New measures introduced as busloads of shoppers strip shelves bare in Westbury

A supermarket has been forced to take to Facebook to announce the “unfortunate” new measures.

A WESTBURY supermarket has been forced to introduce limits on some grocery items as “car loads and mini bus loads” of shoppers strip the shelves bare of some essential items.

Westbury IGA Everyday Supermarket took to Facebook on Wednesday to announce the “unfortunate” new measures.

“We are experiencing car loads and mini bus loads of people coming to the store and buying as much as they can,” the post said.

“We don’t want our loyal and regular customers to miss out on things they may need so as we said before, we are trying our very best to keep the stock on the shelves for you all.”

Kel Duncan commented: “We are getting Hobart people driving here to get stuff. World has gone crazy.”

UPDATE Unfortunately the time has come that we have had to start putting limits on some of our grocery lines today. We...

Posted by Westbury IGA everyday supermarket on Wednesday, 18 March 2020

Michelle Hurst said: “I’ve heard that people are driving out to smaller towns to buy up because the larger supermarkets in their areas are sold out. Would explain all the new faces around.”

Store manager Michael Betts told the Mercury a large percentage of shoppers were coming from out of town because larger supermarkets elsewhere were out of what they need.

He said the Westbury store now has a limit of two per person on toilet paper, noodles, rice, and hand sanitiser “if and when we can get it”.

“The rest of the store we have no limits on here at this point in time,” he said.

Mr Betts said the upside of the story was that the increased traffic would be good for the town and the new IGA store had been open for only a few months.

“Getting the volume of people through the door to experience and see what the offering is.

You’ve got to see that as a positive,” he said.