Is it just me or Woolworths asking for donations every time you pay at self checkout?
Is it linked to Woolworths rewards card or what? Is there a way to disable it once for all?
I don't mind donating a few dollars for good cause when I'm shopping for $100 or more but it gets super annoying when it asks for charity rounding every single time even if I'm only spending less than $10!
Unfortunately Woolworths changed their “rules” and if you pay with gift card and choose to donate it won’t work…
Millions??? Some might think a year or a month by that term.
CBA only make 23.7 million a day based on their $8650000000.00 / 8.65Billion FY21 Cash Net Profit After Tax
Millions?
Try BILLIONS of net profit
Screw them and their tax write off for my donation
lol…. millions?
1.5 Billion more like it!!
vs 10 billion profit for banks its nothing
Please donate, so Woolworth's can tell Australia how Woolworth's generously donated $10,458,854 last year
It's so true. They will take all the credit for it when none of it was their money.
It's pathetic and I'm seriously getting tired of them asking. If they did it for a week every few months it would be acceptable.
No, it still wouldn't be acceptable. I don't know if it's true or not, but I read somewhere a while ago that they claim the money back in tax returns lol. So you are basically paying Woolworths, not charities.
@anonymous01: Well, only their accounting team know this, , but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they use it to write off tax.
I just mean it wouldn't annoy me so much if they didn't ask every single time I shop there.
It's beyond a joke.now.
More like billions in profits. And yet Woolworths claims they can't figure out how to deliver groceries quickly…
Yeah I remember it used to only ask after around $15
Its so annoying, i always say no because it pisses me off.
It works the same way as Religion or Advertising works. 9,999 people may refuse, but they only need 1 sucker to bite on the hook.
It makes no sense either, bundle up your donations and take the tax deduction. It's really, really annoying. How about the one of us that made $1.5 billion last year stump up the cash for charities?
Yeah, my local Woolies always prompts for a round up but used one in the CBD (QV) yesterday and it didn't have the prompt (<$10 though, not sure if that made the diff).
I was prompted to donate at Woolworths QV recently, but it was for a ~$15 transaction. I pressed “Yes” when the donation prompt pressed up, but when I used a Woolworths gift card as a payment method, the amount being donated was not actually charged to my gift card, because you cannot use Woolworths Group gift cards to pay for donations. I still had the donation receipt print out, which was not what I expected.
The prompt also came up at Woolworths Docklands this evening, but that was also for a transaction of almost $15.
sounds like the makings of some tax fraud right there
Yeah, a pain up the jacksie. By all means sell fundraising merch, but I really don't rate being asked to make donations in the middle of handing over my hard earned.
Remember, any 'donation' you provide is being paid from Woolies' ABN/entity and THEY get a fat tax write-off for it.
You are subsidising their tax bill.
A month or so ago a casher asked me if I wanted to donate $2 to whatever it was and I got a mini receipt with donation to ? $2 or higher donation is tax deductible keep this receipt for your tax records. For that particular shop I used a 10% off so I donated $2 by giving them $1.80. :D
Self checkouts want you to roundup, therefore always less than $1 and not claimable by the customer.
But Woolies is putting through that (say) $400k to whichever NFPs and then they write $400k off from tax. Screw that.
But they also have to report the $400k as income so it's net zero.
@Trance N Dance: Gifts to businesses are excluded from taxable income.
They receive these 'round-ups' as non-assessable income, but they still class the donation as an assessable deduction. It is not net zero.
one off's are not claimable, but all together they would be as long as they arex over $2 in total.
@Other: ATO accepts "bucket donations" up to $10 total P.A. without receipts. I always claim $10 each year.
Winning!
It's on your receipt for you to get the tax deduction.
They don't get a tax write off. It's money in, money out for them.
It still prints the receipt, so you can collect until they are over $2.
@PeterSnoot: ATO accepts "bucket donations" up to $10 total P.A. without receipts. I always claim $10 each year.
It depends. I think if they list it on the receipt it may go "directly" to the charity (meaning its not added to Woolworths revenue).
(Woolworths could apply for a special ruling from the ATO suggesting they are collecting it via a trust relationship and pay the charity after X weeks/months and any moneys paid to the charity would Not be included in Woolworths revenue). ATO would probably say yes.
