• Woolworths will cut its opening hours at 41 ‘hub’ stores across the country, to give staff more capability to fulfil online orders.
• “Following an extraordinary level of demand for groceries in recent weeks, reducing trading hours in a small number of our stores to turn them into ‘Priority Delivery Hubs’ will help us assist more people who can’t access a store to get products they need,” Group CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement issued to Business Insider Australia.
• See the list of affected stores below.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Depending on where you live, your shopping hours might be about to get the chop.

After implementing a one-off early store closure at 8pm last Wednesdayto replenish shelves, Woolworths is now cutting back some store hours indefinitely, as it seeks to fill orders during the “challenging times” of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Following an extraordinary level of demand for groceries in recent weeks, reducing trading hours in a small number of our stores to turn them into ‘Priority Delivery Hubs’ will help us assist more people who can’t access a store to get products they need,” Group CEO Brad Banducci said in a statement issued to Business Insider Australia.

According to the supermarket giant, from Thursday the selected 41 stores will only be open to customers from 11 am to 6 pm each day. The chosen locations fall across every state and territory except for Tasmania, with staff using the extra hours to fill online deliveries.

“To help support getting basic food and essentials to those that need it most, our teams have been doing everything they can to scale up online and home deliveries to the elderly, people with disabilities or those in mandatory self-isolation,” Banducci said.

“We hope our additional long term support will help them with any gaps they are facing as they continue to help those most in need in the community.”

It comes after both Woolworths and Coles introduced an hour of morning shopping designated for the elderly and people with disabilities to get the goods they need. They have also introduced restrictions on how many of certain products shoppers can buy in a single transaction as shortages emerge.

The stores to be affected are as follows.

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