Woolworths shoppers clamour over each other in baby formula battle

Video of the chaotic scenes at Woolworths Box Hill emerged on a Chinese social media site Weibo on Wednesday.

The large group crowd the end of the aisle grabbing at tins. One woman falls over during the scrimmage before another man tumbles in front of her.

But no one stops and the shoppers continue to snatch items from the shelf.

A Woolworths spokesperson told Yahoo7 “this type of behaviour is clearly unacceptable” and measures had to be taken. Staff removed the tins and put them in storage to clear the chaos.

“The team moved quickly and withdrew the stock from the aisle,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue to closely manage the flow of stock so our customers can have access to formula when they need it.

“We do not tolerate this type of behaviour and will not hesitate to ban customers who do not comply.”

Woolworths has a two-tin baby formula limit per customer. Shoppers accused of breaking this limit are said to be Daigou – Chinese consumers who buy items for re-sale.

When asked by Yahoo7 if the Box Hill video featured Daigou, Woolworths would not comment.

However, the exploits of shoppers brazenly breaking the rules has continued to make headlines over the past 12 months.

In December, shoppers were filmed working together to beat the two-tin limit at Woolworths in Brisbane’s suburb of Sunnybank Hills.

This was despite a Woolworths staff member checking receipts to police the purchases.

Just days earlier, more video emerged of shoppers loading trolleys with baby formula at a Coles in Sunnybank, Brisbane.

A Brisbane mum filmed the shoppers running from the store with multiple tins in hand.

Also, in December, an outraged Woolworths shopper filmed people appearing to break baby formula limit rules at a store in Melbourne.

In the footage uploaded to Facebook, a number of people can be seen loading formula into dozens of shopping bags stashed in a corner outside the supermarket at Doncaster East.

The shoppers appear to each drop a bag of two tins of baby formula onto the stockpile before grabbing another bag and re-entering the store.