Coles Supermarkets - a clear case of mismanagement
by shopper Monday, Feb 11 2013, 8:30am
international / prose / post

Readers will recall our regular posts on 'Coles' (search box) supermarkets in Australia and clear cases of top-down mismanagement, false advertising, reconstituted milk products, patently false claims of food freshness, and the 'importance' of customer relations.

Following on from our last article on long-storage (years) fruit sold as 'fresh,' and the initial issue which sparked this ONGOING series, ice-tray displays for vegetables, which do not respond favourably to ice, it was brought to my attention by Coles staff required to refresh ice in tray displays on a daily basis, that they are now exposed to unnecessary Occupational Health and Safety issues.

Staff are now exposed to new additional risks on the shop floor with ice spillage and the real risk of serious injury due to slippage on spilled ice. Anyone who has hit the deck hard and fast from an ice slip knows exactly what risks are involved, including spinal and severe impact cerebral injuries.

Now, I would emphasise again that ice-tray displays serve no useful purpose as prolonged contact with ice damages most vegetables; now we have the additional risk factor spelled out by staff and the ongoing counterproductive additional unnecessary labour involved in ice-tray displays. Clearly, this mismanagement issue is so gross and frankly stupid, it could only have come from upper management with little or no experience on the shop floor -- American style top-down mismanagement has arrived in Australia!

We intend to publish the name/s of those managers/directors responsible for introducing ice-tray displays to Coles stores in order for lawyers involved in workers compensation cases to target responsible parties directly as it has been repeatedly pointed out how unnecessary and dangerous these displays are!

If managers/directors responsible for this 'wonderful (imbecilic) innovation' think it such a great idea they should not hesitate to take credit for their work. However, to date we have not been able to identify those responsible for the introduction of these cumbersome and dangerous displays.

In order to avoid any future confusion a direct request will be made to head office in Melbourne for the identities/names of all responsible parties and their names subsequently published for shareholders, staff and compensation/litigation lawyers to view and reference.