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?
Op, do you know the reason why Chinese buy it? It's because thousands of children were poisoned from one evil guy making milk powder in china. Chinese that can afford it have bought from overseas ever since
Does it really matter why? Some people in South Africa are starving, should we send all our food there?
Yes we should send all left over foods instead of throwing them away.
Wow
Never none. Just trendy brands missing. Never caused me an issue and likely wouldn't plenty of others were they to try the "less shiny" cans first.
I have twins, though they're no longer on formula milk, during last three years they consumed a particular brand of baby formula at a rate of at least couple of tins a week. I always used online ordering with Coles or Woolworths and even did stacking up when they're on specials (buy in lots of 4 in seperate transactions). I have never found or felt any sort of a scarcity whatsoever. If you think baby formula production of these multinational companies would be in trouble due to this demand from Chinese buyers, it would be a silliest argument. I'm pretty sure, those manufacturers as well as super market Giants are very happy about the trend and will be delighted for that to remain so that they could sell, make profit more. As of Aussie parents, I honestly believe, accusations of baby formula scarcity is exaggerated (unless it's from a parent who's never heard of online shopping). I think people are finding reasons to be offensive to others and make stereotypical comments to justify their racially motivated frustration. Grow up people.
"racially motivated frustration" this, i like this comment, thats why i flew to australia from my original country because the majority of this people are "racially motivated frustration", we are hardworker, make legal money, opened bussiness and we success. they were become jealous and robbed everything that we have had.
We came to australia opened a bussiness, provided a job for local people, we came here not begging for centre link, and now you told me to go back to my country.
Yes but these daigou do not pay tax though. They dont pay gst on baby formula, any gst they pay when buying vitamins etc are claimed back when they ship overseas, and they dodge income tax.
How do you claim GST back if you're not paying tax? What?
Are you actually one of the daigou, or are you misunderstanding and just reading it as an attack on all Chinese?
OP you don't even have kids. As a parent, calm down mate. Also, it's not 2016 anymore. You need a new thing to whinge about.
To parents, plan ahead (also ive never once had a sourcing issue)
So what is the real issue here? 1) Inconvenience, 2) race, 3) immigration, or 4) supporting a foreign country when we have enough problems domestically?
The issue here is number 2 and 3, some peoples are jealous.
It's spring parents struggle to buy baby formula and it bothers me. Nothing to do with race, I'm half Chinese myself.
Given this doesn't seem to affect you personally, I struggle to understand truly the nature of your issue. Perhaps you don't even know. Hard to follow the discussion when everyone's discussing a different underlying issue.
Personally, my issue is with the role this potentially plays in civil unrest or even a world war.
How does one get in on the selling action?.
I think Step 1 is to move to New Zealand, where the brands the Chinese want come from. It says so on the tin. Buying New Zealand made milk from Oz to export to China is like exporting Samsung and LG TV's purchased from Harvey Norman
Chinese parents don't have parenting leave as Australian parents do.
Some parents are working in a different city and leave their baby to his grandparents.
That's why the baby formulas are in high demand in China in my opinion.
I can see some "shortage alert" are actually from daigous who didn't get what they want, so typically Chinese "if I can't get it, no one is getting it" way.
I'm sure it's got nothing to do with fake dodgy contaminated foods introduced to their market to get rich. How do you know and trust what's real and safe? As long as you got money, sell whatever you want, it's not like you're the one eating it.
I doubt anything would be done about this.
In a free market capitalist economy this is the norm.
The Chinese have money, money always wins and so they can buy all they want.
I’m sure they’ll buy Australia if they were allowed to.
If only Australia was known for manufacturing air purifiers or mask. They got money at the expense of loss of quality of life, like pollution.
Auusie farmers and fishermen should ship all the foods to china since they'll pay more than locals, and we'll import what they don't want in exchange for $$$.
they are already buying it. 65% of VIC energy poles and wires belong to them already;
the yanks already own it - its called aircraft carrier Australia….
You dont have kids but yet it bother you. You must get bother by a lot of things. Will it bother you if the buyer is European sending it to Europe?
To address you concern about shortage, people can buy it online either have it deliver or pick up if delivery cost is an issue. Now you can move on and be bother by people hogging the right lane, https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/427499
If I were Scott Morrison I’d have the Australian Navy blockade the South China Sea - with a few F-35As circling overhead - to stop any of our baby formula getting into China.
I would not use that F35 unstil I figured out who stole gigabytes of data about it.
