Woolworths CEO Amanda Bardwell ambushed in NSW store by young shopper furious at high prices

A belligerent young shopper has confronted Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell during a store walk-through, dishing out a verbal assault attacking the supermarket giant’s uber profits amid the cost-of-living crisis and claims of price-gouging by Australian grocers.

The video posted to TikTok shows the angry female customer launching a tirade against the CEO and other store workers in Wollongong in NSW.

“What do you have to say to the fact that your company is profiting off price-gouging during context of the cost-of-living crisis,” the shopper asked Ms Bardwell during the ambush as she walked through the fruit and veg section with staff members.

In a polite and measured response, the CEO — who only took on the top job three weeks ago — thanked her for the question and said: “We’re doing everything we can to recognise that customers are doing it tough to make sure that they’re able to get great prices.”

The shopper — hands on hips — fires back, saying “I really don’t believe that”, arguing that “millions of Australians right now have to skip meals in order to survive”.

“Your company has just bought a full extra supermarket chain through a vulture capitalist venture, so that you can continue to make big bucks while working class people suffer. Can you sleep at night knowing that,” she said.

Ms Bardwell reiterated her “we’re doing everything we can to support our customers” message before the young woman asked if she would give up the $1.7 billion Woolworths made in profit last financial year — that was before it wrote off $1.5b of value from its New Zealand supermarkets, taking its reported profit for the year to just $108m.

A staff member then stepped in to say the company had lowered prices “and you see that right throughout our store… that’s great value for our customers”.

She also reminded the shopper that it was illegal to film someone without their permission in NSW.

The video ends with the man filming the confrontation yelling “shame”.

The altercation came just days the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it had launched separate legal actions in the Federal Court against Woolworths and Coles for allegedly breaching consumer law by misleading consumers through “illusory” discount pricing claims on hundreds of common grocery products.

Some of the products include Tim Tam, Arnott’s Shapes, Twisties, Coca Cola, Colgate toothpaste, Kleenex tissues, Lurpak butter, Nature’s Gift dog food, Nescafe instant coffee, Weet-Bix, Sunrice rice, Viva paper towels, Whiskas cat food and Zafarelli pasta.

Amid the cost-of-living crisis, Coles promoted its long-running “Down, Down” campaign as a lifeline for cost-conscious shoppers struggling to make ends meet as inflation pushed up prices on everyday items.

Woolworths did the same with its “Prices Dropped” pitch.

The ACCC’s claims involve 266 products for Woolworths at different times across 20 months, and 245 products for Coles at different times across 15 months, amounting to “tens of millions” in sales from which both chains “derived significant revenue”, the ACCC said.

The allegations relate to products sold in store and online by Woolworths and Coles at regular long-term prices which remained the same, excluding short-term specials, for at least six months and in many cases for at least a year.

The ACCC claims the price of the products then rose at least 15 per cent for brief periods, before being placed in the Prices Dropped and Down Down promotions at prices lower than during the price spike — but higher than, or the same as, the regular price that applied before the price rise.

How ACCC says the cookie crumbled

In one example of how the grocers allegedly mislead shoppers, the consumer watchdog pointed to Oreo biscuits.

It said that from January 1, 2021 to November 27, 2022, Woolworths was selling the Oreo Family Pack Original 370g product for $3.50 on a pre-existing Prices Dropped promotion for at least 696 days.

On November 28, 2022, the price was increased to $5 for 22 days. On December 20, 2022, the product was placed on a Prices Dropped promotion with the tickets showing a Prices Dropped price of $4.50 and a “was” price of $5.

The price of $4.50 was, in fact, 29 per cent higher than the product’s previous regular price of $3.50.

“In this example, the ACCC alleges Woolworths had planned the temporary price spike to establish a new higher “was” price for the subsequent ‘promotion’,” the watchdog said.

“Woolworths had decided (after a request from the supplier for a price increase) on or around November 18, 2022 to take the product off Prices Dropped, increase the price, and then put the product back on to Prices Dropped three weeks later.”