Woolworths shoppers urged to boycott store over 'frustrating' issue: 'It's their mistake'

A retail expert is calling on customers to stop shopping at Woolworths after an Aussie mother of twins slammed the supermarket giant for its "frustrating" home delivery service, which she says often sees grocery items forgotten or left out of orders because of limited stock.

“You can't be offering a service and then not follow through,” Professor Roberta Crouch from the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University told Yahoo News Australia. “And consumers don't have to put up with it.

“The field is far too competitive for Woolworths or anybody else to be providing this crap service, quite frankly.”

‘Their mistake, they should deliver it’

Eliza is mum to 16-month-old twins, a boy and girl and since her babies were born she’s been getting her groceries delivered because it’s “hugely convenient” and “much easier for the family”. And for the most part, it’s been a good experience.

“Sometimes things don’t always go right and there’s weird product substitutions, or it’s not the exact fruit and vegetable I would have picked, but I sort of just live with that because it’s part of the delivery experience,” she told her followers on TikTok this week.

“But what s***s me the most with Woolworths delivery is when they miss an entire bag or several bags and they won’t re-deliver. They always offer to give you a refund but I don’t want a refund, I just want my items delivered. I need these groceries.”

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Eliza said it defeats the whole purpose of getting your things delivered.

“Instead I have to go out to the shops and purchase the items that were missing,” she complained. “Which is really inconvenient because I would have just done my whole grocery shop in person if that was going to be the end result.

“I feel like, if it’s their mistake, they should deliver it.”

Eliza’s followers were quick to agree. “If I'm paying a premium for delivery, I'm not paying to then drive to the shops again!” one person commented on the video, which has been viewed more than 4,700 times. “If it's their mistake then they should fix it up,” said another.

While someone else said the click and collect service wasn’t any better. “I live an hour away and I’ve driven home three times before and then realised they’ve missed half my order,” they wrote online.

Woolworths defends personal shoppers

Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for Woolworths said the supermarket giant has a “dedicated team of personal shoppers who work hard to handpick thousands of online orders to the highest standard every day”.

“While our teams work hard to provide a great experience every time, we don't always get substitutions right, or, selected items may be out of stock,” they said. “We encourage customers to contact us directly should something be amiss with their order so we can rectify it as quickly as possible.”

Woolworths also noted that customers can chose to turn on or off substitute products when shopping online.

‘Consumers have power’

As far as Professor Crouch is concerned, “it's another example of these organisations that are busy not looking after their core business.”

“When you have someone like this young woman, who has got two little kids, it's major for her to go out to the store and pick up groceries,” she said.

“If this is an ongoing experience for her, then she needs to swap supermarkets, because as she rightfully says it's about the fact that she now has to get in her car and go and get the stuff, and if she has to do that, she might as well have done that for the whole shop in the first place.

“I just think she shouldn’t have to put up with it, and consumers have more power than that.”

Professor Crouch urged shoppers to find other options where people might value their business a bit more. “Don't let your loyalty lead you to take less than what you're paying for because you don't need to be loyal to that degree,” she explained. “There are other alternatives."

“We all love to be brand loyal because it saves us this cognitive work... and nobody turns their back on a brand that's been good to them because they got it wrong once. But if it becomes a pattern and they're not fulfilling their main promise, then you've got to cut them loose and find somebody else who will.”

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