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A Woolworths’ employee has called on shoppers to stop doing something we’re probably all guilty of, saying it’s ‘disgusting’. And it’s prompted an avalanche of responses from retail workers confessing the most disturbing things they’ve had to deal with at work.

The reddit user, who works in replenishment in a Melbourne Woolies, has asked that customers stop leaving unwanted items on random shelves, rather than putting them back where they belong.

“Dear Melbourners please stop doing this I work in replenishment at woolies it is disgusting,” they wrote. The uploaded image showed a juice, which needs to be refrigerated, discarded in the baby aisle.

Woolies random items

The post attracted more stories from supermarket employees, detailing the filthy habits of some shoppers.

Here’s a selection of some of the most disturbing things retail workers have found and seen:

“I did replen for several years at Bunnings. I have faced up my fair share of half eaten snags dumped on shelves.”

“I used to work at Kmart many years ago in the early 2000’s. We found actual human s**t out on the shop floor on three separate occasions that I can think of. One of which was adult-sized turds on the ground in the middle of the footwear department. Don’t ask me how the hell that happened. It was also a common occurrence to find open packs of nappies in the baby section – people would steal a nappy to put on their baby and they’d change the baby right there on the floor, leaving the dirty (often s**t-filled) nappy either on the floor or even worse, they’d hide it amongst the clothes or merchandise. Another thing that happened constantly was people would swap the underwear they were wearing for a ‘free’ new set, leaving the tags and their old grimy undies and bras in the fitting rooms for us to find.”

“One time at the supermarket I heard a ‘pop’. Looked over and someone had opened a jar of jam, gave it a sniff, held it under his friend’s nose for a sniff, put his finger in it for a taste, mustn’t have liked it because he then put the lid back on and put the jar back on the shelf.”

“My first year working at a department store, some kid had the runs, and instead of going to the bathroom in store, his mum dragged him around while she did her shopping. Our first hint was when it started pooling at the register when she paid, we tracked her progress through the store by the brown drips.”

“When I worked in Woolies about 15 years ago, one time we even found diarrhoea under a shelf. No idea how someone managed to have the ability to position themselves to be able to do that.”

“Worked at Coles while I was at Uni. Found both a used nappy and a used pregnancy test on shelves. Both big nopes on a supermarket wage.”

“Oh boy do I have story’s for y’all! Eight years Coles experience worth of ’em. Highlights include:

  • whole hot roast pork from deli left in freezer to freeze solid
  • woman taking a s**t in the aisle
  • woman changing child’s nappy on milk shelf
  • man throwing up in promotional shelving
  • cheese left in toilet paper shelves
  • bloody knife left on shelf
  • used condom in pet food shelf
  • child who opened all the taps on water casks and flooded half the store”

“We used to own a newsagency. There was one kid who’d discretely grab a porn mag, open it to a full spread of a nude photo and place it in the children’s section. Every school day.”

The thread even prompted the creation of an Instagram account, dedicated to random supermarket shelf discoveries.

Are you guilty of dumping unwanted items on random shelves? Or have you ever found something where it shouldn’t be in the supermarket? Let us know in the comments below.

  • At my local the shop is littered with empty food packets and drink can/bottles….. people have a good old feed whilst they do the shopping and then Dump the evidence on the shelves, half chewed bbq chooks, bags of meat from the deli, packets of chips, soft drinks, ice creams….nothings off limits

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  • While stocktaking at my old store a staff member found one container on the shelf filled with urine. Some child must have wanted to go and mum just got a storage container off the shelf and let the kid pee in it then just put in back on the shelf. There was a toilet nearby so no need for this. I really felt sorry for the poor staff member that found it. Disgusting.

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  • I too worked in a supermarket and people are disgusting and rude. Changing a baby in the aisle and leaving a pooey nappy on he shelf is, sadly, something that most supermarket workers will come across. We had someone come along and slightly pop the ringpull on dog food cans in the back of the shelves. After a few days the smell was horrendous and we had to go searching for the offending tins.

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  • Some people are disgusting, no idea how they can do that kind of stuff.

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  • I used to work in a supermarket and see thos all the time. It’s so lazy, and we had to throw out so much food because cold stuff would go hot! People also used to drink bottles of softdrink or water etc and leave the bottles around the shop so they were stealing the drink then dumping the evidence

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  • It really makes me angry when lazy shoppers couldn’t be bothered to take a product back to where they picked it up from. If you don’t want the product don’t just ditch it on any shelf, especially perishable items that need to be kept at a certain temperature. Such stupidity, because they don’t realise that by their lazy and uncaring attitudes and actions in the end we all end up paying for it with higher prices at the checkout. Wake up and do the right thing. Shop right and if you don’t want the product then get your lazy legs moving and take it back to the aisle and shelf that you picked it from. As an ex-employee of Woolworths, I have had to deal with this also and I still do and return products back to where they belong or unhappily hand perishable items to staff The job still resonates with me. I cannot stand lazy people.

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  • The list from Coles was next level!!! I worked at a supermarket and we just got the usual short life chiller items in all sorts of places! But not a bloody knife on a shelf and a used condom… Wooowwwwwww.

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  • I can’t believe I actually just read some of that….. people are disgusting….

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  • I see unwanted products, particularly those from the refrigerated section, on the wrong shelves every time I shop. I really can’t understand the mentality of the people who do this as these products then have to be thrown out.

    My daughter used to work for Coles and one of her jobs was to go around and collect and return products to their right shelf when she should have been restacking shelves.

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  • Very sad, inconsiderate and wasteful behaviour !

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  • Wow – never thought I’d see or hear about that sort of thing.
    I have seen things put out in wring places and in my naivety thought that someone’s child in a tantrum was throwing things out of their mum’s trolley, but after reading this post I won’t be so naive again.

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  • I always put items back where I find them, sometimes they don’t belong where I found them, but I don’t know their original location so put back where found!
    I was shopping in a Kmart once and there was a trail of blood on the floor! Not sure if the person had cut themselves or a woman had her period. Might have been a tampon that was trapped in a trolley’s wheel

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  • Wow some disgusting ???? disgusting ???? experiences. How can people do such horrible acts. Poor standards.

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  • How the .. can people justify being so grose and disrespectful.

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  • Holy moly that’s some bad behaviour there!!!
    Can’t believe some of the things on the list – used undies and pooping in an aisle?!
    How disgusting. I wonder if they would like it if someone did things like that in their house.

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  • Yes absolutely annoying! Especially seeing cold fridge items in the shelf Aisles

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  • Wow, some of those are really disturbing- who would even think to do those things?!

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  • I have seen a few people dump their items from the deli in different aisles, and it makes me feel annoyed. Such waste, and no respect for employees.

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  • I find it annoying and I don’t even work there

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  • I’ve seen people do this while shopping. Pretending to look at something else while setting it down.

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