Woolworths announces change to opening hours as product limits lifted
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Woolworths has announced a “return to a new normal” after nine weeks of unprecedented scenes at supermarkets across Australia that saw shelves emptied, purchase limits introduced and increased hygiene brought in.
In an email to customers on Friday Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci said the supermarket giant is now “well and truly in the safe shopping groove” and praised customers for their resilience and resourcefulness.
Regular shopping hours return
“As shopping patterns become more predictable, we’ll be going back to our regular trading hours across most of our Woolworths stores from Monday,” Mr Banducci said.
Community hour will be phased out but the supermarket giant said it won’t hesitate to bring it back if needed, while senior citizens will be able to take advantage of a new discount.
“It’s something we wouldn’t hesitate to bring back if required. In parallel, later today we will start offering a permanent 10% discount on Delivery Unlimited for over-60s,” Mr Banducci added.
Purchase limits lifted
Sales of most products are back to pre-COVID-19 levels which means limits on high demand items have been lifted.
There are now no limits on essentials such as rice, pasta sauce, noodles, cleaning products, sugar and eggs.
“Just six categories still have limits in place (down from 45 at the height of the surge) and we’re hoping we can lift more next week,” Mr Banducci said.
Toilet paper sales dropped by 4 million rolls last week, now below the sales of the corresponding week last year, but a limit of four packets per person per shop still remain.
“This week we are on track to sell between 9m and 9.5m rolls, well down on our peak of 39.7 million rolls a week in mid March,” Mr Banducci said.
Hand sanitiser is limited to four items and limits of two apply to antibacterial wipes, disinfectants, flour and hand wash.
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The new normal
Over the last few months Woolworths has made major changes to keep stores hygienic and safe for staff and customers, with the rollout of plexiglass screens at registers, limiting the number of shoppers in store at one time, and deep and regular cleaning carried out.
Mr Banducci said those measures will stay in place and a few others will be added as the supermarket giant “fine tunes” what is already in place.
“To help with customer flow and social distancing in some of our smaller stores, we’re introducing one-way aisles, which you’ll start to see in many Metro branded stores from this week,” Mr Banducci said.
Staff safety is also a top priority with masks available to team members who request them and even voluntary temperature checks which Mr Banducci said was “a big hit” for team members.
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