Shopping safely in Queensland
Masks required when residents leave home for essential reasons including shopping
29 March 2021
The Queensland government has announced increased COVID restrictions to come into effect from 5pm today, including a requirement for residents to wear a mask when indoors except when they are at home.
In line with this requirement, we ask customers to ensure they are wearing a face mask before entering any of our Queensland stores unless they have an exemption – and the same rules apply to our team.
Coles’ standard cleaning procedures in all supermarkets, liquor stores and Coles Express sites comply with all government health and safety guidelines to reduce the risk of COVID transmission.
To help keep customers and team members safe, Coles also has enhanced safety and hygiene measures in stores including monitoring customer numbers at our busiest stores and increasing team member numbers as required to help customers shop safely and use the sanitising station, which includes hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes for trolleys, before they enter.
At this stage, Coles will not be introducing purchase limits in Queensland and our team members are working hard to ensure shelves are stocked with the items customers need.
Coles State General Manager for Queensland Jerry Farrell has thanked customers for remaining calm as stores will continue to trade normally during the lockdown.
“This is not the first time Queensland has implemented tighter COVID safety measures, and we trust that our customers will only buy what they need,” he said.
“With Easter this weekend, we know many customers were already planning to do big grocery shops, particularly as all Queensland stores will be closed this Friday.
“By ensuring our customers can complete their entire shop in one trip without purchase limits, instead of multiple visits over a number of days, we’re making it easier for customers to follow government directions to stay home. We will continue to monitor product availability and ask that customers only buy what they need to help ensure everyone in the community has access to food and everyday essentials. “We have well-established safety protocols based on what we have implemented in previous lockdowns, to ensure our customers and team members can feel safe in our stores.
“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.”
Coles has put together some tips on how customers can minimise their time in store by being a Coles Speedy Shopper, including creating a shopping list ahead of time and organising it aisle-byaisle in their chosen store before they shop using the Coles App, available here:
www.coles.com.au/covid19/in-store-updates#speedy
For more information on measures in place in Queensland, visit the state government’s COVID-19 page at:
https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19
