’ll closely monitor our on-shelf availability and feedback from customers as we make this adjustment.
‘We encourage parents who find their chosen baby formula is not on the shelf to speak directly with the store manager for assistance.’
A second video (pictured) was shot at a Woolworths in Chadstone and posted online last Sunday to the shock of many who viewed it
The second video was shot at a Woolworths in Chadstone and posted online last Sunday.
Woolworths raised the tin per customer limit from two to eight in August, boasting it was keeping up with supply.
Baby formula is lucrative market, with some people earning in excess of $100,000 per year after shipping off the tins to willing buyers in China.
Australia’s tough regulations mean the formula is of higher quality and well-off parents are willing to pay more than five times the supermarket price.