Sounds great in principle, HOWEVER
if I were weighing up whether a multinational shareholder-owned corporation was going to ignore its' own taxation-reducing donation options, versus taking an easy advertising method to consumers saying 'look at us donating all this money!'
…my mind would be on the latter.
The board has to act in the interests of shareholders, and this is an easy win for profits as well as their 'community contribution' goals.
@Switchblade88: Yes I am 1,000% sure that Woolworths is desperate for the tax reduction, because one charity made $770,000 after 1 year with
Woolworths paying $2,132,000,000 in taxes. or 0.03% of the tax woolworths paid. I mean if we added all the charities from the change collection we could get to 0.1% of the tax that Woolworths pays.
Do you think they could have actually saved more by just firing their Head of Reputation?
The board has to act in the interests of shareholders
Yes I am sure the board gives 1,000% attention to something that impacts their revenue by 0.0012%.
And if I was the bored I would not care about our reputation at all, especially as we are basically 100% dependent on consumers, i.e the Australian public and I would instead spend my time caring about 0.0012%.
I am sure the top superfunds (run by Unions and the Australian Government) would be delighted your "mind would be on the latter."
And I certainly wouldn't want them thinking about how to increase sales by 0.1% which would bring in an addition $630,000,000 in revenue increasing profits by $200,000,000.
I'm just Wondering would you fire a Woolworths director if he started talking to you about how to save tax on $6M or even $15M in revenue instead of talking about increasing sales on $63Bn ?
Woolworths is a MASSIVE ship. Its like the Titanic. If your the captain you don't care about the barnacles, you care about where you are (so you don't hit an iceberg) and the plant and machinery.
Community contribution' goals.
This would be the only thing that Woolworths cares about. And even then I doubt the difference is that much. In 2019 Woolworths gave to charity $44M, in 2021 it was $41M and that with donations. I don't think the public or Government cares exactly what Woolworths is doing as long as they are doing something.
This is patently false, bruv. Why do people always think they're so deep and intelligent - the donation is on the receipt showing whom paid for it.
Woolworths may make their cut by holding the donations in escrow and generating interest, but that's about it.
This is just untrue, there is no benefit to Woolies, the donation doesn't hit their bottom line.
Lets say you paid $105, $5 is a donation and $100 is the cost of your shopping - $100 will show up as Woolies revenue which they should pay tax on, $5 goes to charity and they don't pay tax on it.
may be just like 30 cents on milk for some relief program?
Now that was a 'good deed' write-off if you've ever seen one.
Unlike the round-up donations, there was absolutely no way that the additional income could be reported as anything other than sales income, since there was no possible way to split out that 30c on a receipt.
Donations to farmers - who are not DGRs - are simply a Cost of Sales expense on the accounts and therefore reduce the total income tax payable. But Woolies boldly claimed credit for the $30 million a year they paid out even though it was, in fact, us consumers who actually paid for it.
Call my cynical, but it's mostly PR spin when the company claims that cheap milk is good for consumers, but also expensive milk is good for farmers, and wants credit for moving prices in both directions.
As much as I dislike Woolworth they provide free battery recycling.
And allow no cc fees for low purchases.
And prices are lower for some staples.
Aldi provides free battery recycling, no CC fees for low purchases and is cheaper than woolworths
When did aldi stop charging the CC surcharge?
Aldi charges of small 0.5% surcharge on all debit and credit card transactions. They simply don't charge you extra for making a small purchase.
They could be cheaper than woolworths. However, when you factor in a 5% GC discount + everyday rewards, woolworths could come out cheaper depending on how frequently you shop and what you buy.
Woolworths Rewards, oh yeah, such a rewarding offer that is. We'll capture your buying habits so we can market more to you. You're handing over your personal info to them for their own marketing and getting back a pittance in exchange for it. I'll pass.
It also makes many shop with the one supermarket instead of shopping around for the best price, so you're only kidding yourself if you think you're ending up in front.
Aldi provides free battery recycling,
They do, but only 9V, C, B, AA, AAA batteries.
