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?
so you should thanks them for our poor economic
name and shame? Broden
Why? I sell formula for $100 a tin on eBay
Just don’t breed and enjoy your life sniffing coke and
Overdose at 50s when you realise that you have no purpose.
Wait… What?
You're not really suggesting that the only way for someone to have purpose is by sharting out a crotch demon, are you?
Kids are horrible, life long STI's and having one just to give one's life some sort of purpose is just horrid.
I live in CBD and I rarely see them run out of stock. Though there are notes on the shelves stating the limits per customers.
Milk powder is just the beginning, in the past decade about 2,000,000,000 entered the middle class and can now afford to compete for our goods/services. In coming years much of Australia's produce/resources/exports will become so expensive, due to globalised demand, most ordinary Aussies will no longer be able to afford them.
well the Chinese are the worst Customers..I run a bakery and a Chinese customer came with a two year old coupon, Demanding to redeem it and when i refuse then she said she will go to the other Franchise 5 km away to redeem that, rude straight on your face…
Is it expired?
I'm Chinese background. And I personally find it is annoying that I cannot purchase from shelf for my Little ones, who live in Australia. But I do understand that why Chinese willing to pay extra to buy formula from Australia. If anyone feel it is not right or unfair, he/she should blame Australia govement by doing nothing to stop this at customs but not the buyers overseas.
Hello,
Posting this thread out of curiosity.
A family of 3 in our apartment brings tins of A2 in bulk. Not sure where they bring them from, but I noticed each one of them carries roughly 30 tins in trolley bags and backpacks.
Another person brings a van or SUV in the evening to carry these tins.
The whole exercise of bringing tins and loading them in the evening happens everyday(i mean 365 days,including weekends).
Now I am not quite sure what the A2 tins ( a2 written on the cans with purple color lid) contain. But I guess that contains protein shake or baby food or vitamin shake or milk powder.
They don't speak or understand English, hence could not ask them what is going on. So got curious to ask this in OzBargain.
Any guess what is going on here?
Drug smugglers. Any bikies near by.
It is certainly A2 Baby formula which is then mailed to China for considerable profit.
Sounds like you have a well organised group operating. Whilst not illegal it is certainly frowned upon as they often clean out the supermarkets entire stock leaving none for locals needing it for their babies.
A2 gone while the rest is untouched.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/image/10594510-3x2-940x627.jpg
"The a2 Milk Company guarantees that any mother who wants to buy a2 Platinum Infant Formula will be able to do so if they contact the company via its website," he said.
Is there anything we can do to stop it? Name and shame?
Yes, this is an easy problem to solve - make it a product you require ID to purchase which is checked against a register.
There's nothing to stop Coles/Woolies making it a product you need to join one of their rewards programs to purchase either, but they won't.
you require ID to purchase which is checked against a register.
This could be in breach of the Privacy Act.
I feel this whole “issue” is a bit of a beat up. People are lazy and love blaming others for their laziness. With a quick 2min search I was able to find numerous web sites which were selling the A2 0-6 month formula including the manufacturers. Since I’ve was made aware of the controversy I’ve kept an eye out and I reckon I see it on the supermarket shelves more often then I don’t.
Also supermarkets always have stock of the non premium brands, I assume it won’t kill your baby.
The ones picking it up at the local chemist/super markets are the bottom feeders of the industry. Thats why its localised, its not very profitable time wise going outside your local area, at the same time the half to a dozen 'hireling's probably aren't paid enough to go as well.
I assume someone has a bunch of poor/students/pensioners they contact hey lets do a run, $2-$3 a tin… it just takes 1-2 runs for those guys to go its not worth the glare and harassment to spend a couple of hours (include travel and organising time) for $20-30 bucks
hong kong had a similar problem a few years ago when those in China came down to buy milk powder
how did they solve them problem
open the can in front of them when they buy it, it only has a 30 day shelf life and u cant resell a open can
cant really do this in australia, hygiene reason but was effective in hong Kong, made them come to Australia lol
that's clever. would hygiene really be a problem here?
bound to be some rule against it australia
Like the fact you can't just do what you want with others' property…?
generally most parents i know would have have 1 open, 1 spare (if not more)
as you are supposed to use it all within 4 weeks of opening~
it would mean they cannot have spare lying around and calculate when i run out they are due to run out of milk
now you are inconveniencing parents with good planning/inventory control whom now have to drive around supermarket at short notice just for milk
this is for single baby..if i have different aged or twins this task now becomes an inordinately more difficult task then simply keeping spare cans around
open the can in front of them when they buy it
The (profanity)? Anyone who thinks they can open a food product that I've just bought is not gonna have a good time.
also if u cant stand or beat them… join them and roll in the cassssshhhhhhhhhh
Breast is best!
pharmacy owners are working with them, you won't even see the formula coming onto shelves sometime. It is profitable, and that's the nature of capitalism I guess.
We are all quick to blame the individual selling to China…but given the shortage…I'm curious if the companies themselves are selling a certain % overseas…in such…limiting the available product in Australia. Happens with every other industry and product and wouldn't be surprised if it was the case here too.
And if so…maybe you should go after the companies profiting from this instead of people that are looking to make a buck too.
Kind of like going after the next door neighbour for watering their garden in a drought when agi are chewing through more water than is imaginable.
yes even if they are manufacturing at full capacity, why have they not increased their capacity in all this time it's been a problem?
Also,…a simple solution would be to create a card that new parents get that entitles them to baby formula..and without it you can't buy it. Simple. It limits how much you can buy based on how many babies you have and expires after a certain point. Pretty bloody simple if anyone actually wanted to stop what's going on.
then I guess those baby formula companies would be the first ones to say no. lol
It doesn't matter to them as they'd still sell out…just the end client is different.
