NEW footage has emerged showing how a gang of shoppers is getting around restrictions on the purchase of baby formula.
Women can be seen buying two tins of the baby formula at Hurstville Woolworths, placing them in trolleys outside the shop before returning to buy more, the footage provided to 9News by 2GB’s Ben Fordham shows.
Shoppers at the store are now limited to buying two tins at a time, but Janet Hill and daughter Alisha, who filmed the footage, said the shelf was completely cleared of tins.
Most baby formula retails in Australia for $20 to $35 dollars a tin, but it can sell for more than double that in China.
This week, a second alleged member of a Sydney baby formula gang was charged.
The man, 35, was arrested at a Dundas Valley home on Monday as part of a police investigation into the theft and distribution of $250,000 worth of baby formula, vitamins, Manuka honey and other goods.
He was later charged offences including with larceny and theft. Police allege he stole baby formula from a Carlingford supermarket that was later sent overseas.
The gang’s alleged ringleader, a 48-year-old woman, had at least 12 people under her wing sourcing items, which are all highly sought after in China.
She was arrested in late August, when a police raid of two Carlingford homes uncovered $215,000 in cash and 4000 tins of baby formula.
What is wrong with Mothers' Milk until the baby is old enough to go on Cow's milk?
I couldn't breast feed (she was a premmie) so had my daughter on formula for about 4 months, (she was on solids at 3 months) then straight on to cow's milk. She took one suck of the milk, looked up at me (thinking, this tastes different) and then continued to drink the whole bottle. No problems at all. I was lucky to have sisters who had already had kids so they told me to ignore what the Health Centre told me.
The one that says the least can often have a very different perspective and hold the answer. The least qualified person may hold the most wisdom. When you don’t have knowledge or experience blocking your perspective, you can see problems and solutions.
It's a powdered infant formula made from proteins derived from cow's milk or soy for mothers who cannot, or don't wish to, breast feed their babies.
The one that says the least can often have a very different perspective and hold the answer. The least qualified person may hold the most wisdom. When you don’t have knowledge or experience blocking your perspective, you can see problems and solutions.
Just heard on the news that Chinese students are making $100,000 plus per year assaulting shoppers and grabbing all the baby formula to send back to China
Australia’s giant brigade of Chinese ‘daigou’ shoppers is about to table a circuit-breaker on baby formula, hoping to put an end to supermarket scuffles and empty shelves.
With some Chinese immigrants and students reportedly making up to $100,000 a year by shipping Australian formula back home, filming frenzied baby formula chaos is now commonplace across social media as disgruntled shoppers battle it out for the prized commodity.
From a Christmas Eve swarm on a Coles site in Sydney to a round-robin raid on Woolworths in Brisbane, Aussie shoppers have worked to expose China’s tin-can army who appear to breach store limits over and over.
Yet experts believe there are alternatives to what has become one of the most controversial issues across the nation.
“The daigou we talk to – none of them like going into Coles and Woolies and becoming vilified through people filming them,” Dr Mathew McDougall, from the Australia China Daigou Association, said.
“So I think if we provide an alternative path to doing that – there’d be a lot of people opt-in.”
A new plan, which will go to supermarket chiefs next month, would see a dedicated register for Australia’s 40,000 daigou which would allow them to place unlimited orders online.
In theory it would give manufacturers firm forecasts on demand and would allow supermarkets to keep their cut, preventing scuffles in the aisles and breaching of the two-tin limit.
The move looks to follow suit with vitamin makers who have been operating a similar procedure for years.
“When you look at Swisse and Blackmores they’re much more organised and, in fact, Blackmores runs a daigou program,” Dr McDougall said.
Consumer behaviour analyst Barry Urquhart said the current “mess” did not need to be seen by the Australian consumer.
“Because at the moment they’re controlling access, they’re controlling the process and they’re controlling the market to the detriment of local Australian families,” he said.
They are earning 100k plus per year on the back of our baby formula. Why should we support these daigou?
There is already a dedicated Australia Post shop on the north shore that is ONLY for sending parcels to China and the ONLY 2 things they stock in-store to sell are baby formula and vitamins
