Baby Formula to China

2 tins per customer clearly not working, my Coles has empty shelves and I see at least one article a week at a different place where they record people shameless Chinese buying baby formula in bulk. I'm bloody sick of it and I don't even have kids.

Is there anything we can do to stop it? Name and shame?

Comments

            • +8

              @tsunamisurfer:

              the last of which is to get to the Supermarkets when it opens and get your formula before the shelves are emptied.

              Don't even need to do that. Why not just order it online and get it delivered to home, work, friends, relatives, AusPost parcel lockers or even the store itself? Then you're sure to get the supply you need at the frequency you need. Sorted.

      • +1

        I agree with you I hate daigous and shame on them causing frustrations to aussie parents. We live in Australia and are citizens. We live here, pay tax and we fuel the economy therefore I deserve to buy essentials for my kids.

        Chinese daigous have no place here. They are only here for money, they evade tax, rip off genuine Aussies. All they care is making money.

        They simply ruin the supply and make everyone starts hating Chinese. No wonder police tell driver to go back to China in Carlingford in recent news

        • +1

          we fuel the economy

          I'm not for nor against the Asian community here, nor entitled to have an opinion as a foreigner, but there's definitely an argument that their spending prowess contributes significantly to the country's economy as well.

          • +5

            @Hybroid: They make Asians look bad. But there are lots of local Asians hate them just as much and most don't know how to distinguish. They ain't really fuelling the economy they don't have any other contributing except taking advantage and profit margins. Without them there is still demand we don't run the economy just cause of them buying one thing

        • +5

          We live here, pay tax and we fuel the economy

          Don't they contribute to the economy by buying local goods and in fact exporting them? Don't they pay GST? How do you know they don't pay tax on the profit? If they are using eBay that is tracked.

          I deserve to buy essentials for my kids

          You deserve? Do you listen to yourself?

          • @tsunamisurfer: What do you deserve? It is not about pay tax and growth of the economy. It is about fairness. Following instruction and common sense..

          • @tsunamisurfer: I just wanted to point out there us no GST on baby formula. So they really aren't paying any tax

        • +1

          Were you ancestors original born here? If not, you better go back to your country as well, you are so rude, as well as those police.

          • -2

            @Barbequemilk: Foreigners destroy countries that natives build, simple as that. Australia has a long history of foreign migrants arriving and wreaking havoc. Every foreign migrant has been destructive to Australia. But thankfully their destructive actions are remedied by their native born children who repair the damage they cause.

          • +3

            @Barbequemilk: So where are your ancestors from mate?

            • +1

              @bs0: From the First Fleet maybe..

              Australia has a long history of foreign migrants arriving and wreaking havoc.

              A nation built by convicts offshored from England.

              Every foreign migrant has been destructive to Australia.

              I feel the only ones that have the birthright to say this are Aborigines..

      • +1

        Ban the individual export of baby milk. Government have to limit any packages and personal belonging to overseas. So people cannot bring a huge amount of baby milk powder in their luggage nor by post.. Hope it will stop bulk buying…

  • Any way this baby formula can be purchased online locally, like coffee pods,to prevent disappointment in the shopping aisles?

  • +4

    I can understand how frustrating it is to have a staple like this disappear from supermarket shelves.

    I live in an area of Sydney where it's almost impossible to find stock of anything discounted as the shelves get raided within minutes of the lower price becoming active.

    There used to be the notion of supermarkets limiting purchases to retail quantities, but I haven't seen it enforced since the seventies. Nowadays, I'd hate to think of my teen-aged relos put in a position where they have to refuse sales.

    • +5

      My local Woolies is in a tourist area where bus loads of visitors swarm the shelves. They do enforce limits of two cans per person.
      We do have great local support for breastfeeding mums, but I can imagine it is frustrating if you are sleep deprived with a new born and need formula to not be able to get what you want.

      • Kudos to your local woollies manager.

