Retail quantities at Woolworths?

So, I have a family of two adults and four children and we drink A LOT of cordial.

Woolworths have a great special at the moment with Cottees Cordial for $2 a bottle.

'Great' I think, 'I will stock up'. So I get to thinking, we probably go through about 2-3 bottles of cordial a week. That means we would be looking at somewhere around 52+ bottles for 6 months worth. Also, the family favorite is Fruit Cup Crush. We drink a bit of Coola and Raspberry but 95% or more is FC Crush.

So, I go down to my local Woolworths yesterday on the first day of the special and start loading up.

I get around 13 off the shelf and that clears them out of that flavour.
So, I ask a staff member, 'have you got anymore of the Fruit Cup Crush'. He tells me he will go and check and then comes back saying that the computer says they have some out the back in the storeroom.

He goes and checks and then comes back and tells me they are still on the pallet and he can't get to them. I ask what we have to do to get them out. He says he'll check with the store manager. Off he goes and the manager comes back to talk to me.

I tell her the deal and she tells me that there is no way she can get to them today, come back tomorrow and she'll help me out. Now, here's the bit you've been waiting for. 'How many were you after?' she asks me. 'About 50' I say. She looks at me and tells me 'you know, that's not a retail quantity. I can refuse to sell them to you if its not a retail quantity.' 'I'm definitely not selling them to anyone, they're for my family' I tell her. She seems somewhat satisfied with that but still warns me that this is something I need to be careful of.

Anyways, I went back today and got the rest of the cordial I was after but I was wondering if anyone had come across this before, what you think the threshold is for going outside retail quantities (especially since we have a large-ish family) and what the point is anyway since there are several Woolworths around me and I could easily just buy say 20 from three different stores (however schlepping around would be a PITA)?

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Comments

  • +63

    Do you think it's fair other people might miss out on getting that flavor cordial because of you wanting 52 bottles of the stuff? They have these limits for a reason. :|

    • Who really cares if it is fair? It's not lifesaving cardiac medicine, it's concentrated sugar water. Plenty of times I have gone to Woolies and the "specials" have been stripped off the shelves. if I go back later in the week, there's usually stock again. It's the miracle of capitalism. Although I do think that 50 is expecting too much from a retailer. If the shelf is full, I think whatever is on the shelf if fair game. Other than that go open a wholesale account with Cottees.

      • +2

        If someone buys it all before you, it's annoying but that's life. If you want it bad enough, ask for it, they'll probably have more and if not, will give you a raincheck.

        • Rather have some mechanism to help prevent/reduce this 'annoyance' in life.

      • +7

        Well of course things will sell quickly when on "SALE", but it's people like the OP who is unfair in buying large amounts making others miss out on the sale. That itself is unfair to me. ;)

        And of course I buy things when they're on sale, But I never buy 52 of the same thing!

        • +9

          The OP isn't buying in 'unfair amounts', he was just smart enough to get in there early and buy how much he needed. Woolies didn't set a 'maximum of x per person per day' rule so he can buy as much as he likes. I'm sure if you had a family of 6 who consumed said amount of cordial, you'd want to get in there PDQ and stock up too! I know there wouldn't be too many people buying 52 of the same product from a supermarket at once, but that doesn't mean the OP is in the wrong.

        • +4

          You will all be happy to know that when I went into my local Woolworths today there was still plenty of cordial left on the shelf - including Fruit Cup Crush - so no one had to miss out.

      • If the stock is out on the floor go for it, but asking them to get you fifty units from out the back then coming on here to whinge when they consider refusing is a bit rich.

        If Cottee's is making a loss on these then I'd assume each store is allocated a finite amount of stock at that price so it's not simply a matter of caring and getting more stock in.

    • I work at woolworth for years. i can if ask they can order in 50 bottle of cordial for you at $2. i used to do all time with coke and many other products. I personal would never let them of the shelf.

    • +1

      Broden

  • +15

    A 6 month supply isn't a retail quantity that's for sure …

    • +9

      1 packet of razors
      1 large bottle of conditioner
      1 tin of olive oil
      all of these could be 6 months' supply - are none of these a retail quantity?
      I am surprised there isn't more of a bulk-buying mentality here on Ozbargain.

      • +1

        would you purchase 52 of those items though?

        • +12

          Why would they want 26 years worth?

        • +2

          That's the context of retail quantity isn't it then?

    • +2

      Do you have a forklift licence? Also, it is probably a loss leader, so Woolworths doesn't get paid.

