Woolworths customers’ hilarious response to pricing fail goes viral
Woolworths customers are spreading holiday cheer on social media by sharing a laugh over photos of Christmas items which have been hilariously over-priced clearly in error.
An amused shopper shared her discovery on a popular Facebook group, Markdown Addicts Australia, where she laughed at the obvious pricing fail.
“Bargains galore at my local Woolies tonight,” wrote the customer sarcastically, alongside several photos of the hilarious mislabelling.
In the photos, shoppers can see various Christmas decorations on the shelves at Woolworths, which are priced outrageously high.
One photo shows solar fairy lights for $204, while others show a 50-pack of napkins for $52, two-pack of tea towels for $100 and a trio of ribbons costing $52.
Customers were quick to see the humour in the labelling blunder, with hundreds of shoppers taking to the comments to get in on the joke.
“Snatch ‘em up at that price,” wrote one shopper.
“Might run down to my local Woolies and see if they have any left,” wrote a second.
“One job, on a Tuesday night. One job!” laughed a third.
Woolworths confirm pricing error has been rectified
A spokesperson for Woolworths told Yahoo News Australia that they were aware of the pricing error and it was quickly rectified by their team.
"We’re aware of a pricing error on a small range of our new Christmas merchandise sold in a few stores," said the spokesperson.
"This was due to a glitch in the system which labelled the total cost of all the products combined rather than the individual product," they added.
"Our teams rectified the error as soon as we became aware of it."
Meanwhile, several shoppers posed their own theories as to how this pricing fail happened across multiple festive products.
“Looks like somehow the price of the whole box has been put up. Not the unit prices,” suggested one customer.
“I think it’s missing decimal between the numbers,” suggested another shopper.
A third shopper hinted: “I think one person was trying to hint they were quitting their job tonight.”
Other customer theories included that Woolworths were trying to dissuade people from buying Christmas goods too early and that they staff were selling something much more valuable along with the items.
“They must be selling gold bullions as well with these items. You buy a tea towel and you get a block of gold too!” said one woman.
Customers share their own hilarious pricing fails
Some shoppers took the opportunity to share some of the hilarious pricing fails they had previously witnessed at Woolworths.
One woman shared a photo of the same thing happening at her local Woolworths, with Christmas tree beads for $60, alongside a set of six baubles for $40 and a single ornament for $64.
The confused woman wrote: “Same thing happened at mine. It has to be an error. Surprised the person putting up the tickets didn’t realise.”
It’s evident from the photo that it is a labelling error, as several items appear to be priced correctly, including a $4 ornament and $10 box of baubles.
Another woman shared a photo of a 10-pack of mislabeled Christmas cards. She wrote: “My local has this too. $60 for some cards.”
Finally, a third shopper shared her experience during Halloween this year, saying she witnessed costumes and decorations labelled at exorbitant amounts.
“This happened at my local Woolies with Halloween. $120 for a fairy costume and $100 for balloons,” explained the shopper.
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Shoppers find a loophole for getting free items
Many savvy customers saw the error as an opportunity to get the products for free, with many suggesting that if the advertised price is wrong you get the item for free.
"I would [have] bought one of each and then disputed the price [to get] them all for free," wrote one shopper.
However, Woolworths confirmed that the scanning price on the mislabelled items was correct, so in this instance their scanning policy did not apply and customers would still need to pay for them.
The loophole customers are discussing here that allows you to get items for free is a widely unknown Scanning Code of Practice that operates in Australia’s major supermarkets, including Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.
Woolworths, Coles, and Aldi have all signed up to the Scanning Code of Practice, which is a policy that means customers are entitled to receive an item free of charge if the scanned price of an item is greater than the shelf price displayed.
The only exceptions under the Code are products with a shelf price greater than $50, as well as tobacco and liquor products.
One customer confirmed she had received free chopping boards at Woolworths because of the Scanning Code.
She wrote: "About a month ago I scanned some chopping boards at self-serve checkout and it scanned as a different price as what was advertised and we got them for free and I didn't even know that was a thing."
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