'Absolute disgrace': Coles customer hits out at 'disappointing' delivery detail
A Coles customer has been left fuming after she received a “disgraceful” amount of plastic with her online delivery.
The shopper claimed the plastic was so excessive that she received almost all of her 10 apples - despite ordering six - in individual bags.
She described it “an absolute disgrace” in a fiery post to the retailer’s Facebook page on Friday.
“If it's not bad enough that you can't opt out of plastic bags for fresh produce for Click and Collect or delivery orders, I get my 10 apples (I only ordered six), in SIX different plastic bags,” she wrote.
“I don't need any plastic bags for my apples, much less one for each apple (or two).”
A Coles employee commented saying they were “disappointed to hear this” and requested the shopper send them further information about their order.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Coles for comment on the matter.
Plastic bag use in delivery orders has been a source of ongoing frustration for Coles shoppers, which seems to have escalated since the Covid-19 outbreak due to the retailer halting non-plastic delivery options.
One shopper managed to repack a delivery that came in 13 bags into just four bags - he claimed they were still each a manageable weight after being reorganised.
In a response to that angry customer’s Facebook post, a Coles employee incorrectly claimed the supermarket had a “range of bagged options” available to customers who shopped online.
Shoppers in fact have no choice but to select the 15-cent bags when placing an online order for delivery, which Coles said was one way it was protecting the “health and wellbeing of our customers”.
“In light of the Covid-19 situation, we currently only offer Better Bags for home deliveries,” Coles said in a statement at the time.
“We apologise for any inconvenience and would like to assure customers that we are working hard to resume normal delivery options and will let our customers know via our website as they become available.”
Why does Coles use so many plastic bags?
The supermarket recently revealed the real reason packers often placed individual items in single bags, even when they weren’t fragile.
“The number of plastic bags you receive is determined by the way in which our orders are picked. Our pickers collect items for multiple orders, from their allocated aisles of the supermarket,” a spokesperson said.
“As such, if you only have one item from your order in that picker’s area, it will be in a bag by itself.”
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