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The student who confronted Woolworths CEO Amanda Bardwell over price gouging allegations wanted to express “the frustration and anger a lot of working class people are facing”.
Struggling university student Megan Guy and a friend approached Bardwell at Woolworths Warrawong in the NSW Illawarra region, recorded the interaction and posted it to TikTok yesterday.
Guy questioned Bardwell over the price gouging allegations in the video that has since racked up more than 400,000 views on the platform.
“What do you have to say that your company is profiting off price gouging during the context of the cost of living crisis,” the student can be heard saying.
“Thank you for reaching out to talk to us … we’re doing everything that we can to recognise that customers are doing it tough, to make sure they are able to get great prices at Woolies,” Bardwell replied.
Guy then continues with her line of questioning and says she “doesn’t believe” that the supermarket giant is doing everything they can.
“Millions of people in Australia right now have to skip meals in order to survive, your company has just bought a full extra supermarket … you can continue to make big bucks while working-class people suffer … can you sleep at night doing that?”
Bardwell then repeats that her team are doing everything they can to support customers, and thanks Guy for sharing her “views”.
At that point, the man filming the video speaks up from behind the camera.
“It’s not views, it’s reality that millions of Australians are struggling, [doing it] so tough and you’re the one behind price gouging and profiting off this.”
The interaction ends quickly after that, with what appears to be a store manager telling the pair it’s illegal to film without their permission before the group of executives walk away.
Bardwell again thanks the pair and says she will pass on the feedback to her team.
Guy was not impressed Bardwell’s “generic reply” in the “face of extreme suffering that’s going on among ordinary people at the moment”.
“I thought her response was absolutely disgusting,” she said.
“Amanda Bardwell herself is on a $2.15 million salary.
“I don’t think any ordinary person in Australia can relate to that situation.
“These corporate executives are raking it in while we’re being forced to decide whether we can afford to pay our rent this week or whether we can afford to buy cheese.”
It is understood Bardwell has been visiting a number of stores around the country in recent weeks.
Woolworths told 9news.com.au that it had not recently purchased any other supermarket chains, as Guy claimed in the video.
The newly-appointed CEO was at the Warrawong store to meet teams on the ground, and has been visiting Woolworths stores as part of her first few weeks in the job, the company said.
The ACCC announced on Monday that it had launched proceedings into the price gouging allegations against both Woolworths and Coles.
“Our customers are telling us they want us to work even harder to deliver meaningful value to them and it’s important they can trust the value they see when shopping our stores,” Bardwell said on Monday.
“Our Prices Dropped program was introduced to provide our customers with great everyday value on their favourite products.
“We remain committed to offering many ways for customers to save at the checkout, including thousands of weekly specials, everyday low prices on household essentials, a great value own brand range and through our Everyday Rewards program.”
Bardwell became acting CEO three weeks ago, replacing Brad Banducci.