Woolworths does those types as well as all coin cells/button batteries, phones (battery, charger and complete phone), wearables, modems…
(interestingly, the imagery on Aldi's page suggests they accept button cells, but the little button shaped box my local has had only asks for the batteries I listed above, and the FAQ on that same page only specifies those types also.
And because I shop more regularly at Woolworths, it's easier for me to take my batteries there (on top of being able to take more types).
@bamzero: That's good to know!
Interestingly Bunnings' program asks customers to tape the terminals of their batteries (neither Aldi nor Woolworths have this requirement). Funnily they say:
Preventing this is as simple as using clear sticky tape, non-conductive electrical tape, or duct tape over the exposed battery terminal, or on the top and bottom face for button cell batteries. Please be mindful to keep the battery label information visible if you're not using clear tape.
How do you tape the top and bottom face of a button cell with electrical or duct tape whilst still keeping the battery label information visible?
Lower than who?
Woolworths, such a good corporate citizen 🤣
At least their profits are going to shareholders (likely your into your super account). Profits of Aldi go to the Albrecht family.
Disclaimer, I have no particular attachment to any store. I shop from whichever is convenient at the time and/or cheaper.
I don't care about their shareholders or owners (OS or local), and no, my super is not invested with them, even if it were, it wouldn't impact where I shop :)
Overseas investment is just as important as local.investment. it goes both ways.
I refuse to donate anything monetary to anyone.
There are much wealthier people out there with the greater means than I who refuse to do anything.
Why should someone with 10k in the bank give up 0.1% of their net worth - $10 - when someone like Jeff Bezos has likely >10m in his bank could also donate 0.1% - $10,000.
Similarly we are told to reduce our carbon footprint even though the average footprint of an American is 16 tons while Elon Must flew in his private jet for 3 hours and contributed 17 tons of C02 emissions.
The only thing I donate is blood and plasma because that's something money can't buy.
omg bro do u ever stop. its a bargain website ffs
Wtf ?
Snow Dragon made a political point, I only responded to it..
@Gervais fanboy: To be fair it wasn't a political point, just that we are told by the millionaires and billionaires who own the media that WE should be making efforts to save the planet.
I could have chosen anyone with a private jet for my point - even a celeb who does advocate for climate alarmism.
@SnowDragon: I want to save the planet because I choose to. I don't care about the media/social media (both as bad as each other) telling me to do it.
The blood bank pulls in around $700 million in revenue when they on-sell your donation. It seems that is something money can buy.
Got any sources on that?
They probably read it on Facebook, so therefore it must be fact LOL
Yeah it always comes up for me and annoys the shit out of me. (profanity) the big companies trying to pass the buck on to us.
I also don't particularly trust that Woolworths has selected a good charity partner, or that they're not taking some cut along the way themselves.
yes a publicly listed company is going to steal donations because they love negative publicity…..
Then obviously you think it's a good idea to trust them when not necessary.
Well shareholders trust them with $63,000,000,000.
And these types of donations account for 0.0012% of their revenue.
And they gave more away when they didn't have the "give to charity option".
But no - they want to destroy their reputation by stealing from charity.
I don't have a problem being asked. It's easier to say no to a computer than a person. I get the same issue whenever I pay for fast food (Dominos) via PayPal. It's no big deal, I press the "NO" button without any guilt. Stuff the charities. I'll decide who to donate money do.
Same thing at mcdonalds kiosk, adds an extra screen to the process
I find it annoying as well, I just want to pay for my groceries and get out.
I find the Coles ‘please collect your items’ more annoying. This is repeated constantly while you’re trying to pack your stuff and the voice sounds annoyed and shitty :(
Agreed. Woolworths do the "collect your items" hurry up nag too. The solution I've found is don't pay before you pack. Then pack at your leisure. No nagging.
Sick of these increasing numbers of beggars everywhere.
You need to be careful you don't hit yes thinking its a 10% off offer..
Woolworths is trying to get you to touch the screen more. More covid means more tissue and paracetemol sales. It would be opt in rather than opt out otherwise every covid concern they raised was BS.
Hahahah, come on man..
You are right. I forgot the throat lozenge sales. More revenue and margin in them.
With $63,000,000,000 in revenue I am sure they are rubbing their hands together in glee on something that adds 0.00000000016% to their revenue targets.
