Supermarket giants Coles, Woolworths and Aldi to shut at 7.45pm for 8pm coronavirus curfew

Both supermarket giants will shut their Melbourne stores early for at least the next six weeks as panic buying returns over the COVID curfew.

Supermarket giants Coles, Woolworths and Aldi will shut their Melbourne stores at 7.45pm for at least the next six weeks ahead of the strict 8pm curfew.

The three retailers have moved to restrict trading after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews revealed the 8pm to 5am curfew for metropolitan Melbourne as part of tough stage 4 restrictions to try to stem rising coronavirus infections.

The companies said the latest a customer would be able to enter stores was 7.30pm every night and stores would close at 7.45pm unless existing trading hours already specified an earlier closing time.

Coles said the measures applied to supermarkets, Liquorland, Vintage Cellars, First Choice and First Choice Liquor Market stores.

People line up outside a Coles supermarket in Malvern on Sunday ahead of stage 4 restrictions. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

The company said Coles Express would continue to trade regular hours so that essential services and exempt transport providers were able to access fuel and other essentials.

A Woolworths spokesman said the new times would apply to their more than 150 metropolitan supermarkets, Big W, BWS and Dan Murphy’s stores. Regional Victorian stores will continue with their normal hours from 7am to 10pm.

Both Coles and Woolworths again reinstated purchase limits on some staple items as another wave of panic buying gripped Melbourne on Sunday ahead of the restrictions.

Many shelves were stripped bare by noon with meat, fruit and vegetables among the items hoarded by shoppers.

Shoppers outside a Woolworths store in the Melbourne suburb of Prahran in July. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

Coles now has two-pack limits on mince meat, chicken breasts, chicken thighs and hand sanitiser, and a one-pack limit on face masks.

Woolworths reintroduced two-pack limits on more than 50 items, including meat, frozen vegetables and long-life milk, while there is also a 1kg limit on meat, smallgoods and poultry from the deli and 2kg on fresh carrots, onions and potatoes.

Woolworths Victorian manager Andrew Hall told 3AW their supply of stock was really strong despite the new purchase limits.

“The reason we put them in place is just to ensure every customer has availability of the products they need,” he said.

“Our supply of meat is strong, obviously it has been one area of our business that has been impacted from an abattoir point of view.

“We’ve got many different areas of supply that come through to us, so we’re still very confident if customers just buy what they need for the days ahead then we’ll still have a strong supply of meat for everybody’s needs during this lockdown period.”

He said both Saturday and Sunday were very strong sales days for the supermarket giant.

Mr Andrews is expected to announce further restrictions on some businesses and industries on Monday, but supermarkets, bakers, petrol stations and pharmacies will be among the essential services allowed to continue normal trading.

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