Community outrage after Coles Middle Park announces deli closure

Two further Coles deli closures have emerged since customers protested one in Brisbane’s west. But the grocery giant has moved to assure customers over its future plans.

CUSTOMERS have slammed grocery giant Coles after it removed the deli section from one of its supermarkets in Brisbane’s west.

And the company has since admitted to the recent closure of delis in two other southeast Queensland stores.

Delis at Coles in Murrumba Downs and Everton Park were recently removed as part of refurbishments, and there has been threats of boycotts after it was revealed the Middle Park store would also lose its servery.

A Coles spokesman yesterday moved to reassure customers that the vast majority of stores would keep their delis.

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“Deli serveries are a key part of our customer offer at our Coles supermarkets in Queensland and we have recently installed brand new delis at our Cannon Hill and New Farm stores,” the spokesman said.

But Middle Park customers have blasted the move as environmentally unfriendly, since smallgoods will now be packaged in plastic.

One daily shopper at the centre told The Courier-Mail she was “disgusted” with the announcement and would shop elsewhere.

Coles has announced its Middle Park store would no longer offer a deli for customers. Picture: File.

“They’re just going to have a shelf with packaged food,” Middle Park shopper Taz McKean said.

“I’m not going to shop there.”

“I really don’t know why they would do that,” Ms McKean said.

She said she was worried that Middle Park would be the first of a series of closures.

“I find it disgusting, I’m really upset about it,” Ms McKean said.

“I would hate for the whole lot of Coles to do this, every one of them.”

The deli has become a defacto part of new supermarkets. Picture: File.

A Coles spokesman confirmed that their Middle Park store would be undergoing a “refresh,” but said the change was because the community preferred pre-packaged food over delis.

“To help us reduce food waste while continuing to offer a full range of deli products, we are replacing the servery with a great range of meats, seafood, smallgoods, cheese and antipasto in a variety of pack sizes.”

He said customers were “increasingly looking for convenient, healthy, prepacked meal solutions.”