A fiery complaint from a Woolworths customer about the deli counters at their local store has sparked a heated debate among social media users.
Sharing on Facebook, the customer took aim at the supermarket giant over its decision to close its deli counters several hours earlier than the store closing hours.
In 2022, Woolworths confirmed the change to all stores across Australia, announcing that the supermarket’s deli, meat and seafood department will close at either 7pm or 8pm – regardless of the store’s trading times.
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But now a customer has revived debate about the move, describing it as frustrating.
“Whose stupid idea was it to close service delis before the shop closes?” the Facebook user asked.
“I can’t be alone in saying how frustrating it is to call in after work to get a few things including slices meats to find the entire deli department is closed.
“Surely a better decision could be to have a button or bell to push where another team member can come serve? Terrible and frustrating decision.”
But while some social media users agreed with the shopper’s complaint, others defended Woolworths over the move – sparking a heated war of words.
“They won’t put the staff on so they need time to pack up and clock off with the little staff they have. And you need to be deli trained to work in there, not everyone is,” said one.
Another responded: “They have to clean the slicers/machinery. Not all businesses operate like that. Our local closes the deli one hour prior to store closure so that the staff can leave on time.
“I don’t have a problem with it because I understand they have families to that they want to get home to.”
Not taking the comments lying down, the shopper who shared the complaint fired back.
“That has nothing to do with it! So you’re saying that the checkout staff, fruit and veg people and everyone else that works till 9pm when the shop closes to the public don’t need to go home to their families?” she said.
“The equipment is cleaned while the deli is open, always has been. Back in the day before Sunday trading it used to get a full clean Saturdays after close, but now they clean everything while trading.
“My complaint is the whole thing was closed.”
However social media users took issue with this point of view.
“It takes hours to clean the deli and equipment. That’s why they close off earlier,” one said.
Another said: “The checkout staff don’t clean equipment.”
The shopper hit back again, saying: “There’s no excuse.
“So many people happy to complain that they got a gross strawberry in their punnet or they were stopping giving away free food but when it comes to closing a section of a shop owned by a massive company everyone seems to be ok with it!?”
Others sided with the shopper’s complaint about closing deli counters early.
“It’s stupid,” said one. “It would be like saying, ‘Woolies – open until 9pm. Except we can’t actually sell you anything past 8pm, you’re welcome to walk around for an hour though.’”
Woolworths responds
In 2022, a Woolworths spokesperson said that changes were made after careful consideration.
“We’ve made a change to the trading hours of our fresh service counters nationwide, due to a shift in customer shopping behaviour. This includes our meat, seafood and deli counters,” the spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.
“Customers can still purchase similar products, such as chicken breast fillets and salmon, within our packed Fresh Convenience range located in-store.
“We’ve also moved to standardise our overall operating hours so we can offer a consistent customer experience across our store network.
“Select stores across the country will open one hour later or close one hour earlier to align with other stores and better match customer shopping patterns.”
Woolworths fresh service trading hours
Woolworths deli, seafood and meat counters operate during the following trading hours:
- The fresh service deli will trade from 7am to 8pm (7 days).
- The seafood and meat counters will trade from 9.30am to 7pm (weekdays) and 9am to 7pm (weekends).
- 7NEWS.com.au understands that only a handful of stores will operate longer fresh service counter hours as there’s still high customer demand in those stores.
- In-store signage has been placed at the fresh service counters and at the front of stores to inform customers of the altered trading hours.
- It’s understood the new initiative was trialled in a handful of NSW stores in May 2022.
