Woolworths slammed by shoppers over sign at front of store

Woolworths has sparked fierce debate after posting a sign banning students from bringing their school bags into one of its stores.

One customer took a picture of the sign at the entry gate and uploaded the image to reddit on Sunday, but did not specify the location.

The sign – printed in capital letters on a laminated sheet of bright orange paper – advised school students they would not be allowed to enter the store with their bags between 7am and 5pm. 

‘Please leave school bags at store entry gates,’ the sign instructed. 

The social media post was flooded with hundreds of comments from shoppers.

‘If they’re mandating that bags be left outside then they 100 per cent do take responsibility for them,’ one shopper wrote. 

‘My local one tries to enforce this but nothing they can do. No way in hell my son’s leaving his bag with expensive laptop unattended at the door,’ another customer wrote.  

‘For real. They may as well just put a sign up saying ‘Free MacBook Air Collection Area’,’ added a third. 

Others recalled other supermarkets once regularly posted similar signs outside their stores. 

‘Plenty of shops had signs like this when I was at school, and that was decades ago. We never had anything worth s*** in our bags, though,’ one person said. 

‘My local used to do this back when I was in school. We did just leave our bags in a pile outside, but it was visible from the cashier area so no one tried anything,’ another person wrote.  

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Some said the move to put the sign up essentially suggested that school students steal items from the shops. 

‘Not all school students are thieves, so this is just collective punishment for the few that are,’ one person said. 

Woolworths have since confirmed that students are allowed to walk into its stores with their school bags. 

The supermarket giant was previously forced to clarify the same issue when a Year 11 student had her bag stolen outside a Woolworths store at Bendigo in regional Victoria in 2019. 

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia there has been no change to its policy allowing school bags to be brought into stores. 

‘The sign has been removed from the store,’ the spokesperson said.