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A South Australian council has raised concerns that Woolworths and Coles are getting around shop trading laws by offering delivery services on Sunday when supermarkets are not allowed to open in Millicent.
Millicent is by far the largest town in South Australia where larger stores are not allowed to open on Sundays, but the Wattle Range Council has raised concerns that the two major supermarkets are delivering groceries to residents from Mount Gambier about 50 kilometres away.
Millicent has repeatedly voted against relaxing the restrictions, most recently in 2017.
The Wattle Range Council voted last night to write to federal MP Tony Pasin and state MP Nick McBride with its concerns and to invite the Millicent Business Community Association to investigate if the deliveries are breaking South Australia's Shop Trading Hours Act.
Millicent, Mallala, Kybybolite, Frances, and Binnum are in "proclaimed shopping districts" where stores larger than 400 square metres cannot trade on weeknights apart from Thursdays and must close on Sundays and public holidays.
Shopping hours are deregulated in other regional areas of the state.
Millicent's main street includes an IGA supermarket that is allowed to open on Sundays. (ABC South East SA: Isadora Bogle)
Supermarket denies move
A Woolworths spokesman said the company only did deliveries to Millicent on Tuesdays and Thursdays but that it did support a trading hours extension in Millicent.
"While we've long supported the extension of trading hours in Millicent, we recognise there are a wide range of views on the topic," he said.
"We believe the local community should have access to greater flexibility to shop for essential food and groceries when it suits them.
"This would also benefit our Millicent team members, as more hours would become available for those who wanted to work them."
Coles does not have a store in Millicent and declined to comment.
Woolworths and Coles share the grocery market in South Australia with Foodland. (AAP: Joel Carrett)
Residents asked to consider long-term impact
Councillor Dale Price said the deliveries were hurting smaller stores in Millicent and nearby smaller towns.
He said the trucks were often seen locally.
"The deliveries are taking away business from some of those stores, particularly the last-minute-type service," he said.
"We want people to consider, when they deliver, does it actually have a longer-term impact on local communities?
"In small townships, you lose a facility, you potentially lose another one and then you start losing population."
Cr Price said residents should also consider if their online shopping habits were hurting local businesses.
"I wanted to put it out in the community so the community can think about the implication that may follow from their lazy shopping," he said.
Woolworths delivers to Millicent from Mount Gambier. (ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert)
Business association unsure
Millicent Business Community Association chair Sarah McGrath said she had noticed an "influx of delivery vans" to the town but also recognised that some people could only accept deliveries on Sundays or had a disability that made deliveries necessary.
"Is it that they just like using that service because they like getting deliveries at home?" she asked.
"I think it's more that we should be engaging our local council and people or organisations such as ours to ask questions of our community if their needs have changed post-COVID but also being mindful how we support our local small businesses and then what we do with that information.
"I think we always have to be really careful not to be just assuming someone's trying to break the rules but what do we need to do to best support everyone in our community, especially the small businesses?"
The Millicent Foodland supermarket does deliveries but not on Sundays.
Sunday trading was first allowed in South Australia in 2003, and the hours were further relaxed in 2022.