Shoppers were stunned at who they found behind the checkout at their local Woolworths – as one makes an extraordinary claim

Australian shoppers have spotted embattled former Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci working the checkout of one of the supermarket giant’s metropolitan stores ahead of his retirement from the group.

Mr Banducci was spotted behind the counter at the Woolworths in Marrickville Metro in Sydney’s inner west on Sunday, just days after Amanda Bardwell officially took over responsibilities as the group’s CEO.

Mr Banducci announced his retirement as Managing Director and CEO in February with an internal note to staff, later posted on LinkedIn.

‘I do not intend to go quietly into the night and look forward to working with all of you to help our customers spend less, for us to be rightly famous for the care we show our customers and each other and to continue to be better together,’ he wrote in the letter.

Mr Banducci now has a short ‘handover’ period following his official departure from the CEO position on the last day of August. 

One shopper snapped a picture of Mr Banducci’s day as a covert cashier and claimed he was seen ‘copping an earful’ from an elderly lady.

‘(The) lady was having a go at him for cosplaying a wage earner while not paying his workers enough. Pretty on the money,’ they wrote online.

Daily Mail Australia understands Mr Banducci reported the shift had gone smoothly and there weren’t any incidents with disgruntled customers.  

‘(The) lady was having a go at him for cosplaying a wage earner while not paying his workers enough. Pretty on the money,’ a shopper claimed online about Mr Banducci’s interaction with a customer in a Sydney Woolworths  

Woolworths says it is not uncommon for executives and corporate staff to spend time working at the supermarkets to gain insight to the company’s daily operations. 

‘It is common practice for our senior management and office-based employees from our support offices to work in-stores to support our store teams,’ a Woolworths spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Woolworths Group actually has a program which requires all new hires in office-based roles, no matter what their role is, to spend several days in a Woolworths Group store as an introduction to the heart of the retail business,’ she said.

In his eight years as CEO Mr Banducci has been known to visit the stores at the times of the group’s results announcements to provide additional comments to investors and media. 

Mr Banducci made his final results announcement in August, revealing prices at the supermarket fell 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent in the March and June quarters respectively, and that he would spend his last weeks with the grocery giant working in store in Marrickville and making home deliveries.

His formal resignation came in February just days after a disastrous interview with ABC’s Four Corners and after facing growing controversy over the supermarket giant’s role in the increasing cost of living for Australians.

ABC Journalist Angus Grigg grilled Mr Banducci on the lack of competition in the supermarket industry. 

His line of questioning saw Mr Banducci storm off in the midst of the interview, though he returned later to finish taping.

Mr Banducci experienced a meteoric rise to CEO of Woolworths Group from his beginnings in consultancy.

His most recent LinkedIn listing reads: CEO Woolworths group, February 2016 to September 2024, to Woolworths Team Member, September 2024 to present.

After announcing his retirement, he fronted a senate inquiry into supermarket pricing and was pinned by Greens senator Nick McKim who accused him of dodging questions about Woolworths’ profitability.

‘I think I’m done guys’: Mr Banducci walked out of an ABC Four Corners interview which aired in February

But, Woolworths’ management hailed Mr Banducci as a great leader, citing record profits in recent years.

Group Chair Scott Perkins said at the time: ‘Brad has led a remarkable turnaround and transformation of the Group’.

‘The test of any CEO is to leave the business in much better shape than when they started.

‘On that simple metric, history will judge Brad to have been one of Woolworths Group’s finest leaders,’ he said.