A disgruntled shopper has erupted at the Woolworths CEO over claims the supermarket giant was profiting off Australians doing it tough during a cost-of-living crisis.
Chief executive Amanda Bardwell was on a routine visit at the Warrawong store, in the southern suburbs of Wollongong, NSW, when she was approached by local Megan Guy.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Woolworths CEO confronted by shopper over alleged price gouging.
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An impassioned Guy demanded answers over alleged price gouging, claiming Woolworths was taking advantage of the average shopper.
“Millions of people in Australia right now have to skip meals in order to survive … can you sleep at night knowing that?” she asked in a video shared to TikTok.
The tense interaction comes as Woolworths and Coles face allegations they broke consumer law by duping customers with misleading discount pricing claims on hundreds of products.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) on Monday launched legal action in the Federal Court against the supermarket giants, accusing them of routinely bumping up the prices of products by 15 per cent for brief periods before listing them as promotions.
Woolworths’ Prices Dropped and Coles’ Down Down deals listed prices that were below the peak but higher than the initial price, the watchdog claims.
Bardwell, who is weeks into the job, thanked Guy for voicing her concerns, however, this was not enough for the fed-up customer.
“We’re doing everything that we can to recognise that customers are doing it tough, to make sure that they’re able to get great prices,” Bardwell said.
“I know that our team are doing everything that we can to support our customers.
“We understand that it is an incredibly difficult time now.”
Guy shut the response down, saying: “I really don’t believe that.”
She said if the supermarket giant understood how Australians were struggling, it would be prepared to give up profits to address the issue.
A worker interjected, saying: “We have lowered our prices and you can see that throughout the store.”
However, Guy said she did not believe that to be true.
“I don’t think working-class people buy that and accept that,” she said.
Bardwell again thanked Guy for “sharing your views” — with the customer’s companion then piping up.
“It’s not views, it’s reality that millions of Australians are struggling and doing it so tough and you’re the one behind (alleged) price gauging and profiting off this,” he said.
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Heading down, down to court
Woolworths and Coles could face “significant” penalties over the alleged breaches if the ACCC case is successful.
Commission chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the duopoly breached consumer law by making misleading claims about discounts when the discounts were, in fact, illusory.
“It is of great concern to us,” she said on Monday.
“That penalty has to be high enough to be not a cost of doing business for such major companies, to deter them from this conduct in the future and deter all retailers from this manner of conduct.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the supermarkets, labelling the alleged behaviour as un-Australian.
“If this is found to be true, it’s completely unacceptable,” Anthony Albanese said.
“This is not the Australian spirit.
“Customers don’t deserve to be treated as fools by the supermarkets.”
The allegations relate to 266 products for Woolworths sold at different times across 20 months and 245 products for Coles sold at different times across 15 months.
Coles is defending the action, blaming price increases on inflationary pressures.
“The allegations relate to a period of significant cost inflation when Coles was receiving a large number of cost price increases from our suppliers and, in addition, Coles’ own costs were rising, which led to an increase in the retail price of many products,” Coles said in a statement.
Woolworths acknowledged the legal action and claimed it related to historical pricing schemes.
“Our Prices Dropped program was introduced to provide customers with great everyday value on their favourite products,” Bardwell said in a statement.
“We remain committed to offering many ways for customers to save at the checkout.”
– With AAP