Poor old Woollies (Countdown, to you Kiwis). First, they have to put up with idiots clearing their shelves of dunny paper. Then the enraged People of a Certain Type brawling at the checkouts and taking the stick (literally) to their staff.
Then, when they try and innovate to cope with the crisis – and especially to help out vulnerable people being stampeded by panicked idiots with trolleys loaded with bog rolls – it all goes arse-up on its first day.
When Woolworths introduced a special shopping hour for the elderly and people with disabilities, in response to panic buyers stripping shelves faster than seagulls on a dropped chip, it seemed like good corporate citizenship. Although quite a few people questioned the early hour, it’s obvious that Woollies were trying to give the oldies first dibs on shelves re-stocked overnight.
Except…
Armed with trolleys and reusable bags, hundreds of elderly shoppers lined up before sunrise outside the Woolworths in Moonee Ponds.
But when the doors opened at 7am on Tuesday, they rushed in to discover empty shelves with not a single toilet paper roll to be seen.
Ruh-roh. Damage control time.
Appearing on Alan Jones’s 2GB show to answer to criticisms of “elder abuse,” Woolworth’s director of fresh food, Paul Harker, admitted that the supermarket got it wrong.
“We are really sorry that we have impacted people this way,” Mr Harker said. “What we’re trying to do, Alan, is to do something different … we started a trial this morning to see if it would make a difference, it’s clearly not perfect.
“Day one, we got it wrong, we’re going to do what we can to fix it.”
This is obviously terrible publicity for the supermarket chain, but they should at least be given credit for trying. The lengths that the moronic hoarders are going to are ridiculous. There are stories of panic-buyers hiring buses to literally raid country shopping centres.
Our little country town supermarket here in Tassie was stripped bare over the weekend as panic buyers descended from the city. In a town like ours, supermarket staff soon get to know who’s a local. They said that the store was jammed with out-of-towners stripping the shelves like locusts.
I’m not a fan of the big supermarket duopoly we have in Australia, but at least they should be given credit for trying something, with their restricted shopping hours. Let’s hope they get it sorted.
When perfectly healthy idiots are scarfing up necessities, it’s the people most at risk – the elderly – who are missing out. Now is the time for ordinary people to step up, too.
The run on supermarkets, however, is an opportunity for neighbours to step up and help socially isolated people. It may have sounded trite a few weeks ago when Mr Morrison suggested to take around a curry to rural folks who don’t have access to Uber Eats. But his advice on Sunday to drop off a casserole to those in need, as an act of kindness, suits the times. As well as exercising restraint in the grocery shopping stakes[…]
Protecting our most vulnerable people invariably requires harsher restrictions on movement and services, as well as more dedicated resources. But it will also call for displays of Australian spirit, acts of kindness to strangers, self-control and patience. The way we interact with Nanna and Pop, for instance, may change for the next several months: less face time and more FaceTime. Try to look out for the elderly in your street or apartment building[…]For those of us who are more healthy, we have a duty to protect the most vulnerable. As a US president once said, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, your local community, your fellow Australian.
theaustralian.com.au
It doesn’t take much. We’ve already checked in on our elderly neighbours, letting them know we’re here to do grocery runs or whatever (with emphysema, they don’t really want to risk going out in crowded public places).
We’ve seen this crisis bring out the worst in some people. Now, let’s see the rest of us show the best.
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