Teacher goes on foul

A former teacher has lashed out at a supermarket chain over a widespread self-checkout feature she's 'morally opposed to', and many other shoppers understand where she's coming from

A shopper has opened up a conversation about the so-called "philanthropy shakedown" she's tired of being confronted with at the supermarket checkouts.

The woman in question, who goes by the TikTok username The Recovering Teacher, takes issue with being asked to round up the sum of her purchases in order to make a charitable donation.

She believes this really shouldn't be the duty of customers popping in to get their groceries and says that "multimillion-dollar conglomerate" supermarket chains should be making donations instead.

In a fiery rant, the former teacher - who regularly shares content about her decision to switch professions - revealed she refuses to use this feature, which she is "morally opposed to".

Addressing followers in her video, Australia-based The Recovering Teacher explained: "I do press no because I am just morally opposed to multi-billion dollar companies doing shakedowns of consumers when they just want to buy red grapes and tampons."

She added: "This is a message for Woolworths - no I don't want my 85 cent refund. What I want is for you as a multimillion-dollar conglomerate to start making these donations yourself'".

The ex-teacher shared the clip after a trip to Woolworths, an Australian supermarket chain that is entirely separate from the now-defunct FW Woolworth Brits will no doubt remember.

The video has clocked up more than 55.8K views and counting, and many of her followers completely understood where her fury was coming from.

One person agreed: "Anything to do with big corporations and 'money raising' red flag, I'm out. They claim it back in tax. Donate to charity directly yourselves."

Another commented: "Yup especially with the cost of living these days we need our own money to survive ourselves, let alone giving it to other people."

In response to the clip, a Woolworths spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia: "This is an entirely voluntary donation that customers can choose to make or decline, at their own discretion."

Back in 2020, the Mirror reported that some shoppers in the UK were left furious after claiming their grocery bills were being "automatically" rounded up to the nearest pound.

The scheme was introduced to support three important charities during the Coronavirus crisis - Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, and Diabetes UK - but some customers claimed their bill was rounded up without their consent.

Speaking at the time, a Tesco spokesman said: "To support our health charity partners at this critical time, we are encouraging our customers to round up the cost of their shopping to the nearest £1.

"Customers will be asked if they would like to donate by one of our checkout colleagues when they pay for their shopping or on-screen if they are using a self-service till.

"We also have signs in our stores letting customers know about the campaign and how they can support it. The response to the campaign so far has been overwhelmingly positive with very few customers feeding back that they were not aware that they had made a donation."

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