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Few staff to deal with torrent of shop orders
View(s):Supermarkets and food stores failed to keep up with customer demands this week despite claiming to have adequate food stocks.
Consumers complained that hotline numbers often went unanswered or remained busy for hours, and that on some occasions orders were taken but delivery had not taken place.
The situation was echoed in some pharmacies despite the ability for customers to send in prescriptions through Viber and WhatsApp.
Service began improving following a government decision to keep pharmacies open during curfew from Thursday onwards.
Some of the main supermarkets conceded they were finding it difficult to cope with demand.
“Like most supermarkets, Food City is overwhelmed with requests for orders that we are trying hard to service in the midst of many problems of our own,” a spokesperson for Cargills Food City said.
The spokesperson said many Cargills staff come from rural areas and were unable to travel to work due to the curfew and parental objections.
“The supermarket sector serves 20 per cent of the population but in the current situation these retail stores are being asked to cater to a much higher percentage of the population with limited staff who are themselves at risk from the pandemic,” the spokesperson said. “While catering to our customers we also need to protect our staff.”
The Keells supermarket chain posted a notice on the company website saying it had served 50,000 households, including fulfilling 12,300 online orders, improving from 1,000 to 4,000 the quantity of daily orders.
“We have curtailed the number of orders we accept daily to 4,000 due to the staffing limitations,” the statement added. The chain had too few staff to prepare and pack orders.
“We are currently operating with one third our normal workforce as most of our store staff have returned to their hometowns and are unable to return due to the imposition of curfew,” the company said.
“We are working to improve our manpower capacity and have taken steps by supplementing it even with volunteers from the John Keells Group, armed forces personnel provided by the government and [we] have also advertised shop floor vacancies,” the company said.
This week, Keells introduced an improved system with which consumers could keep track of orders after placing them. One customer in Mount Lavinia said he had tried out the system on Thursday but within 10 minutes had received a message stating that online orders were full.
Others, who received their purchases, said delivery had taken two days.