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“Unfair and greedy”: Furious Woolies customer lashes out at shopper

A Woolies shopper has lashed out at a customer, after describing her as a “hoarder” for her “enormous” grocery shop at a grocery store in Victoria.

The disgruntled customer took to the Woolies Facebook page on Sunday to write they were “disappointed” and “angry” when a woman spent about $1200 at a store in Highett, in Melbourne’s southeast.

“Her items included about 15 trays of mince. So, so selfish,” the customer said.

The shopper was able to buy these items just before the supermarket reinstated purchase limits in the state.

The post was joined alongside by an image of the grocery belt that included several packets of mince, eggs and other groceries.



“I was the only person who challenged her. Manager was ‘not in yet’,” the customer went on to say.

The upset shopper urged Woolworths to “stand up to these disgusting individuals” and went on to describe the customer as “unfair and greedy”.

The post bought in a number of comments - many of which did not agree with the original poster’s opinion.

“How does this affect you?” one person wrote.

“I’m concerned for others who do miss out due to selfish hoarders,” the original poster responded.

Another commented: “I think it’s sad that there are ‘disgusting individuals’ who think it’s their job to ‘challenge’ and criticise complete strangers on their grocery purchases while knowing nothing about their situation.”

Several other commenters agreed and suggested that perhaps the woman doing the large grocery shop may have a fair explanation for buying so many groceries.

“She may shop for a daycare centre or group home,” one said.

“I thought the same thing, that person could be getting things for elderly neighbours, could also be for a small business, or they may have a huge family – who knows,” another added.

The original poster replied to followers and said she felt there should have been a purchase limit on the items but people continued to reply and said there were a number of reasons for someone to make such a large purchase.

“Some people shop for one month at time and live a long way from a Woolworths,” a person suggested.

“This is a normal shop in my mum’s household, I dare you to say something to her,” another wrote.

People with large families responded and defended the “enormous” shop.

“I have eight kids plus myself and hubby, and we shop fortnightly. I know people are going to judge and comment, this is the reason why most people like myself have anxiety attacks because of the judgement we get for shopping for larger families,” a woman said.

Another woman took to the comments to defend big bulk purchasing, and urged the original poster not to make assumptions.

“My work provides meals for people with disabilities and more often than not our shop looks like this,” she said.

“I get your assumption and do understand your frustration as it has made it hard for us to continue our service. But we must alway remember an assumption is just that,” she said.

Yahoo News Australia has contacted Woolworths for comment.

Tags:
Woolies, customer, hoarding, bulk buy, news, Food & wine