The surprising way Coles staff dealt with the latest blunder from the supermarket giant
Staff members at Coles have been applauded for their conduct as they worked through a technical difficulty on Sunday afternoon. After an IT glitch caused a nationwide system issue, the staff were seen handing out food, freebies and vouchers to apologise for the situation.
The glitch, which ran for approximately three hours, caused Coles to shut down stores around the country as it was unable to process sales. Capital cities affected were Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Customers took to social media to praise staff members for the way they handled the issue, with many calling for pay rises for the workers.
“Wow! I really feel for the staff members lately! Plastic bag debacle, mini shop, issues with online shopping, plastic bag backflip again, now this! They all need a pay rise!” one user wrote.
“These things happen. Thank you for your communication throughout the process. It’s a rare occurrence that you’re not open so I don’t think you should be criticised on the off chance you’re unable too. Keep up the great work Coles,” said another.
A spokesperson from Coles told Daily Mail Australia that they couldn’t be happier with the way their workers behaved during the glitch.
“We are always really proud to hear these wonderful stories about team members and want to thank them for their efforts,” the spokesperson said.
“Also, thank you to those customers who provide this positive feedback.”
The company went on to explain the glitch and how it stopped customers from purchasing products and processing payments.
“Due to circumstances beyond the control of our team members, some of our stores around Australia are unable to open this morning until further notice due to an IT issue which is affecting some of our registers,” the statement said.
“We thank customers for their patience during this time and would like to assure them that we are working hard to ensure all of our stores are open again as soon as possible.”
The outage comes after the criticism of Coles' overuse of plastic with their Little Shop campaign and the decision it made to offer plastic bags at no charge.
The backlash came predominantly from environmentalists and customers who are conscious shoppers.