Residents see red over lack of bread

Tom Price residents were left frustrated with stock shortages last week at their local Coles store, after a bread delivery failed to materialise.

According to posts on Facebook page Moaners, Groaners and Whingers Tom Price and Paraburdoo, last weekend’s shortages were not the first time residents have been left without basic food products.

Local resident Peter Foster said it was a frustrating situation.

“Life in Tom Price has its many positives (but) running out of essential items is definitely not one of them,” he said.

“Coles needs to communicate better with the local community to prevent issues like this from occurring again.

“Locals need to work with the store to have their concerns addressed.”

Last weekend the store had no bread, frozen or fresh, in stock at all, and there is no bakery in town.

A Coles spokeswoman said bread and bakery items were picked up daily from Monday to Saturday from Paraburdoo airport.

“Coles is aware that some Saturday bakery deliveries were missed recently and is working to rectify these issues going forward in conjunction with the transport companies,” she said.

“When any major stock outages occur, there will be signs displayed at the service desk, advising customers what they can expect in store.”

Mr Foster said there had also been concerns raised regarding the low quality of some fresh produce to the store.

“Delivery for the majority of stock transported to Coles in Tom Price arrives four times per week, travelling up from the Perth Distribution Centre in refrigerated trucks, and is temperature checked on arrival to ensure freshness,” the spokeswoman said.

She said one way for customers to help minimise stock running out was to place orders in advance if they were aware of large bulk buy or stockpiling requirements.