Coles announces major change to the meat section
Coles Australia supermarkets has officially ended its in-store butcher service and has switched to pre-packaged meats as of 10 October.
You read that right: shoppers will no longer be able to buy freshly cut meat from Coles.
Why? Coles says it has scrapped the service to "meet the changing needs of customers".
Shoppers will now only be able to buy pre-packaged products and hundreds of employees will be redeployed or made redundant.
"To help us meet the changing needs of our customers, we are aligning our meat operating models nationally in our stores, so that we can consistently deliver high-quality retail ready meat for our customers whenever they want to shop," a Coles spokesperson told Sky News Australia.
"The change will mean our fresh meat range will be supplied to stores as retail-ready products and will not require any preparation to be carried out in-store before being placed on the shelves of our meat fridges for customers to buy."
Coles will continue to operate meat counters in a small number of stores.
"Butchers and meat packers inform customers on the best cut of meat for a particular recipe and how to cook and prepare and handle that meat," said the spokesperson.
"In-store butchers and meat packers will be replaced with a store service representative that may not have ever worked with meat before or for that matter may not have even cooked a leg of lamb before.
"When the public seems to want to know more about their food, and prepare their own food, Coles have decided to offer less.
"This is a shameful move that shows Coles cares more about profits than people. The only thing going down at Coles will be the service."
Coles was the last of the big three supermarkets to offer in-house butchery. Woolworth's had already switched to pre-packaged meat and Aldi never had an in-store butcher's service.
Does this put you off buying meat from a supermarket? Would you now go to a butcher to buy your meat?
It certainly puts me off buying packaged meat. Luckily there is a full time Butcher in the shopping centre I attend. Their meat is of the highest quality. I know I will have to pay a little bit more, but at least you can eat it.