      • +4

        Woolworths doesn't take the 'loss' on any of their specials, the supplier does.

        What is the problem? Get it off the pallet.

        I guess you're thinking all the products are neatly laid out in single layers for easy access?

        • +4

          Woolworths absolutely takes losses on their specials. What, do you think the suppliers sit down and nut out selling cordial for a 5% loss with the Woolworths buyer? What do Cottees get out of that? What a ridiculous statement.

          Loss leaders only make sense for multi-product vendors, which mean Woolworths. Lose money on the milk but have it at the back of the shop so you have to walk through all the profit-making items to get there. Been that way for decades.

        • -2

          Woolworths absolutely DOES pass on price reductions to suppliers. And if you think it's Woolies and Coles bearing the brunt of milk reductions you're kidding yourself.

        • I have worked in a supermarket and yes forklifts were required for some stock, particularly if it was extra stock not normally carried (say, for example, for a special sale).

    • What to say the pallet was easy to get to, it could take an hour or 2. Do you want to stand around that long?

      Also, due to OH&S bullshit. Floor staff are probably not allowed in the storeroom, or to use a forklift, or they could be understaffed, it can be anything.

      • +1

        Forklift safety is not just profanity, they are very dangerous.

    • Get it off the pallet.

      I wish it was that easy.

  • +77

    do your kids' general health and teeth a favour.. drink water instead..

    and yes, retail stores can refuse "wholesale" quantities

  • +2

    They can get into trouble with their suppliers for "warehousing". So yes you can and sometimes will be refused the sale.

  • +7

    We're you prepared to wait upto 1-2hours for them to get the stock off the pallet? What if the pallet is under others, or stacked behind others. You went back the next day and got what you wanted anyway..

    How does the store know you won't resell? I can walk in myself and say I have 8 kids..

    If you want 52 next time go to the service desk, or phone ahead, they can order it in for you.. They don't allow for people like you to buy them out of one flavor. Stock has a used by date. They can't go and order 500 bottles of each flavor to keep you happy on the odd chance you are due to buy 52 bottles again.

    I hope at 52 bottles, some at least we're the low sugar option… Wow.

  • +1

    I used to work at a small inner west Melbourne woolies (shelf stacker) and woolies liquor and this is pretty common when they have specials especially on things like VB, Carlton Draught or Coke etc (usually 6 packs/slabs of each)…

    They usually get a set quantity of how many they can sell in one transaction from head office and can get a slap on the wrist for going over that limit, I'd heard the term wholesaler limits from management. It was pretty common in our store to get local fast food shops and private bottle shop owners driving around in a van from store to store buying limits of the specials. You'd get used to the faces and the people so I would just tell them to come back in 30 mins or an hour to do multiple transactions if that's what they wanted.

    • +3

      in sa it is against the law to limit supply ie when you see phones on special they will quite often print limit 3 per customer except in sa

      • Maybe someone should speak to the store manager at West Lakes. She's done this to me a few times. Eg. I wanted 10 packets of coffee. I asked for help as there was none on the shelves. She told the staff member to check out the back and I could have 6 if they were in stock.

        • Yeah, we're the only state where our Fair Trading Act prohibits stores from restricting quantities, but most businesses are unaware of this (its usually only the big chains that know of this, and is why some national catalogues will say "limit XX per customer, excludes SA").

          I too have on occasion tried purchasing bulk items for work, in particular when someone has severely undercut our suppliers, or cheap paper from Officeworks ($2.50 reams - limit X per customer), and had people try to turn me down - you can argue the point if you really want to, but half the time its not worth the effort, when you can just come back again later.

        • +1

          Isn't it nice when a state government determines how a business should operate, especially with how many items it can sell and remain commercially viable.

        • I actually like this law - this helps the smaller stores compete against the majors more than anything … if a major wants to sell something below wholesale cost to screw the little guys, then the little guys should be able to clean them out - its their own fault if they are making a loss by selling something too cheap.

          By other states allowing this quantity restriction, it allows the big guys to screw the little ones - they can advertise stupidly low prices that undercut everyone, sometimes prices that others cannot possibly compete with, while hiding in their fine print "limit X per customer" so they don't make too much of a loss.

      • +1

        Any one have a reference to this law? I've searched through the SA Fair Trading Act and have not found anything.

        • +2

          http://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/LZ/C/A/FAIR%20TRADING%20ACT…

          PART 6 - RETAIL TRANSACTIONS
          Limited offers and failing to supply as demanded
          38. (1) A trader must not advertise or offer goods for sale by retail upon condition that no more than a specified or limited quantity or number of the goods may be purchased by any one purchaser.

