Woolworths shamed for ‘absolutely embarrassing’ trolley problem
Woolworths has come under fire for an act that’s been deemed “absolutely embarrassing” by one of its customers.
A Western Australian shopper brought their pent up rage to the attention of the supermarket on Sunday after a lengthy period of observing the issue go unchanged.
They reported that an unacceptable number of dumped Woolworths trolleys had been ignored for “a very long time” near its Midland stores, east of Perth.
“All stores have serious issues with trolley collection and it’s been like that for a very long time,” the shopper wrote to Facebook, sharing a photo of some of the dumped trolleys.
They expressed concern that continued ignorance would leave no trolleys left for customers to use.
“And there is no point reporting them via your app because your collectors aren’t collecting them,” they added.
The shopper reported that dumped trolleys were often used by homeless people to transport belongings, and were sometimes observed being used as rubbish bins or set on fire.
Among the trolleys dumped were many belonging to Woolworths, some from Big W and a few that appeared to have strayed from Coles.
Such scenes were described as “absolutely embarrassing” for the supermarket by the individual.
A Woolworths spokesperson said the retailer worked closely with trolley collectors to avoid eyesores like the one reported in Midland.
“Trolleys are provided for the convenience of our customers and the vast majority do the right thing in returning them,” they told Yahoo News Australia.
“We understand abandoned trolleys can be a nuisance and that's why we invest millions in collection services to help mitigate their impact in the community.
“We work closely with dedicated collection contractors who respond quickly to reports of abandoned trolleys to return them to our stores within 24 hours. They also conduct regular sweeps for abandoned trolleys in the streets surrounding our stores.”
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