Who buy A2 formula locally? $35-$40/can vs karicare, aptamil, nan for $16?
The more they buy, the more aussie manufacturers make profit mean higher tax, let them buy as much as they want, they not stealing and rely on centrelink
Its not about stopping them buying it about follow the rules 2 tins per person. From the examples in the media those people looks like scavengers, just like those in Hong Kong.
Capitalism at its finest
You see what I meant.
It looks like the customers are buying two brands while ignoring the rest.
https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/browse/baby/baby-formula
Is Shane Conroy killed by the Chinese yet?
Can't believe the amount of (mod: edited) spouting free market trickle down economics bullshit. The whole point of a government is to work towards the betterment of it's people as a whole, that includes making money for the budget where possible and limiting untaxed profit from it's shores while regulating everything to make a better environment for all.
China is a wonderful country but we cannot sustain them buying up everything we own for short term profits this applies to housing, agriculture and our politicians. It's tricky because they fund so much of our economy but we need to limit it in every unharmful way possible.
All you simple minded libertarians go find a sovereign state to live.
I’m ethnically Chinese , but not from China . I suspect it’s because the 50 cent army is operating in this forum. Most likely?
People who leave their home country for a new home but have more loyalty towards the former always confuses me.
Is there a word for being a patriot towards your former country in the English language?
Actually I don’t speak any Chinese and was raised here in Australia. I don’t know any word for that. I do know there is a phrase for newly rich people that Chinese use. I usually see them lining up at Louis Vuitton stores.
But I know what you mean. I’m used to people who move for a better life and standard of living and are humble. Not a “you should be grateful I came here” mentality.
I'm a doctor making $0/hr post tax, taking into account 1-2 hours of unpaid overtime a day. How do I get into this game?
*$20/hr
$20/h really?
They did not specify what they are a doctor of
What's wrong with breastfeeding? Humans have gotten this far without baby formulas.
Some woman doesn't produce enough to breastfeed. That's the reason for having baby formulas.
It's uncommon. Most just think they have more important things to do or just can't be bothered.
True issues with milk supply are more uncommon it appears, it is quite hard to get it right and get it working, so lots of people give up.
Some mother have low supply or no milk. Some might have health issues and are not able to breastfeed.
Some are not fortunate enough to have a job with maternity leave benefits. This means the mother needs to go back to work sooner and feeding the baby becomes a challenge. Some might choose to pump if their work have the facility/work policy to support it, but most will need to switch to formula as the only way to feed their baby while under other's care.
If you are one of these mothers, then sourcing a safe food source for her child is number one priority. However if you live in China, you will not trust the locally produced milk powder because of the 2008 milk scandal where 6 babies died from drinking milk tainted with melamine, and hospitalised almost 54,000 babies. Melamine was added to watered down milk to make it appear to have more protein (hence disguising the milk as undiluted). This incident shattered the trust of the local market. This includes the producers, middleman and importers.
Because of this, the mothers try their best to source milk from other countries like Australia through Daigo, as they can be assured that the milk are not tainted as these tins are the ones that sits on our supermarket shelf.
I'm a mother myself with a 4 month old with low supply who need to top up with a bit of formula each day. I know it is hard to get formula sometimes but I completely understand and sympathises with the situation. It's horrible to hear about babies dying and I can understand their concern and wariness when using formula. I'm just glad they found a safe (but costly) source.
This is the exact problem in China, most only have 4-6 weeks of maternity leave and most workplaces are not breastfeeding/pumping friendly. The the next generation of Chinese are raised by their grandparents - which is a another problem in itself.
As for low milk supply, have you tried the lactation cookies? they worked a treat for us.
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/breastfeeding/lactation-cookie…
Yeah I am using them. I make ANZAC cookie versions of these. I'm also on domperidone as well. I am feeding/pumping every 2 hours (and twice overnight). It's exhausting.
Fortunately my milk supply has improved but still not quite there yet. She's on solid soon so hopefully that will relax it a bit.
Can anyone answer this, I'm not concerned enough on this topic to research it myself.
Why don't the powder companies just sell to China, as there is clearly a market for it, and they could probably charge more as it is an exotic/rare item?
They already do
But look at the China market a billion people… it just takes a few % of paranoid people who prefer to buy from what they consider a direct source. After a while it becomes the norm so others follow this trend
They want/need the receipt included in the purchase.