          Maximum penalty: $2 500.

          (2) A trader who offers goods for sale by retail must not refuse or fail, on demand of a quantity or number of the goods and tender of the appropriate price, to supply the goods in the quantity or number demanded.

          Maximum penalty: $2 500.

          It also states:
          It is a defence to a charge for an offence against subsection (1) / (2) to prove that on the occasion in question -
          (a) the defendant neither had, nor had ready access to, a sufficient quantity or number of the goods —
          (i) to meet a demand for a quantity or number of the goods greater than that specified or limited in the advertisement; or
          (ii) to meet such a demand in addition to the estimated demands of the defendant’s other customers;

          … but I am assuming thats too hard for stores like Woolies to prove (ready access - of course they can easily obtain extra stock), plus the way I read it, they'd have to be charged with the offence before they can them claim an 'out' ?

  • +20

    I think it's quite thoughtful of blaircam to save other families from hyperactivity.

    • +4

      And obesity, rotton teeth etc… what happened to good old water

  • Yes, you can go to multiple stores to get around it, but it'd have to be very good deal for shops to bother.

    Clubs and pubs for example can't buy Coke wholesale for the prices Coles and Woolworths sometimes sell it—imagine being behind them at the checkout.

  • When Up and Go goes on special I've been known to buy 20-30 3 packs or 6 packs at a time and I've never been questioned. I've never had a problem with stock levels when the product is on sale. I'm guessing that WW will get extra stock of the cordial while it is on super special so hopefully there will be enough to go around, even if I have to make several trips.

    I'm planning to get about 10 bottles of Coola (lime), and 10 bottles of Lemon. Hopefully I'll be able to do this on one trip but if not, I will go back several times. Luckily we have a couple of WW close together.

    • +1

      You haven't been questioned on the Up and Go because you were probably not buying at less than cost price. I don't work for supermarkets, but I imagine this cordial is definitely less than cost price. Fair enough to enforce retail quantities.

    • +2

      Products like Up and Go though is different. 30 6 packs might sound like a lot, but when you think that 1 person would drink 1 pack a day, that much would only last a family of four 45 days. Mass purchases wouldnt be unreasonable and pretty common. However no normal family would go through 2-3 bottles of cordial a week, which is why a store would question someone purchasing 50+.

  • +1

    I encountered 'retail quantity' when getting a rain check on another item on special (think it was dried pasta) - was advised the limit is 10, even though I asked for 15 packets. This was also at a Woolworths.

    Was a bit surprised given I have bought >10 packets of pasta or any other item (when available off the shelf) in the one transaction before.

    I do wonder if they really have hard and fast rules or whether it is at that person's discretion.

  • -2

    haahh i tried to order 8 boxes of coke from this stupid mob on line and was called up with the same response this is a bulk order item, i was like 8 boxes bulk order you must be kidding me

  • +1

    Woolworths online shopping site encourages the punters with a slogan "BUY MORE AND SAVE" OK, so I order 100 cans of dog food and then was informed $20 extra for delivery is to be charged. Just so used to being treated like shite by the two bastard supermarkets that one can only sigh, and move on. They have had us by the short and curlies for some years. They won, and kick arse every single day.

    • +9

      Why not go to your local butcher, pet store or vet for better quality and cheaper options to fed your dogs?

      • +5

        same reason they ordered 100 cans online… laziness

  • I stopped drinking Cottees when they changed the bottle size. It tasted pretty nasty arse before but after they concentrated it some more it started tasting really industrial.

    It reminds me of that New Zealand cordial that makes 20 litres from one bottle, and is basically citrus oil and aspartame. Nasty stuff.

    I preferred the red cordial, but they dont make it in diet any more. They make the Coola in diet. Why the green but not the red?

    I tend to go for Diet Rite Orange Mango which is pretty drinkable in comparison.

  • +1

    Aldi used to do a Fruit Cup cordial (including a diet Fruit Cup) which I'd buy every week. Way cheaper and just as delicious as the Cottees one. I haven't seen it in my local Aldi for a while though… I'm pretty peeved by that :(

    50+ bottles is just insane though lol. Where the hell do you store them??

    Late last year when Woolies were doing those big discounts for online shopping (plus free delivery) I ordered as many bottles of Solo and Sunkist as I could store… between 10-20 bottles in one order.

