Definitely not acceptable.
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We noticed that first at Coles about 2 weeks ago. Maybe driving profit or pressure on individual store managers to reduce labour costs to is driving decrease in controls.
Our local Woollies has removed queuing/traffic control for entry, but all other controls are still in place…such as wiping surfaces touched by customers (conveyors/trolley/ EFTPOS handset/baskets), reminders about social distancing (even staff avoid being near customers and I first thought I smeltbor was carrying an offensive item), floor marking and perspex shields remain in place, not touching customers at checkouts, not packing one’s own brought bags, auto hand sanitiser on entry, security guard on doors reminding customers about social distancing and using spray etc.
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You’re probably right. The number of extra staff they had a couple of weeks ago to manage all of the extra procedures was quite a surprise. I’m in a small country town and the supermarket isn’t all that busy, so ~5 extra staff was very noticeable.
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We had our first partly non-essential shopping trip yesterday to the city on the coast. Of the several smaller retailers we visited, one was still closed, Vision Australia of all places. Lakeside Mobility was open which was great. The smaller, retailers had hand sanitiser and signage at the entrances indicating how many could be in the store at one time. Keeping the sales staff at 1.5m was not easy though.
And at the big stores, pharmacy chains, etc, all is nearly back to normal, except for those ‘X’ marks the spot label and aisle arrows. Oh, and all the public toilets in the shopping centre had been shut down. Ouch! Enough pain in that to agree to anything to get all restrictions lifted.
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I havent shopped at the local for a couple of weeks. It was already not as controlled as it had been and thats before anything was relaxed, and the community hour was still supposedly functioning. There was a guard on the door but he didnt do anything. There was no checking of ID to see if you could really be there, so it was a free for all. The sanitisers and paper towels were still there, but based on what they werent doing I decided to go back to online shopping. That has been more successful than it was a few weeks back so happy to continue. I’m just a bit unhappy at the laxity thats becoming obvious as people think its OK to just stop with the physical distancing. Even friends of mine who have been careful through all this have started having people round for lunch and dinner (and their table does not allow for any degree of distancing at all). “Want to come over on Friday for coffee and cake?” … “erm… no thanks”.
People just dont seem to really get it.
Second wave coming right up.
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That is similar to our local experience. The Woollies staff are all terrific and the safety precautions remain obvious. I no longer know about the other large supermarkets as I have stopped shopping with them.
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I visited both the Coles and Woolies at a nearby shopping centre yesterday. Coles had an employee at the entrance as well as hand sanitizer and paper toweling. Woollies had only hand sanitizer and an empty paper towel dispenser.
I went to our local shopping today and it was exactly the same with Coles and Woollies.
Bad enough that Woollies is too cheap to have a staff member at the entrance but no paper toweling is an absolute disgrace.They obviously don’t care if customers cannot wipe the shopping trolley or basket handles.
I have a pack of sanitized wipes, a pack of flushable wipes and a small bottle of hand sanitier in our vehicle, and I take 2 sheets with some sanitizer added to wipe the small Coles trolleys I select in the carpark so Woollies behaviour does not impact me.
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I had to go to Coles this morning and was able to use hand sanitiser on entering the store, there are two auto dispensers at each door. I didnt need to wipe a trolley, I didnt need anything except some freezer bags and cream so they went in my own bag. because I didnt trolley today, I was v breathless when I came out so sat in the car for a while before driving off… and observed that NOT ONE PERSON INCLUDING STAFF use the sanitiser or wiped down their trolley before going in. Clearly, they just don’t care. I’ll wear gloves next time.
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Don’t you use the trolley for support?
When doing a big shop, yes, but I was in and out today so my stick was sufficient.
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My local Coles has a staff wiping all the trolleys down as they are returned to the ranks where customers take them. Those ready for customers have already been cleaned. It is easy to miss what is happening if you are looking for trolley wipes that are not there for customers, while the staff is doing the wiping for us. There is also hand sanitiser at the entry.
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I see many elderly persons pushing the small trolleys, especially Coles ones, with their walking sticks in the trolleys but I rarely see anyone using their sticks in the shopping centres.
Thats usually me, but when I only needed a couple of cartons of cream, and a pack of freezer bags, it was overkill. The stick is fine. The small trolleys are why I keep going back to Coles. I really struggle with full sized ones, reaching down into them to put stuff on the counter.
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I visited another nearby Coles a few days ago and they also had hand santiizer and full paper toweling dispensers inside the entrance, as well as a security guard patrolling outside the store.
However it made no difference to the bogan boofhead who ingored the Entry sign whilst other were entering throught that door and persisted in entering through the Exit door.
Probably has an allergy to both hand sanitizer and common sense.
Some people (especially those with allergies) prefer to use their own trusted hand sanitizer when they leave home and when they return, rather than trust the bulk solutions supplied by the stores.
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I have started to use my own too, one with hydrogen peroxide instead of alcohol as I was starting to get a problem with the alcohol ones, but I keep it in the car for use between shops etc
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I have just returned from an expedition to Bunnings; I went masked. At the door was hand sanitiser in a pump so I applied it and quickly noticed the strong perfume. After about 15 minutes my hands were feeling hot but not the rest of me. I went to lunch afterwards and washed my hands but as I ate all I could smell was the perfume which did not improve my doner kebab. On getting home I took to my mitts with hot water, soap and scrubbing brush. Some smell is still there hours later.
Why put strong perfume in hand sanitiser? Why put in any at all?
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I have noticed it as well…it is a musk smell in the sanitiser near us and it is very strong and happens to be a trigger for my hayfever.
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We keep a small bottle of hand sanitiser and a pack of wipes or a pack of santised wipes in our veficle so I can either put some hand sanitiser on the wipes or grab a couple of sanitised wipe before I exit our vehicle whilst shopping.
That way, I am prepared to sanitise the handle on the first suitable trolley I come across rather pushing an unsanitised trolley all the way to the supermarket entrance.
Hand sanitiser police aid? We know you didn’t on store entry because!
More critically will it discourage customers from doing the right thing?
I had a look at some of the bulk commercial suppliers web sites. There were no immediate hits suggesting product is marketed with a strong scent as an aid to compliance detection, anti theft, or to encourage less product consumption.
Interestingly available now for around $10/l in 5,10,20l bulk packs for 70+% alcohol grade hand sanitiser. 80% hospital grade for not much more? Suppliers typically offer products as unscented or lemon fragrance.
There are also non alcohol based products in the market place.
Is it possible that the non alcohol based general hand sanitisers have a natural musky stink. The ones I looked at were Quaternary Ammonium compound based products. As a hand sanitiser some marketing claims up to 24hrs protection from a single application. Is that why it is so hard to remove from your hands?
We’ve a separate topic on the effectiveness of such products!
