Woolworths was forced to clear out hundreds of items in one store – find out why

As a band of severe storms moved across the country, people scrambled to save or eat their food items – especially the ones that are quick to spoil. The wild weather brought down trees and ripped roofs off of homes, and many inland communities were put on flood watch. We truly hope all our members are staying safe.

Supermarkets also had to act quickly to save their stocks from the inevitable damage from the storms. One Woolies staff member shared their ‘hectic 24 hours’ as they pulled hundreds of items off the shelves.



One store staff at Woolworths Adelaide shared how the supermarket giant tasked their employees to clear items off of shelves – much to the shock of customers.

The images were posted to TikTok and showed trolleys filled with mostly fresh food items such as meat, dairy products, and vegetables.


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One staff member from Woolies showed how they were all forced to clear out fresh food items. Credit: Hayz94 on TikTok via 7News

‘Aftermath of Adelaide’s storm, completely lost chilled produce salads and frozen items,’ shared the Woolies staff member.

The employee also said they had to completely discard the food items after a power outage occurred at their store.

Australian supermarkets adhere to strict health and safety regulations, including keeping fresh food such as meat and dairy at a certain temperature to avoid spoilage. If they cannot be kept at a certain temperature, they cannot be sold and must be discarded.



Sunday evening brought severe rain, strong winds, and hail to over 65,000 homes and businesses. The winds also affected 300 power lines – knocking out electricity over the weekend.

SA Power Networks spokesperson Paul Roberts said: ‘[This is] probably the worst outage since the state-wide blackout in 2016.’

As of Monday evening, some 23,000 people are still without power in Adelaide, according to SA Power Networks.

‘What a hectic 24 hours it has been, but as a team, we got there,’ said the TikTok user.

Meanwhile, a separate TikTok user captured the moment when water began gushing through the ceiling. This happened in the Aberfoyle Park store in South Adelaide.


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The TikTok video has since been deleted. Credit: Mo.Unique.Monique on TikTok via Yahoo News

It is believed that Woolworths stores across South Australia are now operating as usual, and customers can continue shopping online and in-store.

A Woolworths spokesperson shared: ‘Our teams are working hard to replenish the shelves as quickly as possible, and we thank everyone for their patience following some wild weather.’


Key Takeaways

  • Woolworths staff were forced to remove hundreds of items from store shelves due to a power outage.
  • The outage forced the supermarket to discard all its chilled meat, dairy products, and other fresh food and frozen items.
  • Australian supermarkets adhere to strict food and safety laws – including the disposal of fresh food that wasn’t kept at a certain temperature.
  • Woolworths stores across South Australia have now returned to trading as usual.
There you have it! What can you say about this? Were you also affected by the recent storm, members? Share with us your thoughts in the comments below!
 
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Reactions: Ricci
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I have seen this amount of waste in my time as a checkout operator. Blackouts are a killer for stores. They have a generator to keep lights and registers going but the freezers and fridges go off. The waste is very disturbing, but these products can't be sold after they have been out of the coolers for a certain amount of time. I couldn't look at this waste.
 
What a waste. Why didn't they just leave them in the fridges all the while they were cool and tell customers to help themselves. I hate to see any waste but on such a large scale it's criminal. :(
Because of the size of the fridges, they cool quickly. A lot of fridges are open shelves that lose their temperature rapidly. Can't be avoided sometimes.
 
Whilst it is a waste of food, the companies can't merely "give" the food away as they would be leaving themselves open to litigation from the odd one or two claiming they got food poison etc. Same with left over bread, as an ex-manager i used to gift bread to a piggery, that is until they started complaining that the bread was stale. So straight into the dump master it then went. No pleasing some people! Power outages and refrigeration breakdowns are a nightmare for all involved.
 
Whilst it is a waste of food, the companies can't merely "give" the food away as they would be leaving themselves open to litigation from the odd one or two claiming they got food poison etc. Same with left over bread, as an ex-manager i used to gift bread to a piggery, that is until they started complaining that the bread was stale. So straight into the dump master it then went. No pleasing some people! Power outages and refrigeration breakdowns are a nightmare for all involved.
I hear you. Many years ago my hubby was in charge at Peters Bakery. They always had mis-shapes, beginning and end of runs etc. he spent two whole days phoning every charity in Perth offering them this stuff, all they had to do was collect it daily, not one of them wanted to know unless it could be delivered which wasn't an option so in to the bin it all went. We were mad as there were plenty of hungry people it could have helped. :(
 
I really think we as a nation in fact most of the developed world have gone way too far with food safety
 
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why don't their generators include the fridges and freezers? It doesn't make sense.
Mind my chest freezer everything was absolutely rock solid. It hadn't thawed at all. I know many like this also. Guess massive industrial means losing everything.
 
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