Calls for Woolworths to ban this group from its stores
Woolworths customers are calling on the supermarket to ban families from shopping together over fears big groups make it harder to adhere to coronavirus social distancing rules.
Shoppers have taken to the retail giant’s facebook page with complaints about adults bringing children with them to buy groceries, arguing they were putting others at risk by doing so.
One said while staff were dong an “amazing job”, the store needed to revisit its policies to ban “whole families” from shopping together at the same time.
“It's just a shame about some of the customers. I just went to my local store and had to dodge kids running up the aisles,” they wrote in the fiery post.
“One example was three adults shopping together with a toddler. Is this really necessary? Perhaps Woolies could re-consider the restrictions and allow only one person to shop,” the post said.
They added how obviously elderly and disabled people as well as single parents would be excluded from any changes, but “whole families shopping is not on”.
Another person had a similar complaint, saying they were left “disgusted” after shopping at the Mt Pleasant store in Mackay, Queensland, which was “filled with mums dads and their kids”.
“Why don't the security guards turn them away at the entrance?” they wrote.
Despite these concerns, a spokesperson from Woolworths said no one would be getting excluded from its stores due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We have no plans to ban children from entering our stores at this time,” they told Yahoo News Australia.
The spokesperson said shoppers were, however, encouraged to shop alone or in smaller groups whenever possible.
“Where that's not an option, we ask customers to pay close attention to social distancing with their little ones and maintain good hygiene practices,” they said.
Woolworths and Coles have introduced a series of measures in an effort to keep customers safe while shopping, including limiting the number of people inside at a time, and marking 1.5 metres on the floor at checkout lines.
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