I hate it! Macca’s does it, too, but theirs is really designed to trick you. Nearly got me twice.
I wonder if enough of us complained about it on their Facebook page or Google reviews, would they stop?
Also, I really hope it doesn't end up like this
customers make the donations and woolies gets to brag about how charitable they are as an organisation!!!
its great for woolies!!
Never, ever. I make a donation so that Woolies can boast about how charitable they are. After maxing on profit by charging the recipients more for their food?
Surely its really some test of how compliant their victims have become.
Never - donate to causes the you feel are worthy.
Just say no and never let greedy corporations make you feel the least bit guilty.
I hate it, the screens are always so dodgy that there’s been at least two times that I’ve put my finger on the NO and it’s selected Yes and I’ve had to ask someone to undo it.
Something even worse and more annoying to my shopping behavior now is they are using computer vision from ABOVE now to detect if you have items in your trolley after trying to check out at the self serve… my partner and I do separate transactions one after the other and now we either need to get two trolleys, two checkouts beside each other and wait for each other to finish, or just say (profanity) you to woolworths and go to Coles until they start doing it too.
Any donations up to $10.00 is tax deductible provided the organisation is a DGR. No receipt is required. Over $10.00 you need a receipt.
Gonna put people off donating all together. Like door knockers have done, was getting so many of them for a while doesn't matter what the cause is any more as I'm not even going to bother opening the door.
Even buying gift cards from Woolies asks if you want to add a donation (though less obtrusive as it's not a pop up box, just a box you need to tick so can easily skip)
eBay has a similar opt in to donations too if you aren't using vouchers, but again not pop up.
It's digital begging.
Digital begging, like spam and nuisance calls, needs to be regulated with a mandatory opt-out option.
Just hit no and move on with your life.
It's ruined my check out Rythm at the moment
Never give charity donations to corporations, they get the tax write off instead of you and make themselves look good in the process. "Look what we're doing!"
I don't mind the checkout asking me for a donation. Easy to click no and move on.
What I really don't like is a cashier at Officeworks (for example) asking me to make a donation to XYZ charity. They say it to every customer, hundreds of times a day, so they slur their words and blurt out the message as quickly as possible. Couldn't understand what they were saying at first. They make you feel like an ass for saying no.
I usually say no and move on. They can think whatever they want… It's my money after all and I decide what to do with it.
Pretty shitty practice; when i get prompted verbally at the checkout, I normally say happy to donate if your company will match it…
LOL, its like celebrities asking to donate to causes
I press no.
If woolworths wants to donate money they can take it out of the money I pay them.
Honestly..this is very annoying. Here we go through hoops to get a discount of 5% with Woolies cards, and they just asks… everytime, can we round up the amount and donate it. Pathetic.
Honestly there should a "don't ask again" button. To be honest I am capable enough to make direct donations to charities or people I think are worthy. I don't need help from a large corpo like Woolies or Chemist Warehouse. At one point some cashiers at Chemist Warehouse were sneakily putting in the donation without even asking.
they're probably banking on people who accidentally click yes, so I doubt they will ever add this "dont ask again" button
Yeah I have accidently clicked yes a few times when in hurry. Quite annoying.
Our local Woolworths offers the charity trifecta:
- the terminal prompt
- the charity table guarded by two chuggers
- the homeless gentlemen at the entrance
I pay the homeless guy $1 to clear a path through the chuggers and press 'no' on the charity round up.
Blame Dick Smith!
Write to him and then brag all over that you do not get an answer.
He wrote to Aldi telling them to shut down.
They wrote back: Hallo Herr Richard Harold von Schmitt bitte?
Has anyone clicked yes and managed to revert it? Because it is easier to click on the opposite button of your choice by mistake.
Couldn't be bothered reading all the comments so apologies if others have already covered the below. Atleast in the US, Donations collected in many stores are usually treated as donations from the company and then used as a tax write off ultimately profiting the company. Also as you can imagine it makes the company look like their existance is alot more philantropic in nature.
Personally if you are going to donate to a cause I would recommend donating directly, if for any reason just so you can make a larger donation and benefit off the tax write off yourself.
Funny how the company making millions in profit is asking ozbargainers to donate to the poor and the ozbargainer is using 3% discounted gift vouchers to pay.