Disadvantaged group ignored by Coles and Woolworths' in coronavirus measures
Australian supermarkets have introduced several new measures in an attempt to make sure groceries are available to everyone during the coronavirus panic.
Dedicated shopping hours to the elderly, healthcare workers and people with disabilities, limits on several items, and increased delivery capacity are some of the steps taken by supermarkets to meet the increased demand.
But there is one group of Australians who appear to be missing out on the basics.
For Kellie who lives in a remote community in Queensland, feeding her family of four has become even harder and the 97km drive to the closest supermarket is becoming a wasted trip.
“It’s really really difficult, I went down the other day and I couldn’t find pasta, I couldn’t find rice and forget about toilet paper or the essentials,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
Making the fortnightly trip in to town to do her basic shop is now a gamble for Kellie, as supermarket shelves remain empty and the limits on items that are available are not enough to supply her family until she can return for another shop in two weeks.
“One small packet of toilet paper would not get us through for a fortnight,” she said.
As for food staples like bread, Kellie finds them hard to come by at her closest supermarket and would easily go through the allowed two per customer limits on items like eggs and dry pasta in a fortnight.
“We go through four or five loaves of bread and that’s if we can get any to begin with,” she said.
Kylie Mackenzie is another rural resident struggling with limits on groceries, she lives at Walgett in northwest NSW and after her local supermarket burned down last year she now has to make a three hour trip to Dubbo once a month to shop for her family of four, including Xander who has special needs.
“Xander is on a special blended diet, we would go through two packets of pasta a week just for him,” Ms Mackenzie explained to Yahoo News Australia.
With the shelves empty by the time they do get into town, Ms Mckenzie is relying on local stores and a close knit community to help provide her with the basics.
Community pantry helps rural people get by
“We have a pop-up IGA and they will call me when they get things like chick peas in because they know i need them for Xander,” she said.
A community pantry is another way the residents in Walgett help each other put food on the table.
“If somebody needs something, they can put the call out on our Facebook group and if anyone has anything to spare, they donate it or swap.
“If it wasn’t for our local community helping each other out, so many people would be going without,” Ms Mckenzie said.
Roy Butler MP, Member for Barwon represents a large portion of western NSW and said many people working on properties need to buy more than the average family.
“For some people who live on remote properties they’re not only feeding their family but any number of workers, sometimes double and triple the size of an average family,” he told Yahoo News.
Rural residents who were used to seeing higher prices at local community stores, have also seen the prices jump even higher and stock levels drop.
“Panic buying in the bigger supermarkets has had a huge impact on smaller local grocery stores. They’re struggling to restock as they’re having to compete against the bigger supermarkets on stock items - being forced to pay a price that isn’t reasonable for them,” Mr Butler said.
A Woolworths spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia its introduction of product limits “has been a difficult but necessary decision to help us manage the unprecedented demand we’ve seen across our stores recently”.
“We appreciate the limits have been frustrating for our remote customers,” the spokesperson said.
“We're providing flexibility on limits to our existing remote customers where we have the product availability in a store to support it. We’ve also wound back limits on many different product categories in recent weeks.”
The spokesperson added Woolies is continuing to work “behind the scenes” to improve stock position and has recently reinstated the Pick Up service to many rural towns.
Supermarkets need to consider remote families, MP says
Kellie said while she welcomes Woolworths and Coles supporting the elderly and those with disabilities, people in remote locations are struggling with the new restrictions and asked for the supermarket giants to take distance into consideration.
“If we could show our licences to prove that we don’t live right near a Woolworths, that could be an option,” she said.
Mr Butler agrees and is calling on the supermarket giants to take distance into consideration.
“Until we see supermarket trading return to normal, I would like to see exemptions put in place for those that live significant distances from their local supermarket - and have a whole property of workers and their families to feed,” he said.
He is also calling on the public to do their bit and stop unnecessary stockpiling.
“I’d really like for these families to be able to go to the supermarket and buy what they usually do - and that comes if everyone else returns to their usually buying patterns”.
Yahoo News Australia has contacted Coles for comment.
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