        I do hope he's got good support in place for the front line staff though. Minimum wage nowhere near justifies having to deal with the sort of abuse they're likely to receive.

        • +1

          My 17 is a checkout chick and she says everyone is pretty polite, although sometimes there is a language barrier.
          I am sympathetic as my language barrier was even higher when I visited mainland China!

  • +2

    Walker, Milkman Ranger

  • +3

    so you just add a bunch of water into the tin and a baby is born? I thought maths was needed everytime there was a formula.

    This is why china has too many people!

  • $100 profit per 6 tins… wow, should selling on ebay too

    • +1

      I don’t get it. How? Each tin is $23 rrp. So, his profit will be $159 - $138 + $30 on shipping = approx $50
      He probably have to visit the store every day to get stocks and risk expiry if he overstocks. Unless you do tjis fulltime, it is a real pain.

      • $159+$90 for shipping

        • Sending a 6Kg parcel to china will cost you $88.90 + box + bubble wrap = $93.50

          Say he has a deal with Auspost that he gives them $100k business a year, then he might get reduced price of $50.

          So, he is not making much there.

          if you want to see where money is You should go to auburn area an check those flooring importers,

          The people you should envy abouy make money by exporing From
          China not b my exporting from Australia.

  • +10

    Won't someone think of the children

    • +7

      and they march day and night by the big cooling tower, they have the plant but we have the power!!!

  • How can you calculate the $100 profitm

  • +4

    If someone is having an issue getting access to their tin of preference, I suggest speaking to a. the supermarket manager and b. the brand themselves.

    There is literally no supply issue.

    • That's not true.

      • +7

        Can i just ask you how you're saying it's not true? Is this answer based on actual facts or just typing based on pure hate ?

        • Parents are saying there is no supply. They buy the product.

          Do you buy the product? If not I would defer to their knowledge more than yours.

          • +2

            @Ti-au: https://honey.nine.com.au/2018/12/14/14/42/baby-formula-shor…

            An Australian infant formula supply company is claiming the supply shortage is a 'myth', saying it's mostly two brands being hoarded by Chinese buyers, leaving other brands on shelves for parents.

            "There is enough supply for Australian mothers as well as exports to China," Dr Sonja Kukuljan, Group General Manager of Nutrition at Freedom Foods tells 9Honey. "It's about time everyone involved in baby formula production and retailing acknowledges the idea of a shortage supply is a myth that just so happens to have marketing benefits."

          • @Ti-au: I don't buy the product my self. But as a person who has close contacts with representatives of the most sort after formula (A2, bellamy's, Karicare) and internal knowledge i can say with confidence what "Pais" said above is true. We always do have stock at the back for parents in need. Also if that doesn't work if you ring up the manufacturer directly they will organize a delivery to your house. Few months ago we had a delivery of A2 so huge that we had to use all of our store room space just for formula ( I don't wanna disclose the number of tins but achieved 6 figure sales total). This is just one store in Victoria. Multiply that by the number of stores, and tell how can they supply this much if there's a shortage.

  • +8

    I think we should not only let this practice continue but encourage it because of the end Chinese consumers are mugs by being too brand conscious (form over substance). You don't see them buying Aldi formula, for example, which is much cheaper and made in Australia too and has the same nutrients. If they want to pay a premium and send their hard earnt money our way, then what can we do but to take it.

    • +1

      You don't see them buying Aldi formula, for example, which is much cheaper and made in Australia too and has the same nutrients.

      It's typical brand snobbery by Australian and overseas consumers.
      https://honey.nine.com.au/2018/12/14/14/42/baby-formula-shor…

    • Is this the part were someone is supposed to come along and give you some wanky reply about MAH BABY has a sensitive stomach and can read the price tag!! MY BABY will only consume the best brands!

  • +7

    I would be more concerned with the fact that we have already sold everything else important to China… Roads, companies, farms, mines. Who cares about baby formula.

