'Disgraceful behaviour': Coles shoppers vent over social distancing failures

Supermarket customers have expressed frustration at seeing packed aisles this Easter long weekend at Coles, despite various social distancing measures the company has implemented over the past few weeks.

A number of disgruntled shoppers have taken to social media over the weekend describing the busy scenes at their local supermarket.

One person who decided to do their weekly shop on Easter Saturday said the behaviour they observed at Coles was “absolutely disgraceful”.

“Aisles were packed and the staff member at the door could not have cared less - too interested in their phone to worry about how many people were entering, or whether the baskets and trolleys were clean/sanitised,” the person wrote on Facebook.

This same person also claimed at the checkouts “people were most certainly not adhering to correct social distancing because they were basically standing right next to each other”, also claiming the queues for the checkout made the store difficult to navigate.

They decided to use the self-serve checkout instead, “because they would allow the correct social distancing”.

Like Woolworths, Coles has moved to control the number of customers who can enter the store and introduced social distancing policies.

“The latest information outlines that you have a low risk of contracting COVID-19 if you are in close contact with team members or other customers for less than 15 minutes,” the supermarket giant says on their COVID-19 updates page.

In the lead up to the long weekend, Coles urged customers to “plan and visit earlier this week, as this will allow you to shop during quieter periods”.

Coles stated during “necessary times” they would limit the amount of people in any given store, Woolworths also announced they too would limit the amount of people in a store at any given time.

One person who shared photos of packed Coles aisles to Twitter questioned whether there would be a “spike” in COVID-19 cases next week.

Another person on social media said: “ Coles was completely incapable of guaranteeing the 4m2 space per person required and did not provide a safe shopping environment.”

“I went to speak to staff at the entry and they claimed they we’re keeping track of the number of people in the shop, but I pointed out in my opinion the place was absolutely packed and it was not right,” they claimed.

As per Australian Government advice, supermarkets are considered essential services and thus are treated with greater leniency when it comes to the enforcement of social distancing.

“The current Australian Government advice is that all non-essential indoor gatherings of less than 100 people must have no more than one person per 4 square meters,” an Australian Government fact sheet states.

“As supermarkets are an essential service, this measure does not apply inside supermarkets.”

However, as per the advice on the Federal Health Department’s website, essential gatherings must apply social distancing measures, including “being able to maintain a distance of 1.5 metres between people”.

Supermarkets around Australia have implemented social distancing measures to ensure the safety of not only customers, but team members.

“We want to ensure that all customers can follow social distancing guidelines when shopping in our stores,” Coles said in a statement to Yahoo News Australia.

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“As well as introducing social distancing decals in stores and measures that minimise contact – like contactless payment and customers packing their own bags – we have introduced new limits when the stores are busy on how many customers can be in a Coles store at any one time.

“While pleasingly most customers are doing the right thing, there is a small number of customers that are not following these guidelines.

“We ask that customers follow the instructions from our team members and any signs in-store so we can continue to safely serve as many customers in the community as possible.”

While many people were upset with Coles, and vented their frustrations on the Coles Facebook page, one man shared his positive experience at a Melbourne store.

“I saw some negative press today about some of your stores. Just wanted to give a shout out to the team at the Melbourne Tooronga Village store... All calm and well organised,” he wrote.

“Great job given the circumstances – also had no trouble getting any products I really needed.”

Supermarkets face tough job in policing human behaviour

A few people who posted their thoughts online questioned whether Coles should implement one-way-aisles in stores for the duration of the pandemic.

Previously, Yahoo News Australia consulted a retail expert about this proposed measure.

“It does then stop people walking towards one another, face-to-face,” Professor Gary Mortimer from Queensland University of Technology said.

“Although it may not prevent people from overtaking slow browsers in the aisle, which is an ongoing problem.”

Back in March he said one of the problems supermarkets would face amid the coronavirus pandemic would be dealing with human behaviour and he said supermarkets are probably not best placed to police human behaviour.

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