No chooks please, it’s Anzac Day: Should trading restrictions be ditched?

WAS Woolworths disrespectful to Anzac Day or simply meeting customers’ expectations? In doing the wrong thing, was it right?

Sushi team says its array of rolls were made at 10am.

WAS Woolworths disrespectful to Anzac Day or simply meeting customers’ expectations?

Was it obtaining an unfair advantage over its competitors or using a loophole to play within the rules? More importantly, what kind of nanny state dictates when chooks can’t be roasted?

These are the questions being raised after Woolworths’ was accused of breaching Anzac Day trading restrictions by allowing staff into stores to prep before 1pm open yesterday.

Coles customers were forced to wait while staff baked their bread, roasted their chickens and prepared their seafood, giving Woolworths a distinct advantage in feeding the hungry hordes.

Woolworths said the work was carried out by “salaried volunteer managers” and therefore was “in line with NSW regulations”.

Coles said the NSW government “would not allow our team members into stores before we opened” which meant that “some products including roast chickens and store-baked bread were not available for a few hours”.

Aldi may have breached trading restrictions as well, with some staff telling news.com.au they were rostered on from 11am yesterday.

An Aldi spokeswoman said: “No trading occurred during the restricted trading period prior to 1pm on Anzac Day. Employees were in attendance at the store prior to 1pm to prepare the store to open for trade after 1pm.”

New South Wales is unique in that it was the only state where large retailers, including Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, were informed “common sense” would not prevail this year.

So what exactly is going on?

In most states, shops are not able to trade before 1pm on Anzac Day, but governments allow them to prepare for the day’s trade so customers actually have products to buy when the doors open.

Woolworths set up and ready for trade on Anzac Day.

In previous years, the NSW Industrial Relations Minister would issue a statement in the lead-up to Anzac Day giving stores discretion to accept deliveries and prepare for sale.

Why didn’t that happen this year?

Because last year, the NSW Government passed legislation to allow trading on Boxing Day.

As part of that package, the government also tried to change the law to allow stores to prepare for sale, but not open, before 1pm on Anzac Day and a number of other public holidays.

In other words, making official what had previously been an unofficial arrangement. The Greens and Labor, however, opposed this part of the bill.

For whatever reason, NSW Industrial Relations Minister Gladys Berejiklian decided that meant the previous understanding was off — no one was allowed to prepare for sale before 1pm.

Importantly, Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and every other large retailer were well aware of this.

Ms Berejiklian confirmed yesterday Industrial Relations inspectors would be investigating any alleged breaches.

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, said he understood that customers expected stores to be stocked with food ready for sale at 1pm.

“That’s why there needs to be clarification,” he said.

“The rules have to apply equally to everybody. You can’t have one rule for one retailer and another rule for another. There has to be clarity.

Timestamped 11:40. Oops.

“People want to respect the day, [so] we’ve got to come up with a clear clarification that no one works until 1pm. Now there might be some room to say, open at 1pm and trade until later in the afternoon or evening, but it has to be clear and everybody has to play by the same rules.

“What’s happened is one retailer has turned around and perhaps not done that.”

Mr Zimmerman said that “above absolutely everything else, we must respect those men and women who have gone before us and supported this country in fighting for our freedom”.

He said there was “probably room for discussion” about making Anzac Day a fully restricted trading day, but “retailers are generally going to tell you the consumer wants the shops to be open”.

“One of the problems for retailers is that there’s a huge cost in not opening,” he said. “They’ve got to put everything away, everything has to be refrigerated and there’s a certain amount of throw-out.

“That cost in fresh food is astronomical, that’s the reason big retailers in particular want to open during these periods.”

The issue of public holiday trading restrictions has been considered by various inquiries in recent years, including the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Retail Sector and more recently, the Harper Competition Policy Report.

The Productivity Commission recommended retail trading hours should be fully deregulated in all states, including on public holidays, while the Harper Review recommended “remaining restrictions on retail trading hours should be removed”.

Aldi may have also breached trading restrictions.

If states and territories choose to retain restrictions, Harper said they should be “strictly limited to Christmas Day, Good Friday and the morning or Anzac Day, and should be applied broadly to avoid discriminating among different types of retailers”.

Angus Nardi, executive director of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia, said the council backed the removal of most trading restrictions.

“A number of independent reports have recommended the removal of restrictions and we support those recommendations,” he said.

“We accept governments imposing restrictions on store openings on Anzac, Good Friday and Christmas Days, as these are days of deep significance on the national calendar.

“However, our society and economy has evolved and we believe store openings should be driven by consumer preferences and open competition, so there’s choice and a level playing field.”

One Woolworths employee said they could see both sides of the argument.

“I couldn’t even get in the doors to sign on because of ‘the swarm’, and it’s the same every year,” they wrote. “So I am damn glad my manager was able to set up before 1pm, since it would have been an absolute disaster if we had nothing on show upon open.

“On the flip side, why the hell is anything even open on this day? Is everyone so dependent that they cant stock up for one day? I would love to get up and go to a dawn service again, but how am I supposed to stay awake to finish my shift.

“I’d love to go to the RSL and join the festivities and reflect on the past, but I have to work so everyone else can enjoy the conveniences they all take for granted.”

More to the point, everyone “always whines about stores being open on Anzac Day”, but they always go shopping anyway. “And everyone would still whine if everything was shut,” they wrote. “You can’t have it both ways.”

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