Of course that matters.
Chinese parents only trust the products sold in Australian supermarkets and pharmacies. If you do some research about Bellamy's share prices. You will find out the reasons. lol
The most sough-after brand a2 is more than $100/tin in China. That's the official price.
@RBSWWSla: True. And doesn't Bellamy have the right to sell their stock to anyone?
As a business their goal is to make money. Given the Chinese want this as much as Australian's it would seem first in best dressed.
Yipee capitalism! (I'm being sarcastic…I hate globalisation and capitalism)
But it is what it is.
The most sough-after brand a2 is more than $100/tin in China. That's the official price.
https://detail.m.tmall.com/item.htm?id=534250159183&toSite=m…
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b&ei=kDAwXJ7kI4…
@RBSWWSla: Woolies sells two tins for ¥420.
https://detail.m.tmall.com/item.htm?id=554860326690&toSite=m…
not so simple when you live in the real world….with actual considerations/motives
things like this don't come for free…so who is going to fund this scheme??
infrastructure/equipment/installation/training/maintenance/staffing
i can already guess the response here…the companies of course
companies aren't going to take a cut in margin, so who ends up ultimately paying for these schemes…9/10 times its the consumers (it may not be right away but it will happen)
who will govern this…
the government?? tax payers money …outcry outcry
new formed entity?? who will join if they have no powers to make companies join…also again..money
self governance?? no one will join/pay
taking the money issue aside
is this scheme going to be imposed on brands/companies who do not have supply issues??
now you are punishing the other players in the market for providing good service and constrict possible startups from going in
If the consumer is the one complaining about it then I'm assuming they are happy to pay a bit more to ensure there is product available for them.
If not…then they need to accept this product is a product available for any. Supply and demand.
i think the majority of people complaining aren't even actual consumers of the products in question
some people who don't even have kids complaining on behalf of others (outrage culture is all the rage these days)
some using anecdotally information they have to form their picture
some only have the blinkers on and know what the mainstream media feed them
your solution would unilaterally inflect pain to all parents even the ones that don't even use the brands in question
its like using handgun to kill an fly in a shopping mall
your stray bullets are likely to harm bystanders more than the fly itself
Have the formula only by prescription from a doctor!
Prescriptions costs money.
And time.
truly stupid idea…this would only swamp local G.P.'s
i think it's a good idea worth considering.
it would not swamp gp's if they were long term prescriptions, like authority prescriptions can be.
the government could even create a new kind of prescription for it if it wanted - long term, but not as time consuming to create as authority.
the government could even create a new kind of prescription for it if it wanted - long term, but not as time consuming to create as authority.
But then there'd just be a blackmarket of Milk Powder scripts for Daigous..
Now you might get mothers onselling baby powder prescriptions.
Not only that, how are you going to enforce this in supermarkets? There is no pharmacist on duty at woolies/coles.
All this, decreases pharmacy and supermarket efficiency, for what?
A few poor planning mothers who only buy a specific milk powder product when they need the milk powder and don't plan in advance?
By article do you mean video? lol
why don't the people who sell it to china order wholesale quantities? they would make even more money and not empty shelves in australian supermarkets? or are they not allowed to do that either?
Maybe it is not easily accessible. There is even a limit of 3 cans per week when ordering online via A2 website. I think you also need to pay shipping fee.
simply BAN ALL THIRD PARTY/UNAUTHORISED EXPORTS OF BABY FORMULA. They already have border controls in place to scan for illegal stuff anyways, so it should be (relatively) easy to just find and stop any exports of Australian baby formula internationally. Unless you have a registered ABN, all baby formula exports should be stopped at the border and 'Returned to Sender'. Unlike drugs, the 'exporters' cannot repackage the baby formula or 'stuffed into stuffed animals' since I assume the Chinese consumers would not like their products to be tampered with'.
Hahahaha you want the government to block people sending goods overseas which are otherwise perfectly legal?
They already have border controls in place to scan for illegal stuff anyways, so it should be (relatively) easy to just find and stop any exports of Australian baby formula internationally
You think every single package is scanned at the border..?
It's time consuming to scan, they will sample some packages.
Why do you think Border Security exists as a scare campaign TV show?
'it's just the media blowing things our of proportion' they say
Clearly there is money to be made if you can sell it for 3 or 4 times the price.
This seems like a hard issue to police.
Going to have a baby this year. Should I start stock-piling some formula now in case I can't find any later?
no, before being drowned by the mass hysteria of it
firstly
do not stock pile BEFORE your bubz has a chance to test/try
they may have an allergy/constipation issues/not take certain brands
secondly the brand/s affected are
A2 and Karicare/Nutricia
sometimes Other brands might be out of stock but that may be due to special order or just general supply issue of the product
now if you insist of using/buying these two brands…fear not
you are able to purchase direct from the supplier and have it delivered to your door step
Believe current limit is 3 cans per order, you can reorder every 14 days
believe you can RING the customer service to get free shipping code (they do not post this on their website)
ps take this information with grain of salt as things may change over time
I believe Karicare/Nutricia offer free shipping to your cart as long as you buy 3 tins.
confirmed yes
if you going to trouble of ordering online ….grabbing 3 shouldnt be a problem
Went to woolies before christmas and saw the baby formula full stock of each brand with maybe approx 4 or so cans per brand empty but alot left. Maybe they restocked, maybe its been there for days. Who knows.
Most cans will last approx 1 year.
These parents stating there's no formula, well buy in bulk.
It's funny cause my friend who is white, she told me she purchased 5 tins and the checkout chick didn't say anything. If she was Asian, well….. different story huh.
But conclusion, buy in bulk and stop complaining.