Coronavirus (COVID-19) Panic Buying?

[lovetravellingoz]

Indeed, I get the impression Aussies are too busy emptying supermarket shelves to go on holiday!
cheers skip

Not at the supermarkets I frequent. And at Costco, when don't shoppers here have full trollies?

I think it is more that hand sanitiser has a run on.

 

[Himeno]

So the 7am shop for seniors is not really working at all Woollies.According to SIL in Sydney her local had no toot paper or other paper products.Some mince was being put out.

How much of the toot paper is being sent overseas.Surely Australians should have stockpiled enough by now.

In most stores, the evening loads arrive between 3 and 6pm. Night fill generally starts between 4 and 7 (to finish by midnight). With the toilet paper shelves being empty, they have often been the first thing taken into the store from the truck, and then selling out before the store closes.
With stores now closing at 8pm (from tomorrow), stores should be able to held in the stock room until after 8pm, then fill it when the store is closed ready for the seniors hour.

 

[Pushka]

There seems to be a consistent message that there is plenty of stock but the logistics is proving an issue. Then numpties clear out the store creating the panic for someone who. comes in with the simple intent of just buying the normal supply.
I did find a Woolworths store that other than TP had a rather excellent supply of everything else. It was very quiet. It's location is more commercial/industrial so it likely gets overlooked. And a bonus is large car park and a Dan Murphy's across the way.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Woolworths at Ashgrove had cars queuing out onto the road to get into the carpark at 10.15 this morn. Sheesh. Panic is getting worse.

All I wanted was milk and orange juice. Bought it from Service Station.

 

[p--and--t]

In most stores, the evening loads arrive between 3 and 6pm. Night fill generally starts between 4 and 7 (to finish by midnight). With the toilet paper shelves being empty, they have often been the first thing taken into the store from the truck, and then selling out before the store closes.
With stores now closing at 8pm (from tomorrow), stores should be able to held in the stock room until after 8pm, then fill it when the store is closed ready for the seniors hour.

I also watched the interview with the Woollies senior exec who said they were recruiting more staff to refill shelves and more trucks and drivers. She said along the lines of it has taken some time to re-organise the supply chain for high demand goods and instead of a two step process of source -> warehouse -> store, they are intending to urgently implement a one step process of source -> store.

 

[VPS]

There seems to be a consistent message that there is plenty of stock but the logistics is proving an issue. Then numpties clear out the store creating the panic for someone who. comes in with the simple intent of just buying the normal supply.
I did find a Woolworths store that other than TP had a rather excellent supply of everything else. It was very quiet. It's location is more commercial/industrial so it likely gets overlooked. And a bonus is large car park and a Dan Murphy's across the way.

Brickworks? and there is a fantastic F&V there

 

[Pushka]

Woolworths at Ashgrove had cars queuing out onto the road to get into the carpark at 10.15 this morn. Sheesh. Panic is getting worse.

All I wanted was milk and orange juice. Bought it from Service Station.

That's insane. Seems to be worse on the eastern front. I pulled up into a park just outside the Woolies this morning at 10.30. Plenty of spaces. And no one had full trolleys, just the small ones. And a few elderly folk walking around quite happy they'd found all the goods. All very pleasant.
DIL with young baby messaged me this morning as most of her Woolies delivery was missing. Was rather pleased with myself that at this store I was able to find everything she had missed. And an extra one of each item as we are talking of canned tomatoes and kidney beans that will always be used.
She said her mother's group was having a hard time finding baby Panadol?

Post automatically merged: Mar 17, 2020

Brickworks? and there is a fantastic F&V there

Ssssshhhhhhh!

 

[Pushka]

Im trying to go out of my way to be nice and friendly to the workers in the supermarkets these days. I suspect it's not as bad in SA as the Eastern States but they are working so damn hard. I realised that this was the way my mother was with people, I'm becoming my Mum.

 

[Himeno]

I also watched the interview with the Woollies senior exec who said they were recruiting more staff to refill shelves and more trucks and drivers. She said along the lines of it has taken some time to re-organise the supply chain for high demand goods and instead of a two step process of source -> warehouse -> store, they are intending to urgently implement a one step process of source -> store.

That was Claire Peters Supermarkets Managing Director, reports to Brad the CEO.

