Says Coles: ‘Coles is recruiting more than 5000 casual team members to work in supermarkets across Australia. This will allow us to serve more customers and replenish shelves faster, while offering employment opportunities for Australians working in other industries impacted by COVID-19.’
Adds Coles CEO Steven Cain: ‘We have also significantly increased the number of team members working in our stores to support this level of unprecedented demand and we are actively recruiting for 5000 more casual team members.
‘We ask for customers to continue to respect and support our team members in store and our Customer Care and Coles Online call centres, particularly if a product is unavailable or if the checkout queues are longer than normal.’
Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said they hoped the reduced trading hours would slow down shopping panic and give stores time to restock.
'We want to slow the panic down,' she said.
'We understand that our customers' priority is to be prepared, but the vast majority of our food is grown or manufactured in Australia so there is not a concern with supply. What we have is a spike in demand.'
