Coles have been forced to deny a slew of online rumours about mandatory vaccines for shoppers.
The supermarket giant set the record straight after hundred of confused shoppers took to Coles social media sites to ask for clarity on jab rules.
The rumours began after a recent NSW Health announcement that falsely claimed Coles would be turning away unvaccinated customers and deny work to staff that don’t receive the COVID-19 jab.
The announcement states that workers in NSW’s Local Government Areas of concern must have had at least one dose of any available COVID-19 vaccine in order to continue to leave their LGA for essential work.
Many customers contacted the retailer on they social media accounts as the announcement caused nationwide confusion among shoppers.
“Is it true that Coles is turning away customers who have not had the Covid vaccination?” asked a Victorian customer on Facebook.
“An elderly friend of mine was asked by the checkout lady if she had received the Covid vaccination.”
“The checkout lady said: ‘well if you’re not vaccinated you won’t be able to shop here’,” the customer claimed.
Other social media users chimed in on the posts and voiced their opinions.
“Highly doubt that this actually happened, no supermarket is asking people if they have had their vaccine,” commented one person.
“I think things might have been misconstrued during conversation,” said another.
Since the confusion arose, Coles have sent a detailed statement to Yahoo News Australia explaining that neither customers nor staff will be forced to have the vaccine in order to enter their stores.
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