Coles Click & Collect shoppers rage over parking loophole
Click & Collect launched in 2022 in a bid to make shopping faster and easier – but there's a simple oversight when it comes to the corresponding car spots.
A Coles shopper hoping to utilise the supermarket's Click & Collect service has unleashed after finding on several occasions people parking in the designated spots reserved for customers to stop while their groceries are brought to the car.
Click & Collect was launched in 2022 across select stores in a bid to "make shopping faster and easier" for customers. It allows shoppers to place an order from the Coles website or app, and then drive to pick it up from a store where an employee delivers the groceries to their car.
While Coles says the entire process is meant to take under 60 minutes, some customers in Wentworth Point, in Sydney's Inner West, say they've rocked up to the designated parking spaces to find "entitled" people had parked there, and left their cars to go shopping.
Customer fumes as Click & Collect parking snatched by shoppers
"Coles Click & Collect — feeling angry every time we go to get our groceries, people feel entitled to park in the spaces provided," a man wrote on the Facebook page of the Marina Square store. The frustrated customer then uploaded a handful of images showing cars parked in the space with no occupants inside.
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People responded with varying views, some agreeing with the man, and others claiming they "don't even try Click & Click there" because "the spaces are never available."
"I stopped Click & Click for this reason, it’s always Thirsty Monkey customers that I’ve encountered, and once [a person] whom I asked to move — as it was raining and the Coles staff member was there with my groceries — told me she was warming up her car and wouldn’t be long," another wrote.
On the other hand, a number of people questioned why the parks were on the street in the first place and not in Coles' underground garage. One man admitted to using them for shopping.
"Can’t understand why it’s on the street, surely they can have spaces in the underground car park! It’s so frustrating," a shopper said. "I won't stop doing it. You have a whole carpark downstairs," a man wrote.
Coles weighs in on parking problem
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for Coles encouraged shoppers to use the supermarket's underground parking and leave the Click & Click spaces for customers using the service.
"We know that many of our customers rely on the convenience and value of our free Click & Collect service in select locations," the spokesperson said. "We encourage anyone who isn’t collecting a Click & Collect order to consider the needs of those who have selected this service and park in one of the other many parking spots available at our supermarkets”.
Nobody enforcing fines, Yahoo finds
It appears no one is actually enforcing the rule for the designated Click & Collect parking spots, and some locals have seemingly taken advantage of the loophole.
Coles explained that in the case of the Wentworth Point store, it does not enforce parking guidelines and suggested the matter be directed to the City of Parramatta council.
When Yahoo News contacted the council, we were told that the parking spots lay on private land and council does not have jurisdiction over the spots. Yahoo understands the City of Parramatta does not have the authority to enforce any fines or remove any vehicles within the pictured zone.
Yahoo News has contacted the owners of the Marina Square shopping centre to clarify whether the parking spaces are under their jurisdiction instead.
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