    • Who cares about baby formula… Aussie parents?

      But your observations are true.

  • +1

    There’s a fast food shop in Brisbane city that does daily runs to the supermarkets. I see them take trolleys full of formula out back often.

    • Baby formula makes great pizzas, tacos and deep fried donuts.

  • +8

    Really, I donot understand what the problem is. Please, Just buy online from their websites. Ballamy, aptmil a2, whatever? Never out of stock, ever.

    • High postage cost unless you buy 5 or 6 some don't have free postage. Not cheap and can't use e-giftcard or earn reward points

      • Egiftcard, reward points? are u sure you not tried to be sarcasm?

        • -1

          The entitlement from these parents is baffling.

          Positive: Creates jobs, expands the industry, more tax revenue, etc.

          Negative: Supermarket gets a bit more crowded, certain parents with particularly fussy children might lose reward points.

          Yea lets just let the free market do its job. If there's genuine shortage then we maybe we should start giving a (profanity).

      • +1

        So now it comes out. It wasn't about finding the preferred brand after all.

        So the REAL impact of Daigous is the lost opportunities of using Gift Cards, and getting Rewards Points.

      • I must be missing something. You can't buy from Woolworths website to use egiftcard or earn reward points?

      • +3

        So is it about access to the product, or being able to get free shipping and points?
        Is being able to earn rewards points a good enough reason for the gov to intervene in a market?

      • Ok so essentially 'I dont want to pay a slightly higher price'. Fine. But thats the argument you can take to the government when you ask them to impose limits on the exporting. Not hyperbole about Aussie kids starving!

  • +7

    Saying thankyou, please, common courtesy and helping disabled or the elderly isn't a legal requirement, so maybe we should exercise our legal right to be feral scumbags. Time is money.

    /s

    • Upvoted.

  • +1

    Also, wws and chemist warehouse are the biggest sellers in baby formulas in China. Both of them are operating a store in taobao. They put the majority of their stock there and leave a small amount on shelf.
    Preventing from export to China can stop daigou, serious? That would take wws and chemist warehouse down first, then a2 balamy, then then farmers and then the tax payers then the country.

  • What we can see is that daigous clear the shelf. But what is the amount of supply of a community of 10k population? how many of them are taken buy daigou and how many just sold by wws or chemist warehouse over seas and to local big buyers? Daigou clears the tins from shelf, wws and cw sell by pallets.

  • +3

    There were never a problem until big players step into exporting formula business several years ago. I am not saying it is wws and cw to be blamed. Ballamy and a2 have their Taobao stores too.
    Blaming daigou is like blaming the receiption or cleaner instead of CEO when a big company is going down.

  • +17

    As a person who works in a supermarket I see this everyday. I personally really like this. This a great way to make foreign income for Australia. The demand might even support the struggling dairy farmers. The people who complain usually buy the cheap homebrand milk and screw the farmers even more. People get angered and just start complaining without knowing the facts. Just use your energy for more useful things that actually makes an impact for the country as whole like Chinese investors buying major housing projects,farms, and Wineries etc and employing foreign labour.

    • How can losers stop winging?

      • +6

        Recently ACA did a story on this. We immediately a saw rise on the hate we get from older people( Typical ACA audience). People really love to jump on the bandwagon and join the hate club. Interestingly most of the people who complain are well passed the age of having kids (Even on this instance OP doesn't have kids) and have nothing better to do than complain about something. For them this is just easy target and requires very little effort to get others on board. All i have to say is this is old news just pick something more trendier maybe like the need to have 33 different genders.

        • This runs in cycles. Next week's news could be about anti-social behaviour by youths in Melbourne. Then the week after that some story about religious minority. After that unaffordable housing caused by another minority.

          • +2

            @whooah1979: Yeah pretty much, news these days are stirring the pot as much as you can. Gone are the days where they report the actual events and incidents that took place on the day.

