From tomorrow (Thursday, 26 March), Woolworths will reduce trading hours at 41 stores across the country to 11am to 6pm* to support prioritising the delivery of groceries to the homes of vulnerable customers.
These 41 'Priority Delivery Hubs' will use the additional hours the stores are not open to customers to pick online orders, with a focus on meeting the increased demand from 'Priority Assistance' customers which includes the elderly, people with disability, those with compromised immunity and people in mandatory isolation. Woolworths currently operates more than 1,000 Woolworths Supermarkets and Metro Food stores nationwide.
In addition to the 'Priority Delivery Hubs', Woolworths is supporting those vulnerable in the community by:
- Operating dedicated early shopping hours during the week for the elderly and those with a disability.
- Committing additional support to leading Australian hunger relief charities OzHarvest, Foodbank and Fareshare to help close the gap on any food supply, employment, logistics or financial aid challenges they are facing in supporting those in need in the community in the current climate.
- The delivery of more than 75,000 packs of toilet rolls to date to Meals on Wheels for distribution to elderly in the community via their network of volunteers.
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said; "At Woolworths we are focused on supporting the most vulnerable in the community during these challenging times.
"To help support getting basic food and essentials to those that need it most, our teams have been doing everything they can to scale up online and home deliveries to the elderly, people with disabilities or those in mandatory self-isolation.
"Following an extraordinary level of demand for groceries in recent weeks, reducing trading hours in a small number of our stores to turn them into 'Priority Delivery Hubs' will help us assist more people who can't access a store to get products they need.
"At a time when hunger relief charities are seeing a surge in demand for providing meals and basic essentials, we're also pleased to increase our commitment to our partners OzHarvest, Foodbank and FareShare and we hope our additional long term support will help them with any gaps they are facing as they continue to help those most in need in the community."
Social distancing in stores
Woolworths has also rolled out some further measures in stores to support the health and wellbeing of team and customers. These include:
A store greeter to wipe down baskets, trolleys and direct customers to the notice board for key social distancing, trading hours and product limit information.
Closing some registers in the self serve and express check outs to provide additional space between customers in those areas.
These are in addition to social distancing measures that were implemented by Woolworths earlier this week, including beginning to install plexiglass screens at registers, informative signage to support social distancing in stores and additional cleaning and hygiene processes.
Brad Banducci added; "The measures we've introduced have been well received by our team and customers alike, and we're grateful for the community support on this incredibly important public health effort."
About Woolworths Priority Assistance
