Woolworths staff member in tears after copping abuse from panic-buying customers
A Woolworths worker breaking down in tears amid coronavirus fuelled panic-buying has gone viral after she was photographed sobbing at the check-out.
The young woman, in tears, is seen being comforted at the self-checkout by another woman at Woolworths in Victoria.
A woman shared the photo of the supermarket staff member’s breakdown on Facebook, criticising people for pushing our retailers to the brink with panic buying.
Yahoo News Australia has pixelated her photo to protect her privacy.
“All of you need a goddamn reality check,” she wrote.
“These poor workers are being brought to tears because of the way people are treating them, blaming them and abusing them for something they have no control of.
“Before you act like an a**hole just looking for someone to blame for all of this mayhem, maybe try and think about the fact that these people are just trying to do their jobs and don’t need to be abused every 10 minutes just because Woolworths or Coles is out of stock.”
‘This is just not on’
People on Facebook were disgusted by what had brought the young woman to tears.
“People need to wise up and stop being so rude,” one woman wrote.
Another woman added, “this is just not on”.
“Absolutely unacceptable and I would hope that any one of us here reading this would step in and stand up for any staff member who was being abused at the stores,” another woman wrote.
Earlier this month, another Woolies staff member told Yahoo News Australia about her anxiety surrounding the panic buying.
“I’ve used barricades several times this week while filling the toilet rolls and my heart was absolutely pounding while having to take pallets of toilet paper out into the aisle,” she said.
Such has been the extent of hysteria over buying toilet paper rolls, some customers have even been filmed getting into physical altercations over it. It’s even alleged one customer threatened another with a knife over toilet paper.
Supermarkets and pharmacies have had to adapt to meet the needs of customers as the coronavirus outbreak takes grip.
In NSW and South Australia, supermarkets and pharmacies are now allowed to open 24 hours a day to allow people to buy food and medicine throughout the pandemic.
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