In response to growing demand for groceries and every day staples, and increasingly empty shelves in stores, Coles has followed Woolworth’s lead, by introducing a new community hour from 7am-8am in all supermarkets for the elderly and disadvantaged.
Coles supermarkets will also shut from 8pm to ensure stores can be cleaned, and shelves filled, without disruption.
This coincides with a national recruitment drive for 5,000 casuals to assist with refilling shelves.
In this week’s announcements, Coles also cancelled home delivery, Click&Collect and UberEats (who even knew Coles did that?), but are still providing their delivery services to those genuinely in need. Full details below.
NEW COMMUNITY HOUR AND CHANGES TO TRADING HOURS
From Wednesday 18 March, Coles supermarkets will launch a dedicated “Community Hour” in all supermarkets to improve access to essential groceries for the elderly and disadvantaged, during this time of unprecedented demand.
Coles supermarkets will temporarily change their trading hours to open 7am to 8pm on weekdays, with the first hour* of trade open exclusively to customers who hold a government-issued Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, Companion Card and Health Care Card^. Once this hour is complete, all other customers will be invited through the doors to complete their grocery shop. Supermarkets will also close no later than 8pm to give our team members the time and space to extensively clean our stores and replenish the shelves for customers the next day.
If elderly or vulnerable people are unable to get to a supermarket to buy essential items, they can also log on to Foodbank’s websiteOpens in new window to find a local charity or service nearby.
Foodbank provides food relief for 2500 agencies across Australia with deliveries of items such as toilet paper, tissues and pantry staples to people in need.
ENSURING ALL CUSTOMERS HAVE ACCESS TO NECESSITIES
Coles team members, suppliers and transport partners have been working hard to deliver more products to stores every day and they are stocking shelves as quickly as possible.
To continue to allow everyone the opportunity to purchase staple items, the following purchase limits are currently in place:
One pack per person:
- Toilet paper
Two items per person:
- Pasta
- Flour
- Dry rice
- Paper towels
- Paper tissues
- Hand sanitisers
- Mince meat – includes Beef, Pork, Lamb, Chicken & Turkey
- Eggs
- Chilled pasta
- Frozen vegetables
- Frozen desserts
Coles will also be introducing some additional limits on certain items in each store. These can vary between stores, so please visit your local Coles for more information.
Please continue to respect and support our team members, particularly if a product isn’t available or the checkout queues are longer than normal.
CHANGES TO COLES ONLINE
To dedicate vans in the Coles network to delivering groceries to those in genuine need, especially the most vulnerable and those isolated, home delivery orders for other valued customers will be temporarily suspended. Coles have said they they sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that this will cause and a further announcement about this will be made in the coming days.
To avoid inconvenience for Coles Online customers who have been picking up incomplete Click&Collect orders due to lower product availability in stores, Coles will temporarily no longer accept Click&Collect orders.
Coles has also temporarily cancelled its UberEats delivery service during this time to enable team members to improve availability in stores.
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