Major supermarkets have reinstated purchase limits on a range of products deemed essential as Victoria enters stage 4 lockdown.
Woolworths Victoria assistant state manager John Di Tirro said the company understood Victorians were anxious but emphasised stores would remain open as an essential service.
The company said the decision was “precautionary” and would ensure customers had “fair access”.
“We have plenty of stock to draw on from our suppliers and distribution centres and our team will be hard at work making sure it flows into our stores in large volumes over the coming days,” Mr Di Tirro said.
“We encourage Victorians to be mindful of others in the community and to continue shopping as they usually would.”
Coles chief operations officer Matt Swindells said extra workers had been put on and the capacity of Coles Online increased to help serve customers.
“We thank our amazing teams who are working tremendously hard and we appreciate our customers for their patience and for treating our team members with respect as we work through this challenging time together,” he said.
Shopper Julie Maree Douglas-Walker said that as soon as the lockdown was announced, a queue formed outside Coles at Central Square Shopping Centre in Altona Meadows.
“I had to go to the post office this afternoon to post a letter,” she said.
“I was in Central Square Shopping Centre for only five minutes.
“Nobody was queued at Coles when I first walked past it.
“By the time I walked through the shopping centre to go to the post office and returned back passing Coles, a line that had formed.
“It’s definitely unnecessary panic shopping once again.
“There’s simply no need for this type of behaviour when we can all still carry out our grocery shopping daily during this recent snap five-day lockdown. It’s ridiculous.”
Hitesh Palta, who owns IGA stores in Altona and Deer Park and during Melbourne’s first lockdown was the first Australian retailer to open early for the elderly, said this time it was only five days so no changes would be made.
However, on Friday afternoon he said he had already noticed more customers through the door since the lockdown announcement at 1pm.
He had two extra delivery drivers on standby for online orders.
Premier Daniel Andrews described the five-day lockdown as a “short, sharp circuit breaker” against a “hyper-infectious” outbreak of the UK strain.
Woolworths and Coles supermarkets are limiting the number of staple items people can purchase. These include toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, flour, milk, longlife milk, eggs, sugar and rice. Full lists of limits are available on their respective websites.
