Supermarket supply woes having knock-on effect on smaller stores
Wednesday, 25 August 2021
Countdown has reduced the supply of groceries to convenience store chain Night ’n Day because of the pressure its distribution network is under, according to a third-party industry source.
Night ‘n Day has more than 50 stores across the country.
General manager Matthew Lane said the chain relied on Countdown in particular for many of its dry goods such as canned food.
“We have a long term relationship with them and we are trying to work proactively with them, first of all to supply the vulnerable,” he said.
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Lane said the extent of any reduction in supply was between the companies.
“I am conscious that we need to have a working and productive relationship with Countdown moving forward,” he said.
“We are not ‘terminal’ in terms of our current supply at the moment, but certainly to get a few more products on the shelves I don’t think would hurt anyone.”
Lane said he wasn’t in a position to say if Countdown was prioritising supplying its own store network.
It was not necessarily fair to single out distribution issues at Countdown, he said.
A lot of supply chains were stretched and there was a lot of pressure on supermarkets because of some staff having to self-isolate, he said.
Night ‘n Day also had direct relationships with suppliers, for example with Coca-Cola and with Goodman Fielder for bread and milk, he said.
“We are agile enough to tap into other supply chains.”
Shoppers have reported shortages of a wide variety of goods in supermarkets since the start of the lockdown.
Countdown’s store in Crofton Downs, Wellington, had no eggs on Monday with a similar situation reported at New World’s Island Bay store over the weekend.
Meat had also been in short supply in some stores.
A central Auckland Countdown supermarket had no carrots or broccoli soon after the lockdown began last week.
A Countdown spokeswoman said it was still servicing Night ‘n Day and its supermarkets were fulfilling their orders “as best we can”.
“Since lockdown started, we have serviced more than 55 orders for Night ‘n Days across New Zealand.
“Each order can have hundreds of individual items that are all hand-picked from our stores,” she said.
“We are endeavouring to serve Night ‘n Day as best we can, and have communicated to them about the constraints we have, and asked for their understanding.”
Countdown had about 1900 staff who were self-isolating, she said.
The chain had been in regular contact with the Salvation Army, which was its biggest charity partner, she said.
“Last week there were a few instances where Foodbank Project orders were impacted.
“This was only due to the ‘over-shopping’ that we were seeing in our stores. All orders are now going through as they usually would, albeit on different days,” she said.
The spokeswoman said Countdown’s entire supply chain was stretched “but we are doing everything we can to make sure there are food and groceries for those most in need”.