In a surprising move, Coles is suspending online shopping to anyone other than the vulnerable and isolated.
The announcement came after Woolworth’s move to close all of its stores early on Wednesday evening and then each day after that so it is able to restock stores. This is part of a drastic plan to manage the levels of panic buying in Australia.
Coles chief executive Steven Cain said that they were making the change so that their vans could help those who needed it the most.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that this will cause and a further announcement about this will be made in the coming days,” he said to news.com.au.
Coles is recruiting more than 5,000 casual team members to work in its supermarkets as well as having a dedicated “community hour” for the elderly and disadvantaged.
Woolworths revealed that it was selling seven weeks supply of toilet paper each and every day.
“We want to slow the panic down,” Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said today.
“We understand that our customers’ priority is to be prepared, but the vast majority of our food is grown or manufactured in Australia so there is not a concern with supply. What we have is a spike in demand.”
Woolworths’ plan to get its supermarkets back to normal includes putting more trucks on the road to get food into stores, making better use of distribution centres as well as doing more deliveries direct to branches which will cut out the warehouse all together.
The most radical action is a temporary nationwide shutdown of all 1,000 stores nationwide starting at 8 pm on Wednesday.
All stores will close at the earlier time from then on until further notice. The stores will then reopen no earlier than 7 am on Thursday and every other day after that.
“This will allow us to replenish stores in a calm manner,” said Ms Peters, who then addressed specifically the ongoing issue of the lack of toilet paper.
“Loo roll is a large cube that takes up a lot of space on trucks. But the great news is we are seeing huge support from our suppliers that have changed their lines to different packs sizes so more customers can get their hands on packs,” she said.
As for other supermarkets, such as ALDI, it is currently “assessing how we can further assist shoppers” to access essential groceries.
“We ask our customers to remember to show kindness, empathy and calmness when shopping with us,” a spokeswoman said.
