By Laura Michell
The trading hours at three northern suburbs Woolworths stores have been reduced from today.
Woolworths Epping, Bundoora and Plenty Valley are among 41 stores nationally to have their opening hours reduced to 11am to 6pm, transforming them into ‘Priority Delivery Hubs’.
Woolworths hopes the move will enable it to prioritise the delivery of groceries to the homes of vulnerable customers.
The stores will use the hours they are not open to pick online orders.
In a statement, Woolworths said it would prioritise orders for elderly customers as well as those with a disability, compromised immunity and people in mandatory isolation.
The changes to opening hours are in addition to Woolworths’ dedicated early shopping hour for the elderly and people with a disability.
Woolworths Group chief executive 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.”
To access priority assistance home deliveries, call 1800 000 610 or visit, woolworths.com.au/priorityassistance