    They processed my order, took my money, then the morning of the due delivery I got an email notifying me that they could only send me 1/2 the number of bottles I ordered. They then refunded the difference a few days later. No other explanation… and this happened 2 or 3 times.

    I just couldn't understand why they'd say they were 'out of stock' and couldn't send me my entire order, when I knew for a fact that all my local Woolworths had full shelves of the stuff at the time of the order. I only took advantage of the free delivery so I wouldn't have to lug all those bottles home myself… I used it for the convenience of having them all dropped at my doorstep. What's the point if they only send me half of what I ordered… I could've just gone to the store myself and loaded up my desired quantity without problem.

    So I never found out what the real reason was. It's not like I ordered a pallet of the stuff.

    Grr.

    • So long to read, but I sum up ur post by:
      You saw a good deal and wanted to exploit the deal and the delivery aspect so you don't have to get off he couch to drink sugar water.
      Woolies said no.
      You grrr at Woolies for ruining ur plan.

      My resoonse: lol. Woolies probably saved you (ur kids) a lot of weight :-)

      • Wrong.
        Woolies probably saved me from a lot of cancer.

        I only drink diet soft drinks.

        I'm a girl and weigh 47kg. Pretty sure I can handle putting on some weight :-)

  • actually I'm with the OP here.

    I bought 100 tuna cans from COLES when they have those $2 specials for the SIRENA brand.

    this is cause tuna stores well in the garage, and we eat tuna - not heaps, but will finish them in the year.

    kudo's to you for grabbing the deal!

    and no, nobody at coles questioned why i had 100 tuna cans in my trolley (it was 2 x 36 and 1 x 24 still in the plastic warppings).

    better than paying $3.69 per can today…!!

    • 100 CANS! Wow. How many trolleys was that?

      • +2

        100 cans is not a lot. I have around 60 or so cans in my kitchen drawer and it only takes up one shelf.

        • I guess it depends what size can. I buy the 475grams (I think that's the measurement) of Woolworths Homebrand tuna. They take up space.

        • its the largest cans of tuna they sell in SIRENA brand. it wasn't even one trolley full… and i'd do it again next time i see that special (and when i run out).

  • You can rain check at Coles if this helps. Try them.

  • +4

    Previous woolies staff here.
    If staff are saying that the product is Unreachable, 99% of the time it's because they are too lazy. Considering the special, they would come in bulk on pallets, so it's not like the product would have been buried deep under something else. For them to say a pallet is "un reachable" is them generally being lazy too. If you get this remark, you best bet is to find some younger shelf stocker and they'll probably just climb over the stock to get it for you.

    If they threaten that they won't sell you the quantity, come back later at night when night fill crew is on. They will most likely help you with large quantities as it saves them stacking them on shelves. Also, night crew are generally more "casual" employers and care less for the store itself. Why? Generally because they go unnoticed by management as their shifts never really overlap, and don't get looked after as well as their day counterparts.

    I've seen many small stores/milkbars/etc come in and clear out thousands of eg. Chocolate bars or toothpaste later at night
    Sorry for grammar/spelling, using phone.

    • +1

      Another technique to get larger order is to raincheck some to buy later. Take the cottees example again. With many flavours, surely one will sell out. Ask for a rain check on that flavour.
      When you go to cash in the raincheck at a later date, just grab the flavours you want and take to checkout with your raincheck. Usually the staff won't question you. Alternativel, just cross out the flavour written on the raincheck.

    • +2

      You've obviously never worked nights.

      As a former nightfill captain, there's no way I would dismantle pallets for customers at 8pm or whatever - our job wasn't to deal with customers and we had limited time to drop and fill (on average) 30 pallets a night and face up. Also, pallets are unloaded off the truck and placed hard up next to each other in the dock, two wide, 15 deep. Specials (due to the quantity) are almost always at the bottom of the pallet. If some day-staffer tried to touch the pallets i'd just unloaded, they'd get yelled at - most pallet collapses happened after people played Jenga with them before we took them out on the floor. It's not "laziness" that prevents me from getting the stock for you - it's practicality.

      As for selling the stock to you, it's purely discretionary. When I wasn't on nights, we (like it or not) did a lot of racial profiling when it came to selling customers bulk quantities of specials. We could usually pick the convenience store owners a mile away and refused to sell to them. If you were a dick, we wouldn't sell to you either (cause we could be dicks too). Otherwise, we couldn't have cared less if you wanted to clear out the shelf.

