Aldi CEO Tom Daunt answers your supermarket shopping questions
Aldi CEO Tom Daunt warns a few products may still be hard to find in store for a while, but toilet paper isn’t one of them.
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The coronavirus crisis brought out the worst in some Aussie shoppers, with panic buying well documented – and widely condemned.
But even as shelves start to fill up again, there are ongoing challenges for stores maintaining social distancing to protect customers and staff.
Aldi CEO Tom Daunt was online today to answer your questions.
Here’s what he had to say:
Q. The supermarkets keep telling us supplies are coming in, but I still see plenty of empty shelves. When do you think it will be totally back to normal?
A. That’s a great question and something I have been asking our teams daily. The reality is, for many products and categories stock is returning back to normal right now. For others, the challenges will be longer lasting. For example, many countries that produce and export rice have suspended international exports, making supply difficult across all retailers likely for some time. Flour, is also harder to come by, as everyone is suddenly staying at home right now, and they are all baking chocolate cakes! That said, we are very lucky in Australia, and produce an abundance of food and groceries, more than enough to feed the nation many times over. So while some things that people usually buy may be problematic in the near term, a multitude of alternatives are available. Fresh fruits and vegetables in Australia are of particularly high quality and in abundance at present. This week we have just removed the majority of purchase restrictions and hope to do so on the remaining items in the weeks ahead.
Q. Could you please tell me when toilet rolls will be back in store?
A. I was in five ALDI stores yesterday and I was excited to see toilet paper in all of them, for the first time in a long time … even toward the end of the day. We are slowly coming back into good stock availability, as our Australian suppliers have increased their production to meet the incredible demand. At ALDI, we have not increased any prices on toilet roll at all, so you will be able to buy your favourite rolls shortly.
Q. I can finally get toilet roll, but what’s happening with paper towel for the kitchen? I can’t find that anywhere.
A. Paper towel is produced by the same suppliers on the same production lines as toilet paper. So this has created some challenges of course, as the demand of toilet paper went through the roof. As toilet paper is now coming back into good stock availability, paper towel will also be able to be produced and is already returning to stores.
Q. My elderly mum loves a chat with the checkout operators and finds the new screens quite confronting. Will they be staying?
A. We’re doing everything that we can to make the environment in our stores as safe as possible for our employees and our customers. The screens are one of many measures that we have taken to do so. We don’t envisage these being a permanent part of our operations and we look forward to their removal in the future also. Please provide your mum with reassurance that these will be removed in the future.
Q. Nobody saw this crisis coming, or the panic buying, but do you think supermarkets would respond differently in future, perhaps bringing in shopping limits earlier? Or will there be permanent supply chain changes to prevent any shortage on the shelves in future?
A. We actually hope that we will not ever see such an outbreak of panic buying ever again … there is certainly no need for it and there is an abundance of food and groceries to go around. We have fantastic Australian business partners that we have been working closely with, and given the circumstances that unfolded, we are very happy with the way our partners and employees dealt with the situation.
Q. Why have trading hours for your stores changed and when do you expect things to go back to normal?
A. We initially took steps to reduce our trading hours a little bit, both at the start and at the end of the day, in order to take the pressure off our hard working employees, so that we could restock our stores. We have recently returned our trading hours to normal, as sale patterns have returned to normal. So you should find your local store trading as you are used to.
Q. What effect has the recent outbreak had on importation of goods?
A. The vast majority of ALDI’s products are actually Australian made, something that we are very proud of. We have an Australia first sourcing policy, and will seek to import products only when the quality, quantity or specifications are not available in Australia. For those items that are imported, we have seen some disruptions, however this is returning toward normal as buying patterns also return to normal.
Q. The panic buying at the start of this really painted Aussies in a bad light. Have you seen any positives in the way Australia has reacted?
A. Despite the outbreak of panic buying and a limited amount of poor behaviour, overwhelmingly our customers have acted with respect and kindness and I have personally witnessed many examples that we can all be very proud of.
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