Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh described his visit on Friday morning to Woolworths in Echuca as “eye opening”.
Mr Walsh said not only has the store provided jobs for 25 more people, who were collateral employment damage in the pandemic, its regular roster of staff has been run off its feet for months.
He said while people might look back at the great toilet paper crisis and laugh, it’s no joking matter when customers come into the stores and expect to find anything and everything they want.
“In many ways the supermarket staff – along with all our cafés and pubs and clubs – are also on the barricades; trying to keep themselves, and us, going,” Mr Walsh said.
“Many of us might not realise the workload piled onto these people to not just do their regular jobs but also to run COVID Safe programs and protocols at the same time.
“Such as when you step away from a self-service checkout and before you have taken your second step, someone is ducking in to sanitise all the surfaces.
“After meeting Woolworths Echuca manager Kylie Watkins and many of her team this morning I think all the people behind our counters, stacking our shelves and working hard to keep you supplied deserve a thank you next time you go shopping.”
Ms Watkins said the goodwill visit from Mr Walsh was a welcome boost for all staff at the store.
She said while the job might not be in the glamorous category, or as high-profile as the medical world in a pandemic, they would soon be noticed if supplies ran low, or were unavailable.
“Since this all started our staff have been pushed for extra hours and extra effort to ensure we can deliver and can do it in a safe space, for customers and our own people,” Ms Watkins said.
“Our regular staff and the many extras we have added on are all operating to the max and with Christmas just around the corner we are already well into planning for the usual rush.
“I guess we won’t really know how much of a rush until we see restrictions change.
“While we are largely local customers at the moment, if things open up we will be going flat out.”
Ms Watkins said locals had been “very understanding and patient” with all the changes forced by COVID-19.
She said there were a few customers who had to be treated differently “but once our staff take the time to explain the protocols to them it normally gets solved”.
“We have also had a few issues with some product supplies. Most recently it is imported products and a few meat lines, reflecting the cutbacks in the meat processing sector,” Ms Watkins added.
“And we have become some of the best cleaners in the business.”
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