Australian shoppers resort to desperate supermarket measure to save money

Australian customers desperate to save money at the supermarket have reportedly resorted to sneaky measures to bring down the cost of their grocery shopping.

Melbourne woman Jenn Shaw filmed inside a Coles recently, showing an array of broccoli stalks that had been snapped off and dumped on the display table.

She suspected the method had been adopted as a cost-saving strategy for households feeling the pinch of the surging cost of living.

She wrote in text on her video, "$11.90/kg broccoli in Melbourne. Shoppers are leaving stalks on shelves," which she uploaded to TikTok on Monday.

More than 35,000 people have viewed the clip since, many empathising with the people who felt compelled to remove part of the vegetable to save money.

"I always break mine off as it weighs less and cost less," one person wrote in a comment.

An array of broccoli stalks had been snapped off and dumped on the display table in an Aussie supermarket. Photo / TikTok@jenn_shaw_

"No disrespect but for that price I would do the same," another said.

Someone else claimed a grocer near them had "a sign stating if you remove them you pay double the price".

Others encouraged people to keep the stalks intact so they could be used in cooking.

"The stalks shouldn't be discarded, well worth eating," one respondent wrote.

"Always use that bit. It's nice," another said.

"I actually can't believe how many people don't know that the stem has way more nutrition value than the flowers," someone else wrote.

A Coles spokesperson said it was "disappointing" some people were taking stalks off their broccoli.

"It's disappointing to hear a small number of customers have removed the stalks from broccoli in our stores as the entire vegetable is edible and full of nutritional value," they told news.com.au.

"As part of our Together to Zero strategy, we will continue to work on ways to minimise food waste by educating customers about how to get the most out of their fresh produce.

"A great example is a recipe by Curtis Stone that heroes shaved broccoli stalk as a main ingredient."