Australian shoppers fight over baby formula in Melbourne

One man appeared to take issue with a couple exceeding the baby formula purchase limit.
One man appeared to take issue with a couple exceeding the baby formula purchase limit. Photo credit: Facebook/Nikki Schoerie

Two customers were forced to leave a Melbourne shopping centre after an ugly clash broke out over baby formula.

A video uploaded to Facebook on Friday shows a couple lined up at the checkout holding two tins of baby formula each at the Big W store in Lilydale. An older man then appears to take issue with them trying to exceed the purchase limit, according to the person who filmed the incident.

The older customer tells the man to "put it back".

"What if I don't? What are you going to do?" he replies.

"I'll take you outside," the older man says.

The pair step closer to each other and the older man tells him to "put it back" again.

The younger man throws his two tins into a trolley as if he's preparing to fight, but he's pulled back by the woman he's with and multiple other shoppers try to de-escalate the situation.

A staff member then tells him to leave and he's "not allowed to buy the formula and that's it".

Warning: This video contains offensive language.

The person who filmed and uploaded the video to Facebook claims the couple had visited another store earlier in the day and they were being confronted.

"After being told they had been in already and bought four tins after being seen at another shopping centre, they still had the nerve to fight for the four tins," they said.

Woolworths, which owns Big W, has a two-tin limit on purchasing baby formula to stop people bulk-buying them for re-sale. This limit has been in place for over a year, it says.