The significant increase in demand for online services has come at the same time as a slowing in deliveries and limited supply of some products to the store.
“We are the same as everyone else. Public holidays and staffing issues caused some products to run a bit low, but it was also a pretty big week,” supermarket owner Brad Major said.
With increased demand for supplies during the holiday period and the slowdown in supply due to the affects of COVID testing changes it is expected to be a couple of weeks before things return to normal.
Supermarkets in Echuca were sold out of some meat products on Sunday evening, with bread and milk also suffering a downturn in availability.
“Our meat supply is not too bad. We had a pretty big week, sales wise, but the chickens turned up on Monday,” Mr Major said.
“We’ve had delays in some of our orders coming through. I think they stem more from short weeks, due to public holidays, than anything else.”
Mr Major said he was aware that staff numbers at warehouses were severely impacted and that had caused a shortfall in product delivery.
His own staffing situation has been a constant concern, with about 10 staff affected by household contacts.
“We’ve had several staff in isolation, waiting for test results,” Mr Major said.
“As far as I know we’ve only had one who hasn’t been at work due to a positive test result.
“It is mainly siblings, family members and close contacts that are affecting people’s ability to come to work.”
Mr Major said he had considered shortening the supermarket’s hours last week due to the number of staff who were away.
“We eventually decided to stay open, but it is not only those people with close contacts,” he said.
“We have kids away on holidays and it’s left us reasonably short.”
Mr Major said he expected the business to be in a better position, staff wise, this week.
“Most of the staff come out of isolation today or tomorrow,” he said.
Several major suppliers to the businesses have indicated that there could be long-term supply problems.
“CUB has been affected for probably six to eight weeks,” he said.
“A lot of our grocery items will continue to be affected, so we are hoping people will remain sensible with their buying habits.
“There are no restrictions on products, because it seems our customers have been pretty sensible this time around.
“We haven’t seen much, if any, panic buying.
“We don’t expect to have to impose limits on items.”
The Rochester supermarket, like most in the region, has not stocked rapid antigen tests for two weeks.
“We’ve received two orders, but we didn’t get much of an opportunity after that,” Mr Major said.
The supermarket is taking daily calls in regard to RATs.
Mr Major said people wanting to avoid community contact could access the supermarket’s online shopping facility.
“They just need to let us know if they are isolating and we will leave the groceries wherever they tell us. We usually follow up with a call to make sure it has been received,” he said.
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