Woolworths and Coles representatives warn: “Empty shelves may take weeks to be restocked”
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Woolworths and Coles representatives warn: “Empty shelves may take weeks to be restocked”
As many of you know, we have been covering the supermarket stock crisis and doing our best to keep you on top of the situation. Unfortunately, the crisis shows no sign of coming to a close, as supermarket officials have warned that it may take weeks for empty shelves in supermarket stores to be restocked.
Spokespersons from Coles and Woolworths told Weekend Sunrise that further purchase limits might be imposed in the coming weeks as the rising COVID-19 infections force their employees into isolation, affecting the restocking of some of the grocery staples.
Surging COVID-19 infections forced supermarket employees into isolation, causing shelves in stores to be empty. Credit: Getty Images.
While some adjustments are needed to be made in order to control the increasing demand, the representatives assured the customers that they will not be left hungry.
Woolworths Director of Stores Jeanette Fenske said: “I think as long as we continue to see rising numbers in community transmissions, we’ll continue to experience supply challenges of some sort.”
“We’re seeing upward of 20 per cent absenteeism in our distribution centres and over 10 per cent absenteeism in our stores.”
“Our suppliers are also hugely challenged by the rise in community transmissions.”
Meanwhile, Coles Chief Operations Officer Matthew Swindells said that they are forecasting that the supply chain crisis will take "weeks to recover", describing it as a "perfect storm".
“With Omicron we’ve got all of it,” he said.
“We’ve got high absences, we’ve got low inbound supply, we’ve got low inventory levels coming out of Christmas and elevated demand.”
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It should be noted that last week, Coles announced that it will impose purchase limits on some meat buys, including minced meat, chicken breast, chicken thighs, and sausages.
Mr Swindells said: “We’ve done that because the meat supply chain is particularly under pressure, not just within our distribution centres, but within the production facilities where the surge in Omicron has led to really high absenteeism.”
Although Woolworths has not imposed any purchase limits yet, Ms Fenske said that the supermarket giant is not ruling out the possibility of adopting the concession.
“If our data starts to tell us that our customers were no longer shopping for responsible quantities, we would then have to, unfortunately, look at putting on product limits,” she explained.
“But right now they are doing an amazing job and I really want to thank our customers because they are shopping responsibly."
The governments of NSW and Queensland relaxed quarantine requirements for close contacts in a bid to ease the pressure on supply chains.
“We are dealing with (supermarket staff shortages) and making sure we keep people at work because that’s how we keep food on the shelf,” Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said.
NSW and Queensland allow workers in critical industries — such as food transport and supply — to leave isolation facilities so long as they return a negative rapid antigen test each day and are not experiencing any symptoms of the virus.
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