Woolworths called out for trying to sell expiring breastfeeding vitamins

Woolworths has allegedly been selling expiring breastfeeding vitamins. A Sydney mother has discovered that the grocery giant’s huge bargain price for its Blackmores Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Gold supplements also came with a huge catch.

On Wednesday, Instagram user sale_addict_mum, whose social media page is full of bargain hunts, posted an image of the pregnancy supplements, saying she came across an unbelievably big sale. The vitamins were normally priced at $60 but were on sale at only $5.99. It turned out that the 180-tablet bottle would only be good for four days. The bottles’ expiry date is on Sep. 30.

“So today I was checking out Woolworths weekly sales and came across a deal too good to be true. Upon a closer look, I found out that the expiry on 180 tablets is 4 days away. It was really upsetting that they would try to exploit expecting mothers and others that are breastfeeding. I called over a staff who paged the manager over the PA system to rectify the situation. Always check the expiry date and if a deal is too good to be true, perhaps it’s too good to be true,” she captioned the photo.

Many of her followers were equally outraged over Woolworths’ tactic, saying it was a deceitful move by Woolworths. Some, however, understood that the purpose of markdowns was due to nearing best-by dates. Another user pointed out that even if the vitamins were expired, they would still be fine to consume; their effectiveness or potency just diminishes.

Nevertheless, Woolworths has apologised for the error in its procedure to sell supplements that were near their expiry dates.

“If a product cannot reasonably be consumed within the expiry window, it should be withdrawn from sale and written off,” a spokesperson told Yahoo7 News. “We apologise to any customers impacted by this and encourage them to get in contact with us if they have concerns with a recent purchase.”

Woolworths said the issue had been rectified.

A Blackmores spokesperson said it’s not recommended to use their products beyond their expiry date. However, they also did not expect the product to deteriorate immediately.