Woolworths has 2 NDCs, one in Melbourne and Sydney, which supply slower selling lines to all stores, and a number of RDCs which supply stores in their region.
Stores generally get 1-3 loads/week from each NDC and 5-7 loads/week from their RDC. More remote stores might only get 1 or 2 loads a week from all warehouses.
There are also some 3rd party warehouses which Woolworths contracts, mostly for extra chilled/frozen lines, and the semi 3rd party MeatCo packing plants.
About 95% of stock comes from one of these warehouses. The rest is direct delivery from suppliers
Over time, direct delivery has been reduced as it is more efficient to send trucks to the warehouse and unload the entire load for splitting to stores, then it is to send a truck to 20 different stores.

eg, the Canberra stores get stock from
Wodonga RDC (Ambient, Chilled, Frozen, Milk, Produce, Fresh [Chicken/seafood/deli salad, soups, pizza])
Melbourne NDC (via Wodonga)
Sydney NDC
MeatCo Melbourne (prepacked, case ready meat and butcher shop primal - via Wodonga)
Americold Melbourne (Frozen - via Wodonga)
Sydney RDC (chilled meat/seafood)

They are trying to get additional temporary 3rd party warehousing space and get some suppliers to resume direct delivery, which most stopped doing years ago.

Part of the truck problem has been that stores no longer have dedicated dockmen. The role of having someone at or ready to go to the dock to unload a truck was removed with the restructure last year. Thus, when the dock bell rings, no one knows if someone else is going to get it, so no one does. Leading to trucks waiting at stores for, in some cases over an hour, trying to call the store and ring the bell waiting for someone to come open up and unload.
Which then means the truck gets back to the warehouse late, which means it gets sent out again late...
Then there has been cases where the truck driver gets to the DC to start their run, only to find the truck hasn't been loaded and all the loaders have gone home, and has to sit around for 2 hours waiting for the truck to get loaded.

 

[Katie]

Just popped in to Woolies Macarthur Central (BNE city). It's a madhouse. It's often busy at lunch time, but the self checkout queue was starting to loop around on itself. I ditched my basket and decided not to get anything. I might try the local Coles and Woolies after taking the kid home from her orthodontic appt this arvo.

 

[Himeno]

It appears that all specials due to start tomorrow are cancelled, except for those in the catalogue. This is to divert hours from putting up tickets to stocking.
Meat range is being reduced to focus on lines with higher then normal demand.
As is the bakery range for in store production lines.

VIC delivery and pick up hold extended. Not sure why no delivery in VIC and still in NSW which has more then 2 times the cases of VIC.

 

[Denali]

Ive tried to encourage mum in law to stay home, she really only goes out Friday for shopping, so this made me laugh

 

[Denali]

And physcial abuse towards staff, theres been arrests. We have no hope if something mega serious hits us overnight.

Woolies employee stabbed amid chaos in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula

A Woolworths employee trying to collect trolleys has been stabbed by a customer in a major escalation in violence at Australian supermarkets.

www.news.com.au

Elsewhere, an angry shopper accused of striking a Coles employee with a stick in Melbourne has been charged.....

But the man refuses to leave, accusing her of “not being fair”. “If you were a man I going (sic) to smash your face,” he said.

 

[RB]

Pictures tell the story

Coronavirus: Hundreds queue for Woolworths elderly-only shopping hour

 

[Lynda2475]

Elderly hour might need to become 2hours.

 

[VPS]

 

[get me outta here]

So, when they got home at 10am with their mascara all smudged and the same clothes they had on last night, did they get sent to their room?

Ive tried to encourage mum in law to stay home, she really only goes out Friday for shopping, so this made me laugh

View attachment 209941

 

[TheRealTMA]

Elderly hour might need to become 2hours.

Really good idea to have all the elderly congregate close together in queues and shops eh?

Italy is interesting. Allows only limited (6-10) people in supermarket at once and has taped lines on the floor for 1.5 metre separation at checkouts.

 

[Denali]

So, when they got home at 10am with their mascara all smudged and the same clothes they had on last night, did they get sent to their room?

Same clothes as last night because they lined up for Granny Hour the night before and mascara smudge because Granny doesnt mess around for the last pack of toilet paper.

 

[jakeseven7]

It appears that all specials due to start tomorrow are cancelled, except for those in the catalogue. This is to divert hours from putting up tickets to stocking.

Oh poor old Woolworths, the terrible unfortunate consequence of reducing specials is that they will make even more margin, and their (mostly) multinational FMCG suppliers will as well.

Please people, if you can (and its hard I know) buy fresh, buy local and buy from anyone other than Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.

Our smaller businesses need our support more than our pokie machine loving major supermarkets chains who will just roll around in the cash like fat pigs in the mud.

 

[Denali]

Absolutely disgraceful

https://twitter.com/x/status/1239055703211302912