Coronavirus: Pensioners find shelves stripped bare; Woolworths staffer stabbed

Thousands of pensioners were left disappointed by empty shelves while ‘supermarket tourists’ cleared out stores in regional towns.

Denise Hinder and daughter Michelle Hinder-Smith find the shelves stripped bare at Woolworths in Crows Nest, Sydney. Picture Rohan Kelly

Thousands of pensioners across Australia lined up outside Woolworths stores before sunrise to be disappointed by empty shelves while “supermarket tourists” cleared out stores in regional towns.

In suburbs from Sydney’s Emu Plains and Marrickville and Melbourne’s Chadstone and Coburg, elderly shoppers armed with trolleys and reusable bags flooded Woolworths stores from 7am on Tuesday only to discover shelves had yet to be restocked.

In the suburb of Moonee Ponds in Melbourne’s inner northwest, Tony and Gina Guccione emerged with only a box of tissues in their trolley.

The couple, aged 75 and 65 respectively, said they’d come to find toilet paper for their daughters, one of which suffers from multiple sclerosis while the other has the degenerative muscular Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder.

“The girls say to me, ‘Mum, I haven’t even got one piece of toilet paper’,” said Ms Guccione.

“For me and Tony it’s OK. It’s just for the sick girls.”

Ms Guccione said her daughters used to have their groceries delivered, which Woolworths along with competitor Coles have suspended in response to widespread panic-buying and stockpiling triggered by the coronavirus outbreak.

Instead, only shoppers with government-issued concession cards will be allowed to enter Woolworths stores between 7am to 8am.

In the Woolworths Moonee Ponds car park, Karlee, who did not want her surname published, helped her grandmother June, 92, pack away the shopping.

“You wouldn’t want her (June) out at the shops any other time,” Karlee said. “It’s crazy. It’s so crowded.”

The 22-year-old said Woolworths staff were lovely and were trying their best, and she’d managed to get her hands on some groceries, including cooking oil and pasta.

“We managed to get a few necessities, it worked well (but) it was really crowded,” she said.

“We’ve done pretty well this morning, but we might have to come back another day to find toilet paper, tissues and paper towel.”

Shoppers wait for Woolworths to open in Moonee Ponds, in Melbourne’s inner northwest. Picture: David Geraghty

Woolworths managing director Claire Peters acknowledged many customers were unable to purchase the items they needed on Tuesday morning.

“It’s day one of our dedicated shopping hour and we know it wasn’t perfect across all of our stores,” she said.

“While we've heard positive feedback from many stores across the country, we regret that many customers were unable to get all the items they needed this morning.”

Woolworths are selling seven days’ worth of toilet paper every day.

Bernadette Stainsby, 70, said she considered going into the Woolworths store but was left bemused by the supermarket stampede.

“It’s like something from Monty Python, isn’t it?” she said.

Ms Stainsby said at first she laughed at the panic-buying and mad stockpiling of her fellow shoppers, but product scarcity was empty beginning to get under her skin.

“You say the world’s gone mad and you laugh about it, but you know this is creating a level of stress,” she said.

“We were all stressed at dinner last night … I was stressed because I couldn’t get mince to make spaghetti bolognese.”

Meanwhile, at Rosebud in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, a Woolworths employee, 37, was stabbed in the store’s car park as he collected trolleys just before 1pm.

The trolley collector was flown to the Royal Alfred in Melbourne in a serious but stable condition after being treated for injuries to his lower body.

A 25-year-old man was arrested an hour later and a source close to the investigation told The Australian the offender was well known to staff as a regular shoplifter.

It is understood the fracas began after a Woolworths employee recognised the shoplifter and ordered him from the store.

Seconds later, the offender saw another staffer collecting trolleys outside the store before launching his attack, wrongly believing it was the same staffer who had just removed him.

“This is not a case of some normally sane person who didn’t get their toilet paper,’ one source said.

In the regional Victorian town of Woodend near the Macedon Ranges, Anglican Reverend Melissa Clark said “supermarket tourists” were clearing out the shelves of the one Coles that serves the community of about 5800 people.

She said she’d seen two minibuses on Tuesday morning arriving at the Woolworths in the neighbouring town of Kyneton.

“We love having tourists — that's what we thrive on in Woodend — but we just need a break for a few days," she told The Australian.

“We need them not to come so we can fill our pantries and make sure elderly people and expectant mums have enough.”

Coles customers will now only be allowed to purchase two packets of eggs, chilled pasta, frozen vegetables and frozen desserts.