Update: Woolworths and "Australian" garlic
Update: Woolworths and "Australian" garlic
Original post here: https://aussie.zone/post/13344223
Some people in the original post had some questions about whether I had the right product.
Well I went back today and took some more photos to show it more clearly. Hopefully that clarifies that I was holding the right thing.
And they're still at it! This time with garlic from Argentina (still not Australia).
Spoke to staff there who said I'll hear back from head office. I'll let you know when/if I do.
Apologies, I was one of those calling you out in the original post.
The proper person in-store to escalate things like this to would be the ‘Produce Manager’ (or similar title), as the shelf stackers have no ability to control it and are likely being judged against unreachable KPIs, though the very least they should do would be to pull the signage.
From what I can see on the Woolies website, Australian grown garlic is currently unavailable and cheaper imported 3 Packs (as pictured) are being offered instead.
I’ll check my local tomorrow, and see if it’s across the board (strengthening the argument for an ACCC report) and/or if they’re also scanning up on the POS as Australian or not.
In my head, you’ve walked up to a random shelf stocker, asked about it, they’ve said “oh, you’ll hear from our head office”, and you’ve walked out feeling validated.
I love it. Please tell me this is it.
I think the random shelf stocker was behind a milk crate desk, so all very official. :P
https://aussie.zone/u/philip this is my favourite post of the week, please update as details emerge. I want to know how the saga unfolds. Will the ACCC get involved, will Head Office respond, will https://aussie.zone/u/philip go nuclear contacting their local Parliamentary Representative.
Respectfully, I doubt you'll hear back if your complaint was "lodged" with a staff member. Having worked at a fast food chain, that was probably a lie to get you out of the store so they can go meet their stocking/packing/other duty quotas. Not necessarily out of malice, but low level employees, and possibly even the store manager don't have any control over what's put on the signs.
Not saying you're wrong, it's deffo unethical and illegal to lie about the country of origin and deserves a complaint to the ACCC (even if they are quite the toothless little tiger), but your best option is probably a combination of the ACCC and contacting woolies HQ directly.
(and I don't know if Woolies works on a franchise model or not, but if they do, contacting the franchisee would probably be the most effective option, since they're the ones who are going to cop the fine, and it would also likely sting them more than a fine to woolies directly)