A Tasmanian mother has been left outraged after witnessing a customer emptying supermarket shelves of baby formula in the latest incident involving the sought-after product.
Hobart mum Sharn Purdon took to Facebook to vent her anger after claiming to have seen a Chinese woman buy 16 tins of formula at a Coles Supermarket in Bridgewater.
‘We are struggling to buy baby milk and these Chinese people can buy near every tin on the shelf’, she wrote on Coles’ Facebook page accompanied with an image of the customer’s basket.
A Tasmanian mother has been left outraged after witnessing a customer emptying supermarket shelves of baby formula in the latest incident involving the sought-after product
Hobart mum Sharn Purdon took to Facebook to vent her anger after claiming to have seen a Chinese woman buy 16 tins of formula at a Coles Supermarket in Bridgewater
Ms Purdon (pictured) was shocked to find the woman was met by a man in the car park with a van full of baby formula
‘This lady had 16 tins all up I asked the staff about the limit and they tell me Coles don’t have one when I got out to the car park there is a man stand(ing) at a van that is full of baby milk.’
Coles were quick to refute Ms Purdon’s claims there was no policy on limiting the amount of tins a customer can buy after she said she was informed by a member of staff on Sunday.
‘We can assure you we are committed to ensuring that our customers with a genuine need for baby formula have access to this product’, they wrote.
‘As we are currently experiencing unprecedented demand, we are limiting sales quantities to four units per customer’.
Her claims are the latest in a long line of incidents that have left shoppers enraged after a nationwide shortage of the popular product.
Shoppers have been buying the formula in bulk and sending them to countries such as China where they are sold on.
Coles were quick to refute Ms Purdon’s claims there was no policy on limiting the amount of tins a customer can buy after she said she was informed by a member of staff on Sunday
The incident is the latest in a long line of incidents that have left shoppers enraged after a nationwide shortage of the popular product
Facebook users were quick to point out that this behaviour was commonplace across Australian stores and sided with the disgruntled mother.
‘It’s frustrating because people who actually NEED the formula often can’t get it because it’s cleared out!’, one comment read.
‘And here the rest of us are struggling to find the formula just to feed our babies!’, another said.
But not all were critical of the alleged behaviour of the shopper, as some supported her actions.
‘I know how horrible it is to struggle to find formula for your babies, but think of all the starving babies in China. I just wish there wasn’t a shortage of products’, one user wrote.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Coles for comment.
Shoppers have been buying the formula in bulk and sending them to countries such as China where they are sold on
Facebook users were quick to point out that this behaviour was commonplace across Australian stores and sided with the disgruntled mother