Retail workers face increased hostilities from customers, says Coles boss

The cost of living is hurting Australians and they’re taking out their frustrations against retail workers, Coles chief executive Leah Weckert has told a conference.

As a basket of groceries gets more expensive and budgets are stretched, staff are copping the abuse.

Supermarkets are on the frontline of consumer concerns about the rising cost of living, and an increasing number of staff face hostilities from customers, says Coles chief executive Leah Weckert.

Speaking at a conference ­hosted by the Australian Retailers Association in Sydney on Wednesday, she said growing concern about violence against supermarket staff, particularly at check-outs, meant that some were now wearing body cameras to record incidences of customer action.

She said it was not surprising that supermarkets had been “at front and centre” of discussions about the increasing cost of living in Australia.

“Everything is going up,” she said. “We know our customers are really feeling it across many areas from retail to mortgages, rents, energy and fuel.

“When they buy their groceries they are reminded two or three times a week that prices have gone up.”

While the price of other household items was also going up, consumers paid them less regularly and were not reminded as much about the price increases. She said there had been an increase in “threatening situations” against supermarket workers recently.

“It did tick up when we saw the cost of living start to become tougher,” she said.

The increased hostility for retail workers had been “particularly around the check-out area” where “aggravated interactions are happening more often”, she said. “That is something, which is very much on my mind,” she said.

Coles chief Leah Weckert said the company takes security of staff “very seriously”. Picture: Nicki Connolly

“We take the safety of our team very seriously.”

Coles had given staff training in de-escalating tense situations with customers. It was also looking at more use of cameras in stores “to help the team feel more safe”, she said.

Coles had introduced the use of body cameras in a number of stores. “The feedback from the team has been that they feel more safe having those in place.

“They do notice a situation where, if they get into a situation with a customer, being able to communicate that they have that device can often de-escalate the situation,” she said

Ms Weckert rejected suggestions the big supermarkets were “price gouging,” saying they were high volume, low margin businesses with Coles only making $2.60 for every $100 of retail revenues. Coles’ profit level was “broadly comparable” with supermarkets around the world, she said. Food inflation in Australia had been lower than in many other countries.

There was intense competition in the retail industry in Australia, with several companies in the supermarket sector and competitors such as Amazon and Bunnings and a large number of smaller independent retailers, such as bakeries, she said.

“It is that level of competition which helps keep food inflation so much lower than in other countries,” she said.

Coles had been forced to increase prices because of price increases from suppliers, most of which were for legitimate reasons. The “vast majority” of requests by suppliers for price increases were “absolutely legitimate”, she said.

“There have also been increases in the cost of packaging and fuel,” Ms Weckert said.

“Labour is also a challenging cost line for all of us to manage.

“Supply chain challenges have been felt across the world. Australia is not unique in that situation.

“We are working very hard to ensure that our suppliers continue to be paid fairly for their products and that is leading to increases in prices.”

Ms Weckert said supermarkets were now facing six different inquiries into their operations, ­including the one recently announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to be conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

She said Coles had set up a separate team to handle the different inquiries so the company could continue to focus on running its business while they were being held. The president of the ARA and managing director for Wesfarmers OneDigital, Nicole Sheffield, said retailers were operating in a “challenging period” with Australians “feeling the impacts of increased costs of living, inflation and house prices”.

“In the last year, food costs went up by 8 per cent, accommodation by 25 per cent and electricity by a whopping 15 per cent,” she said. “Since May 2022, we’ve had 13 consecutive rate rises. This means the average homeowner needs to find an extra $1500 each month just to pay their mortgage.

“Consumers are responding, with spending down by 3.5 per cent from last year on a per capita basis,” she said.

Consumers were also changing the way they shopped by “more actively seeking value”, including buying in bulk, trading down, using comparison sites, and bringing forward some Christmas spend into events like Black Friday. “Across our sector, we’re seeing some macro challenges too – with cost of doing business increasing across supply chain, labour, energy, rent and insurance.

“Our teams are seeing more anti-social behaviour, cyber threats are elevated, and regulatory changes are making our businesses more complicated to run.”