  • +1

    Let's stop calling them daigou's and call them what they are; pricks.

  • +4

    Good news(sorry my English isn't great, but I will do my best to explain) China had just implement new TAX laws on online merchant and suppliers, any milk product without Chinese Trademarks or isn't Government approved products can not be sold, offender could face fine and jail times, daigo must registered permit to sell things like milk products and pay tax like proper business, the cost of to doing daigo will increase and the days for daigo maybe over or least won't be a problem for Australian consumer anymore.

    • Block the waterway is never the resolution to flood

  • lol another brainwashed sheep by the media. Let me guess your sources are news dot com and aca?

    Everytime I go into any supermarket the isles are lined with cans. No shortage here.

    I have never seen an isle empty

    Who cares anyway, they are paying and not doing anything illegal. Just the media blowing it up and brainwashing you.
    People are just mad others are making money and thought of the idea first. If you could speak Mandarin or Cantonese you would be doing the same. Get over it.

    • +3

      Whole islands lined with cans?

    • +2

      i went to buy a bottle of coles special burger sauce and the shelf spot was empty. i was sad that day.

    • mY pErSoNaL aNeCdOtE iS dIfFeReNt So YoU mUsT bE bRaInWaShEd By ThE mEdIa

      • +4

        The truth is, there's only a demand for certain brands. The others indeed are always full

    • -3

      I'm half Chinese (not half white), dad speaks full Mandarin and Cantonese.

      Yeah we can do it but just because it's legal doesn't make it right.

      • +6

        Hello banana.

  • you do realise u can profit from all this too?
    just buy A2M and BAL and watch the share prices surge thanks to all the demand from china.

    • +1

      A2M is pretty much what you deserve if you seek to make money out of this cartel.

  • +6

    Left Wing 21st Century Australians:

    • 'If it ain't legal, there's no problem doing it.'

    Good to know the morals in this country absolutely dropped to s**t. Thanks for coming.

    Serious question, is the drop in morals a parental or cultural problem?

    • +12

      This has nothing to do with politics. They are buying cans legally and contributing to Australian taxes. Whats the issue here?

      At the end of the day, it comes down to the law.

      Why don't you start your fight with billion-dollar companies like Apple that pay almost no tax and get away with it? Because its legal.

      The issue is with people actually brainwashed by the media. Why don't you do some proper research and see there is actually a lot of supply. You can actually just go online and order directly from the manufacturer. There is a limit but there isn't a shortage. If there was an actual shortage you would see them sold out online as well.

      • I'm commenting on the responses from people that an action is okay as long as it's not illegal

        • +2

          Then perhaps you should have said

          • 'If it's legal, there's no problem doing it.'

          Instead of confusing us all with double negatives.

      • apple gives me iphone. mrs chin down the road doesnt. mrs chin is the enemy.

      • +1

        They are […] contributing to Australian taxes.

        Citation needed.

        Do you actually think they are paying tax? I would bet $10k that the majority of them aren't. You can't even claim they're paying GST as baby formula is GST exempt.

        • -3

          Any goods that you buy off the shelf you have to pay tax. They have paid the gst on the goods they purchased. If they aren't paying taxes on their income that's something else. Australians avoid tax every day.

          I bet you $10k that you dont even have 10K in your bank account.

          • +1

            @lltravel:

            Any goods that you buy off the shelf you have to pay tax.

            False. Not all goods and services attract GST. Some are exempt. You would know this if you were ever educated.

            https://www.ato.gov.au/business/gst/in-detail/your-industry/…

            Australians avoid tax every day.

            There's a difference between avoiding tax and evading tax. If you operate a business or perform business-like activity (e.g. systematically buying a certain product for export in an organised manner), you are required to pay tax on your net profit.

            I bet you $10k that you dont even have 10K in your bank account.

            Said the uneducated man.

