The risk of aggressive behaviour in supermarket aisles continues despite attempts to address shelf shortages

On 17 and 18 March 2020 first Woolworths and then Coles implemented a 7am to 8am shopping hour for the elderly and vulnerable.

Later in the day on Tuesday 17 March 2020 this happened at a Coles supermarket.......

Echo NetDaily, 19 March 2020:

About 3.30pm (Tuesday, 17 March, 2020), police received reports a man assaulted multiple people at a supermarket in a shopping centre on Uralba Street, Lismore. 

It is alleged, after becoming agitated when he was unable to find items he wanted to buy, the man pushed his trolley into two women, believed to be aged in their 70s, knocking one to the ground. 

He then allegedly pinned a 45-year-old female store attendant against the shelving and punched her in the face and chest. 

The store manager and a security guard approached the man and were also allegedly assaulted, before the man was removed from the premises. 

The 45-year-old woman sustained bruising and swelling to her left jaw, bruising and swelling to her left forearm, a small laceration to her left forearm, stiffness to her neck, bruising to her chest but declined medical assistance. 

The two older women left the store without leaving their details and it’s unknown if they were injured. 

Following a public appeal, a 63-year-old man was arrested by officers from Richmond Police District on Nimbin Road, North Lismore and taken to Lismore Police Station. 

 He was charged with affray, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. 

The man was refused bail and will appear at Lismore Local Court today (Thursday, 19 March, 2020).

Harold gets hot and cross over supermarket greed

From The Daily Examiner letters to the editor column on 18 January 2011:

Hot-cross greed

NOT only do Coles and Woolworths want to dictate from whom we buy our everyday needs - milk, petrol, meat, bakery, pharmacy, fruit and vegetables, etc., they now also want to take over the special calendar events of the year such as Easter by offering hot cross buns in January.

A treat that was always reserved for the celebration of Easter.

The only way to get the message across to these greedy corporations is through people power and by refusing to buy these items until the appropriate event is here.

HAROLD WARWICK

Grafton

* Bunny drawing found here http://bit.ly/wmPrsP

Income Management by Basics Card: NSW North Coast Business Shame File

The following businesses operating on the NSW North Coast participate in the Gillard Government’s paternalistic and punitive income management policy applying to welfare recipients (with a focus on quarantining payments to indigenous recipients and long-term recipients of pensions, benefits and allowances) aka the Basics Card.

The Basics Card providor for the Federal Government is apparently London-based Retail Decisions Pty Ltd.

On the NSW North Coast:

Alstonville

Coles

Ballina

Coles, Woolworths, Caltex, Target, K-Mart

Byron Bay

Caltex, Woolworths

Casino

Woolworths, Bi-Lo, Coles, Target, Caltex

Coffs Harbour

Caltex, Woolworths, Coles, Target

Grafton

Woolworths, Bi-Lo, Coles, Target, Caltex, City Beach

Lismore

Woolworths, Bi-Lo, Coles, Target, Caltex, City Beach, K-Mart

Nambucca Heads

Caltex, Woolworths

Tweed Heads

Woolworths, Bi-Lo, Coles, Target, Caltex, City Beach, K-Mart

Woolgoolga

Coles

Yamba

Coles/Bi-Lo

The full national Merchant’s List can be found here

NSW North Coast councils & businesses that just have to lift their game in 2010

Not every local council or business on the NSW North Coast lives up to its promise (or for that matter its promises) and here is a short list of those who could do better this year.
Maud Up the Street wants me to lead this post off with her pet peeve so I'll oblige.

BUSWAYS - contracted by the NSW Government to supply transport across the Clarence Valley this was its inadequate response to holiday travel needs according to its own website:Friday 25th December: No services
Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie had similar bus timetables for the 25th December. Great Lakes had one of its three bus routes operating on Christmas Day. Seems Busways management thinks that people without cars don't deserve to move around on Christmas Day unless they live in Campbelltown, Blacktown or on the Central Coast. The north-east of the state can go hang!

COLES - this large supermarket chain has a captive market in certain NSW North Coast towns because of the absence of any real competition. In some stores it shamelessly rides roughshod over its customers with frequently understocked shelves and an ever-diminishing range of brandnames\goods for sale. Now after years of being presented with bananas stored too long before being presented for sale, The Australian Banana Growers' Council tells us that "bananas must meet very particular length, girth and colour specifications before Woolworths and Coles take them".
It's ROFL time to think that this supermarket chain likes to think it has fresh food standards!

CLARENCE VALLEY COUNCIL - under the leadership of Mayor Richie Williamson and General Manager Stuart McPherson certain council staff have been getting quite lax if mutterings round the traps are any indication. This Daily Examiner story of alleged council negligence is just icing on the cake and as usual council tries to squib out of responsibility.
There is also a persistent rumour circulating that councillors are not always aware that they're possibly allocating trust funds improperly on a regular basis, because management allegedly is careful to refer to funding sources in monthly meeting business paper items only by internal accounting codes in order to rob Peter to pay Paul in an irregular manner without challenge.

Want to shop locally for GM-free food?

So you want to shop for GM-free food? Well, good luck, because there is still no reliable product labelling in place across Australia.

The next best thing is to access the True Food Guide which at least broadly points concerned consumers in the right direction.

The guide now lists alcohol products.

Download updated 16-page True Food Guide here.

If you are blessed with a comfortable income, then Santos Wholefoods of Byron Bay and Mullumbimby offers an online GM-free, organic and natural produce shopping service.

A warning sign for the Rudd Government?

Choice online poll status 11 July 2009

Choice the consumer advocacy group is running a poll on the question; Do you think the government is doing enough to drive competition in the grocery sector?

With straightened economics time still ahead of us all, it might be wise for the Rudd Government to take heed of community sentiment.

The now defunct GroceryChoices as set up by government may have been doomed to disappoint the consumer, but that doesn't mean that the big supermarket chains should be able to continue dominating market/pricing policy in the same manner as they have in the past.

If Choice goes forward with its reported 'war' on Coles and Woolworths, I suspect that it will quickly garner more sustained support than these corporate giants and, a wise politician would be looking now to effect a compromise that would allow an non-industry based price comparison website to go ahead with some government funding involved.

Coles/Bi-Lo need to remember that there is no excuse for sloppy overcharging at the check-out

The Bi-Lo supermarket at Yamba has become a local byword for the worst business practices.

Its overcharging at check-outs has become so common that some alert local residents frequently manage to get at least a few grocery items per month for free when they front the store with evidence of overcharging.

However, the fact that a shopper noticing a difference between shelf price and docket price can get the item in question for free is no excuse for such blatant mismanagement.

Overcharging during the 2008-09 festive break was so noticeable that one regular interstate visitor told North Coast Voices that she found $13 worth of discrepancies on a $113 docket.

This type of bad experience can drive tourists away and, if Coles/Bi-Lo was a good corporate citizen it would take its Yamba management in hand and insist that such stupidity cease.