A CONTACTLESS customer grocery pick-up facility has been approved for Woolgoolga Woolworths to enable the contact free pick up of groceries for residents of the area.

“This reduces the number of customers in the supermarket given the Covid-19 pandemic that the wider community is currently facing,” development application documents stated.

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“The facility will benefit families, disabled and the community as a whole by providing a service that no longer requires customers to physically enter the supermarket and allows for contact free pick-up of groceries for numerous customers per hour.”

The recently approved development application will see the removal of the store’s existing cafe and part of the existing indoor trolley bay area, which will be transformed into a dedicated customer grocery pick-up servicing area and a coolroom.

Eight existing car parking spaces on the Solitary Islands Way side of the supermarket will be reduced to five car spaces and designated as dedicated customer pick-up car parks which will be covered by a metal awning to provide covered weather protection to customers and staff.

This reduction of car parks is required to widen the proposed pick-up spaces and to create designated pedestrian access paths adjacent to the spaces for customers and staff to access cars with groceries safely.

The five dedicated car parking spaces will be painted green and marked specifically for the pick-up facility.

The works also involve the installation of an external side door to the new designated customer pick up area to enable side entry to the customer pick-up car spaces so staff don’t have to use the store’s existing main entrance.

Associated business identification ‘Direct to boot’ signage will be positioned around the outside of the store.

The store has already been operating a customer ‘drive-up’ grocery pick-up service for the past year, with staff taking groceries out to customer cars via the front entrance doors and customers parking around the side of the store.

The new contactless grocery pick-up facility’s hours of operation will be the same as the store’s existing hours of operation from 7am to 10pm Monday to Sunday.

By Emma DARBIN