    • yep I'm so sick of this argument, it doesn't have to be written in law not to be a (profanity).

      Besides, I'm asking to do something about it within law so if I can help prevent it, I can use their argument against them.

    • +1

      Left wing Australians are the ones screaming for regulation of markets, government intervention in everything, and laws against any contrary opinions.

      • +1

        Left wing Australians are the ones screaming for regulation of markets, government intervention in everything, and laws against any contrary opinions.

        I finds that your opinion is very contradicted to mine. And that is a calls for regulation

      • citation needed

  • So much outrage at Chinese parents getting suckered in by late stage capitalism, so little focus on the bigger issues at hand.

    If you think you're reliant on some multinational company to ensure that your baby receives adequate nutrition, read this page end to end, break your social programming that only exists because of some messed up views promoted in the mid-20th century, seek out free milk banks through local networks or Faceboook (because do you really have a good reason to trust Nestlé more than a random local mother you connect with?) and let the daigou do their thing.

  • +2

    Isn't Kevin Rudd's daughter doing daigou and making big bucks? But shr probably has more scale than the people who buy from local supermarkets..
    Imo we buy so much from China, it's great we can export something to them & make money! If the shelves are empty let's make more to meet local and international demand!

    • Isn't Kevin Rudd's daughter doing daigou and making big bucks?

      Not anymore.

      Imo we buy so much from China, it's great we can export something to them & make money!

      It would be sweet if we were actually exporting something useful instead of luxury goods that upper-middle class Chinese think they need. What we're making money off is the equivalent of the Xiaomi USB fans they send us.

      • @Nomadesque I think baby formula is useful. This whole thing started with Chinese baby formula having serious QA issues and babies died in China because of the bad baby formula. After that incident, a lot of Chinese parents fed their babies with imported baby formula only. Needless to say Australia has one of the best baby formulas in the world hence the huge demand.

        I don't think baby formula is a luxury good. I actually think it would be good for us if we can export extremely profitable luxury goods, such as branded bags or clothes. Or something where intellectual labour plays a larger input in the production, so that the Australian people can benefit more… Selling milk powder, wool, coal, iron really isn't like selling iPhones, Uber, Airbnb, LV bags etc where they have bigger industries, more well paid employees, & much bigger profit margin.

  • What's wrong with aldi baby formula?

    • Probably too cheap and nsaty :)

      I don't know, it could be one parent try Australian milk powders and it works and it spreads like a decease.

    • Gives me wind.

      • That gotta be a strong wind for a rock.

  • how else you afford the new bmw 7 series la?

  • It must be frustrating for parents needing formula but honestly I don't really have an issue with the whole baby formula thing. If Aussie parents need it you can always buy online or speak to your local supermarket manager and see if they can keep a tin aside for you.

  • Can someone confirm whether this is still an issue?

    I don't understand, it is well known that people are exporting milk to China and has been going on for years.

    So if this is the case, why dont the powder milk makers just… Make more of it to meet demand? Why would there be a supply issue in Australia?

    • Because of "Greed" I suppose. The makers doesn't want over supply the market.

      • That makes no sense. Theyre not jacking up their prices, the most profitable thing for them to do would be to make as possible to meet demand

        • +1

          Because let say Australia supplier send total of 100 units, but Chinese official online retaliers somehow managed to 1000 units, and they do not share those profit with the supplier, but if any thing goes wrong the suppliers sure gets the blame.

  • +1

    The most sought-after "premium" brands (A2, Aptamil) are imported from NZ. Why buying from the middleman (Australia) then? Anyone knows if same thing also happens in New Zealand?
    I also heard that the differences between the brands are actually insignificant. Most health professionals do not recommend any specific brand at all. So then why do the Chinese only target the "premium" brands?

    • +2

      Everything is about status to the Chinese.
      Edit: *middle class Chinese

    • Why buying from the middleman (Australia) then?

      Because there are plenty of people in Australia selling it?

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