      Oh, and nightfill look after themselves.. The 5-10 roast chickens/loaves of bakery bread etc that are left over at closing time don't just get thrown out you know :)

    • +3

      Yes you probably worked at the checkout and not in stocking cause trust me pallets are usually stacked right up against each other and its not uncommon for things like cordial to be loaded together with hundreds of smaller items instead of soft drinks (which are much easier to clear). Seriously its not about being lazy or not, but as already mentioned "practicality".. Come back tomorrow when most of the stock is cleared instead of having me waste god knows how long trying to get something for you then have you complain that I took too long.

      climb over the stock to get it for you.

      Yes I would like to see you climb over 2-3 pallets which are over 2 meters high and potentially have everything collapsing or have me injure myself.

      • Never worked on checkouts, only night fill due to uni.
        Only for a very short period were out pallets gridlocked. Out loads came in at 5-7pm. Our night fill could start as soon as the load came in. This also have us a fair bit of overlap with customers.
        I still stand by what I said about laziness. Generally if an employer states something can't be accessed/out of stock is because they can't be bothered looking. I've many times gone out back, grabbed a coffee, then headed back out to tell them we don't have it. Other times I've wrote out raincheck a straight away as it's quicker for me. My 99% of the time was a bit of an exaggeration. A lot of the time it also ones down to if the customer is nice/etc.

        I worked at Coles for a bit too, but the storeroom layout made it much easier to access pallets - but still, if people couldn't be bothered they wouldn't help. Management at Coles never told us anything about refusing orders/large sales.

        Our woolies boss would drop the price of BBQ chickens to a few dollars at night and announce to customers over the PA. So we looked after ourselves in different ways haha.

        Again, on phone so sorry about grammar/spelling/lack of quotes.

        Tldr: try different staff. Ask for multiplier rain checks from different staff members.
        Edit: being nice help… Or being super attractive

  • Another issue I see with large quantities is that Woolies have to allow 52 bottles to be returned which may cause issues with storage in the cordial aisle.

  • I think the real issue is that cordial is absolute rubbish … so personally you lost money buying this hideous stuff.

    This thread is a waste of everyones time.

    • -2

      i don't think it was purchased as an high growth investment. Also was not aware of such "retail" quantities which i now am. Therefore making your post invalid. I think the real issue is people want to comment on the product constantly and not the question that was posed so you all feel a little better about yourselves.

  • +3

    Broden's mum goes shopping for cordial.

  • I decided to get 10 bottles of the Cottees cordial today. Luckily the two flavours I wanted were still in stock. Many of the flavours there were out of stock with notes saying they were unavailable. I'm guessing many people bought up lots like I did. I was tempted to buy more but I'm running out of storage space.

  • +1

    The only flavour Cottees cordial I like is Lemon Barley. Coles stopped selling that flavour around a year ago. Woolies stopped a couple of months ago - so basically the only place I can get it locally is IGA.

    Not happy with Coles or Woolies, they're always reducing the number of varieties of products they sell (and increasing the crappy coles/woolies brand products).

    • I used to love the Cotties Orange/Lemon blend but I haven't been able to get this variety in any brand for a couple of years.

  • I think its fair for you to buy as many as you want- for whoever misses out- there is a little thing called a raincheck, that neither Coles or Woolies have ever refused me.

  • -2

    I am all for allowing retailers to limit quantities - but that has to be up front and included in the advertising. Otherwise advertising cheap prices is nothing else but bait advertising.

    If they limit to a fuzzy term like 'retail quantities' that leaves lots of room for interpretation. If in doubt that interpretation should go in the consumer's favour. Any quantity a household can consume by the best before date would certainly fit this description. In this case the maths is easy, at 3 bottles a week and with 6 months best before, anything up to 80 bottles should be fine. More for bigger families ;-)

    • +7

      So if woolworths refuse a sale of 52 bottles you consider that bait advertising, but if they allow the sale, then you come in afterwards and the shelves are empty I'm sure you would be crying bait advertising.

  • I just thought I'd let everyone know that my 6 month supply ran out a couple days ago.
    Having to make do with Raspberry for now.
    Waiting for the next big cordial deal.

    • There haven't been many good deals lately. The best for the cotties bottles seems to be $3.50. I used to see it at $3 each bottle but haven't seen this for awhile either. I am hoping they bring back the $2 price. I ran out of the Lemon flavour a few weeks ago and got a couple of bottles at $3.50. I still have some Coola left.

      • +1

        Cordial is back on a decent special now = $2.39 I think.
        Will have to get some more.

        • I'm planning to pick up some tomorrow if there are any left.

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