Woolworths has rolled out major trading hour changes to stores across the country in what it hopes will better align its national operations.
The retail giant announced it would be changing the trading hours of both its nationwide fresh food counters and its overall operating hours so it could “offer a consistent customer experience”.
A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed with news.com.au on Tuesday that all Fresh Service delis would now be trading from 7am to 8pm every day of the week.
The seafood and meat counters would now all be trading from 9.30am to 7pm during the week, and 9am to 7pm on weekends.
“Customers can still purchase similar products, such as chicken breast fillets and salmon, within our packed Fresh Convenience range located in-store,” the spokesperson said.
They said “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”.
“We’ll closely monitor customer and team member feedback over the next few months.”
Changes were introduced in response “to a shift in customer shopping behaviour”, the spokesperson said.
“A handful of stores will operate longer fresh service counter hours as there’s still high customer demand in those stores,” they added.
News.com.au understands the change was trialled in May across a handful of NSW stores before it was rolled out nationwide.
Signage has been erected at the front of all stores and displayed at the Fresh Service counters to inform customers of the new hours.
Meanwhile Australians are experiencing deja vu as shelves across the nation are laid out bare.
Australians are being hit with a national egg shortage, as consumers move towards free-range eggs amid rising production costs, extreme weather events and worker shortages.
Supermarkets across the country are back to implementing purchase limits, with farmers grappling to keep up with demand after they decreased their chicken numbers during lockdown.
But free-range eggs aren’t the only product Australian shoppers are being stripped of, with supermarkets reporting bare shelves for other household items such as chickpeas, lentils, lettuce, tissues and cold and flu tablets.
“We’re experiencing reduced availability across some of our lentil and chickpea products due to supply chain delays,” a Woolworths spokesman said.
The supply chain issues are a combination of the war in Ukraine, flooding and other extreme weather events on Australian shores.
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