Until Friday, Woolworths Supermarkets are open exclusively to the elderly and those with a disability holding a government approved concession card from 7am to 8am, before opening to the general public as normal from 8am.
Among yesterday’s early morning shoppers at Bass Hill, were Martin and Diane Smith who said staff did a good job of trying to control a somewhat chaotic situation.
Mrs Smith said there were definitely more people than she had expected.
“People were jammed up at the end of each isle,” she said.
“We weren’t desperate for anything really but we managed to find a bit of extra pasta and some meat for the freezer so that was good.
“All in all it was pretty good.”
However she added with a laugh that next time she would have to send her husband to the toilet paper aisle straight away because there still wasn’t any left on the shelves by the time they got there.
Mr Smith added that despite everything, people were basically being very kind to one another.
“There was no trouble or fuss really,” he said.
Woolworths Supermarkets managing director Claire Peters said while they had heard positive feedback from many stores in relation to the first day of their dedicated shopping hour, they know it wasn’t perfect across all stores.
“We’re doing the very best we can to get more stock into our stores and onto shelves as quickly as possible in the face of unprecedented demand,” she said.