Think of it like this, the Daigos are the corners stores that Supermarkets weren't able to shut down
These guys clearing the chemist warehouse of baby powder are at the bottom of the money making pyramid
The media has even said, the clearing of shelves is very localised. Otherwise we would see 100s of these videos every week from all around Australia
When I visit the supermarket of my mate who lives in an Asian neighborhood, the shelves are always full. He says it doesnt happen here, he hears it because most people do it through distribution/wholesale centers they just forward it on to China
Because the Chinese don’t trust the retailers selling the same product in stores. You can see online case studies of Ballamy’s infant formula that tried this.
I also hear that being a daigou seller, you have to gain trust in the buyer in China , eg. receipts, photo and video evidence of the seller going to Coles/Woolies picking the product off the shelves .
You can’t just be a random seller on a Chinese version of gumtree ( well maybe) but the trust is not there.
They do sell them on their shelves, but the Chinese don't trusts them.
In 2008, there was a milk powder scandal where melamine was added to diluted milk to disguise it as undiluted. This put almost 54,000 babies into hospital and 6 died. Since then, the local refuse to trust the milk industry and direct imports. Instead they rather rely on trusted oversea daigo who buys milk powder directly from our supermarket's shelf as they deem it more safe.
I work at Chemist Warehouse, and we are limited to allowing only 4 tins per customer. But there are loopholes around this - they would often bring their whole family, including cousins, grandparents etc all to buy baby formula.
Few years back, there was some Chinese made baby formula that contained some deadly stuff and ended up killing a few toddlers (I think.) Since then, the Chinese people seem to be not able to place trust in their own baby formula.
Hence, it results in some people to spend over a grand at our store.
Baby formula is a gimmick product anyway. Nothing produced synthetically is ever healthy, this crap is just poison I feel sorry for parents duped into to buying this sh*t.
You've got no idea…. Wait till you have kids
the chinese have very extreme behaviour where money is concerned, you can see this with the effect they have had on the australian property market.
Also their share market swings wildly, at some stage, the government had to step in and stop trading on their market because the market was in free fall after a massive run up because mom and dad speculators caused their indices to rise crazily. They are not very rational with money.
Are you saying our housing market is inflated purely from chinese investors? LOL. Okay.
where did i say that?
I agree, it's quite troubling to see this sort of behaviour from these Chinese people…
There are many mums that cannot breast-feed and rely on these for their babies, emptying the local shelf to make profit is a shameful act.
Also, last year, A2 started shipping baby formula directly to wholesalers in China.
So these idiots flogging the supermarket are there for the profit.
The thing is that foreign Chinese have very little trust. There are a lot of people in China who create counterfeit goods. That coupled with the milk scandal from 2008 is the reason why Chinese hire these daigou (who they trust) to buy the "real" product and ship it to them, also because it's for their kids and they just don't want to risk anything.
How about Australian families and children first. An sick of these Chinese just doing what they want do not care a hoot.
Try doing that in China you would get prison time. This Government is weak will not stand up to bullies.
All that Baby formula is going to china whilst the buyers are making a mint.
You can't say things like 'Australian families first' you'll get called a nationalist and white supremacists even though that's essentially their mentality, it's racist if we have it.
No, not all families are white, I'm pretty sure there is other nationalities are disgust with this.
If you live in Hong Kong you'll felt the same disgust.
your comment shows how ignorant you are regarding the situation. prove "ALL THAT BABY FORMULA IS GOING TO CHINA" claim? no Aussie families are been denied access to anything. why don't you do some research then hyperbolize on media beat up? Those Daigou mobs are just targetting 1-2 brands of baby formulas and ONLY in some suburbs. last time I checked there are 15+ other brands of baby formulas to choose from and well stocked. how the hell did this become a political China bullying issue??
This is capitalism, people flipping goods for a profit. i see people flipping bunning/Aldi goods on ebay. people flipping with drop shipping from aliexpress. why is flipping this commodity any different? you are welcome to move to communist CHINA for a STRONG government and control us capitalist pigs /sarcasm.
People here can always order the product from their website. It's much easier to do that then to call around to various stores asking if they have stock or having to rock up to a store early in the hopes of getting some.
Whole bunch of people are talking about starving baby in Australia because of daigou. While anyone can buy baby formula online with no problems at all.
Or maybe you are still living in the 19th century.
Lets ask Donald Trump how to solve this problem
Some people here are also talking about Chinese pushing up the housing price. Open your eyes and see what is happening around. House market is going down and the banks are trying to offer better deals on interest that more people might get into housing market. And the government, come on, those politicians have more properties than any of these Chinese buyers. And we are expecting that they gonna do something to sink the house price. Wake up, guys
you are wrong on all counts, the banks are much tighter with lending post RC findings. The politicians definitely do not own more property than chinese buyers.
