Coronavirus: Woolworths and Coles announce special shopping hours for elderly, restocking

Woolies will close all 995 stores by 8pm every evening indefinitely, as it reveals it’s selling seven days worth of toilet paper every day.

Woolworths will let the elderly and disabled have a special shopping period during which other customers are not allowed into stores.

Woolworths will close all 995 stores across Australia by 8pm every evening indefinitely to give staff time to restock shelves, The Australian has confirmed.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said there was no shortage of goods, but that staff needed the additional time to ensure shelves across the country remained full.

Coles said it will offer dedicated shopping hours for pensioners, seniors and concession card holders from Wednesday and will restrict its home delivery service to “the most vulnerable”.

Woolworths is also opening stores for elderly customers and those with disabilities an hour early at 7am.

Woolworths said on Monday it was selling around seven days worth of toilet paper every day, with consumer demand for essential items exceeding the capacity of the supermarket giant’s distribution centres.

Panic buying and stockpiling has seen toilet papers fly off supermarket shelves across the nation with two women charged after physically fighting over the in demand product at a Woolworths store in the Sydney suburb of Chullora.

Woolworths managing director Claire Peters told reporters on Monday that demand for toilet paper had greatly outstripped supply over the last two weeks as the coronavirus outbreak escalated.

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“From a toilet roll point of view, we will be taking roughly seven days worth of sales in one day,” she said.

“Clearly toilet rolls is a large cube, it actually takes a lot of space in our transport network and the demand is just significantly higher than the supply.”

But Ms Peters said relief was coming with toilet paper suppliers adjusting toilet paper pack sizes to help address the public’s demand.

“You’ll see that coming through the network from this week,” she said. “I thank those suppliers who have done that literally at the flick of the switch for those in need.”

Supermarkets were hit by a stampede of consumers over the weekend after Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced non-essential mass gatherings of more than 500 would be banned.

Ms Peters said Woolworths distribution centres were unable to accommodate the demand for essential items, with sales for last weekend hitting a 12-month high “from a volume point of view”.

“Unfortunately distribution centres don’t have sponge walls so the amount that needs to go into our distribution centres is significantly more than they can currently cope with,” she said.

“Christmas to give you an idea, we build stock for five months beforehand with temporary space put around. That is what the team are now working to.

Woolworths earlier on Monday announced that it would open stores for elderly customers as well as those with disabilities an hour early at 7am, to allow them to purchase essential items.

Coles Supermarket also will implement a dedicated shopping hour for pensioners, seniors and concession card holders from Wednesday.

It will also restrict its home delivery service to “the most vulnerable” and suspend its in-store grocery pick up and UberEats service.

It comes as Woolworths announced earlier today that it would launch a daily shopping hour from 7am to 8am for elderly and disabled shoppers from Tuesday.

Coles supermarkets across the country will also close no later than 8pm to allow staff members to replenish shelves for the next day.

“Coles supermarkets will launch a dedicated “Community Hour” in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

The hour applies to holders of a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Card, Companion Hard and Health Care Card.

The supermarket said it would also recruit more than 5,000 casual staff members across its stores in response to the increased demand.

All Coles supermarkets will be open to 7am-8pm. with the first hour dedicated to pensioners, senior and concession card holders.

As well as the extra hour, Ms Peters said care packages would be available to vulnerable customers who were unable to arrive at 7am.

“From Thursday will be offering care packages for our customers, which will be filled up with basic essential items that if they can come to our customer service desk and just ask, the team will help them and support them by giving them those products,” she said.

Ms Peters applauded Woolworths’ employees for their hard work over the last two weeks but condemned aggressive customer behaviour.

“No matter how frustrating that consumer experience is, which I apologise for, no one should come to work to be physically assaulted, hurt or abused,” she said.

Meanwhile, Woolworths has also suspended its national in-store pick up and Victorian home delivery services, as the supermarket recorded “extraordinary levels of demand for groceries” over the weekend.

A spokeswoman said Woolworths had stopped its nationwide in-store pick up service to allow its staff to focus on serving customers.

The supermarket said it had temporarily halted its home delivery services in Victoria due to “extraordinary levels of demand for groceries over the weekend.”

The suspension for the entire state, except one catchment area, is until further notice.

“We’ll continue to service online deliveries in selected metropolitan areas of Melbourne from our West Footscray Customer Fulfilment Centre.”

The supermarket said it would look to resume its delivery services as soon as possible and is currently processing refunds for customers with existing orders.

“We believe this is a necessary step to allow our team members to prioritise restocking shelves and serving customers in our Victorian stores.”

A spokeswoman said customers are encouraged to buy “only what they need.”

“We’ll continue to receive extra orders of stock in our stores regularly.”

Industry planning

Council of Small Business CEO Peter Strong said it was tough times in the retail sector due as the virus continues to spread.

“We are planning for when people don’t come into the shop. We are talking about workplace relations, we are talking about how do we work with our staff,” he told Nine’s Today Show on Monday.

We’re launching a dedicated shopping hour in our stores to help support the needs of the elderly & people with disability in the community. From tomorrow until at least friday, we’ll be opening exclusively for them to shop from 7-8am, where permitted.

— Woolworths (@woolworths) March 15, 2020

Mr Strong pleaded with shoppers not to panic and to look after each other. “Don’t run around the place screaming, there is no need,” he said. “We are going through a crisis like we have never seen before and we have to do it together and support each other.”

Meanwhile, the small national supermarket chain IGA is considering whether to roll out a pensioners-and-seniors-only shopping hour across its 1300 Australian stores.

The idea is being trialled at an IGA in Melbourne’s Altona with a shopping hour between 6am to 7am.

With AAP

• An earlier version of this story said Woolworths was selling seven weeks worth of toilet paper in one day but a spokeswoman has clarified that Ms Peters misspoke, and the supermarket giant is selling seven days worth of toilet paper in one day.