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OUR RETAILERS JOHN-PAUL DRAKE Drakes Supermarkets Director What has been your greatest lesson to date, navigating through this pandemic? I don’t think anyone can be prepared for something like this until they have to go through it. That was pretty much the same for us on multiple levels. I don’t think you could have any plan put together that would have prepared you. We’ve had someone in one of our stores who was COVID- positive. You can see that we had to put things into place that were loosely put in there, but until it actually happens, your loose plans are very loose, until you have to delegate it. The biggest thing is being prepared, and being prepared by actually doing, which is how you learn most things, isn’t it? With all the challenges you’ve faced, what has been your proudest response? We did a piece about looking after the staff. It was titled ‘We are human too’. That piece was about listening to what the staff were going through and actually acting on that. We’ve been talking about it for a little while, but the pandemic has really highlighted how much we really wanted to ensure our staff understood that they were listened to, and we could actually listen to them and do something about it. Especially about the verbal abuse towards our staff and how it’s not going to be tolerated moving forward. What extra measures have you needed to implement to provide a safe and highly productive environment for both your staff and your suppliers? We already had a high standard of cleaning, including sanitisation in all our stores, which we’re doing four times a day. We’ve even got someone full-time sanitising high touch points, such as trolleys, baskets and the checkout. One of the other exciting things is that we were the first supermarket in Australia to use a \[disinfectant\] product called Nanocyn, which kills 99.9 per cent of all pathogens. Also, getting the message right to the customer as well as the staff about how you actually contract COVID-19. There’s so much misinformation put out there by the media. We made a point of speaking to a head pharmacist, getting the real facts and sending that out to staff and on socials and YouTube so our customers could be more informed about how you can actually catch COVID-19. Human behaviour is never easy to navigate. What positives have you experienced from both consumers and suppliers? We’ve seen the best during the bushfires, to the worst \[during this pandemic\] with people fighting over toilet paper. It’s been very interesting. But we’ve seen lots of compassion and lots of empathy from the majority of people out there. We’re not holding things so people can’t buy them. We want to sell stuff. It’s taken weeks for some customers to actually figure that out. People have become more understanding of the whole process now. Where does our industry still need help and what response do you need? No one could have prepared for this. I don’t think anyone is really prepared for a pandemic. One thing that needs to be improved is the communication moving forward. \[In terms of the communication from our suppliers\], we weren’t being told enough. Whether they didn’t know the answers ... I’m not sure. But we weren’t being told enough, so we had no real idea of dates and times, or whether the purchase orders were being fulfilled or not. Moving forward, all we need is that communication, because then we can go out and sell. How has your community interaction changed over the past few weeks? Well, casual hours ... I saw one figure that we’d put on an extra 30,000 casual hours during the first week of the pandemic. I haven’t looked at the numbers since that figure blew me away, but I’m sure it’s been a lot higher. We’re making sure we’re looking after the vulnerable. We didn’t say elderly, we just said vulnerable. Some people might have lung problems, heart problems. So many different things. Everyone’s in the same boat. We needed to make sure we just didn’t limit things to, you know, ‘you have to show your pension card to get in’ or something for that hour in the morning. If you’re vulnerable, for whatever reason you feel so, we’ll be here for you. Online has tripled in sales for us. We’ve doubled the online team in-store, we’ve doubled the online team at the office, and we still couldn’t keep up. That was because Coles and Woolies suspended what they were doing, so we got smashed online. It was a great opportunity to pick up some extra customers that were non-Drakes people. If you had a message or a call to arms to our entire industry, what would it be? Everyone needs to show a bit more love and compassion for each other. I’m super lucky I’m in the supermarket game. I believe there’s going to be a bit of a bloodbath moving forward. I believe some businesses that are already shut, definitely won’t be reopening, no matter what happens. That shows you how tough it is for the whole ecosystem. For me, I think if this isn’t a time to say you need to support local, what is? Make that decision. Support the businesses where money stays in the country. 8 RETAIL WORLD APR, 2020