Housing market is tanking because credit is harder to get and people have realised that house prices do not always rise, hence investor numbers are way down.
People have realized that house prices do not always rise, then they step back and let the housing market sink.
Wow, biggest joke in housing market ever.
Go and ask Barnaby Joyce that how many properties does he own
At least if you said the big players instead of people. That might be more convincing.
People, you mean you and me, or investors suddenly come to an common understanding that house price will not rise forever and decide to step back and let the market sink?
dreamland 'the banks are much tighter with lending post RC findings. The politicians definitely do not own more property than chinese buyers'
what makes you think loans are easier to get post RC?
I think they need to fix the tradition of Aussie families with their habit of drug issues surrounding their babies/kids 1st https://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/news/young-girl-…
There's only a shortage of one specific premium brand, it's not like our babies are starving lol. If you really need that specific brand then you can still buy it, maybe you'll need to go earlier in the morning or visit a different store. It's the same as any highly sought after good -
you snooze, you lose. Every formula exported is supporting our economy, trying to restrict that would be very short sighted. After reading this thread, I feel like this is less about baby formula and more of just people expressing their anti-Chinese sentiment
Every formula exported is supporting our economy,
It's not like Australia is running out of milk with exports exceeding 210m kg per year.
https://www.ruralbank.com.au/assets/responsive/pdf/publicati…
Anti Chinese sentiment? I am half Chinese
Not surprised
Culturally or just genealogically?
Both
I am half Chinese
A mixed person may still hold Sinophobic views.
There's a lot of fools like you. "I'm Chinese therefore I can say racist things about my own people and not be labeled a racist."
Everyone knows Chinese people are not nationalist and some wish they were born with different skin and eyes lol.
change Chinese to Asians. I've met quite a few of them with views that white people are superior. even going to the extreme of cosmetic surgeries. Asian girls bleaching their hair blonde and wearing blue contacts are quite common.
You can be any background and can have disapproving views on your own culture
Every culture has idiosyncratic behaviour.
Intelligent people tend to make fun of their own culture all the time
Of course, and you're better than them.
I may be ignorant about all this, but I don't get how babies are "stuck on one brand". This has been going on for many years… if there's that much of a problem with supply, then why start babies on that particular brand and then whinge when there's supposedly "not enough"?
Who do I whinge to when I miss out other products when they're out of stock. The tins are on the shelf - first come, first serve.
"stuck on one brand"
Not to mention stuck on the most expensive brand.
I'm so sick of mothers expecting the world to revolve around them just because they have a baby.
As it is with everything else, you want it badly enough, you f@$k%n go get it yourself.
I don't get this either. Someone please educate me.
What if there was a fire or some other major incident at the factory and production stopped? Am I to believe tens of thousands of babies would starve to death?
if you believe everything tracey grimshore says, then there should be "hoons" doing burnouts in your street right now! fathers be careful as they also impregnate your underage teenage daughters on site.
You do generally need to be on site to impregnate someone.
these guys get it done via the 2nd hole. hoons!
If the shelf is empty go ask and 90% of the time they have them out back.
Also welcome to capitalism. :)
Baby formula is not a basic human necessity.
Convenience is not a human right.
Here's some basic common sense to prevent this extremely tedious inconvenience.
Don't have kids out of wedlock. Whingy single moms are so 2008.
Don't have kids if dirt poor.
Don't get breast implants or other unnecessary medical procedures/medications especially if planning to have kids. (and/or whilst being dirt poor).
Buy a pump and a fridge.
Harsh.
Oh yes, China: The country that acts like they’re the greatest in the world, but can’t even make their own baby formula because their cows eat soot covered grass and the risk of poisoning from maniacal workers is too high.
It is not the fault of daigo, our government needs to regulate it more than the 5kg parcel limit. Other than that, maybe it should an over the counter purchase that requires ID, which would stop the daigo donning a moustache and coming back to buy more. Have supermarkets only re stock it after closing hours so the daigo don’t stand next to the box as it’s being unpacked (this happens). Manufacturers could also do more to make it easier for those in the market it’s sold to to buy it, but they’re probably not interested as long as their profits are through the roof.
Don’t blame the daigo, they’re just after a profit, but I think we’re within our rights to hate them.