Like many essential services, Woolworths at Orana Mall faced a lot of adversity throughout the recent COVID-19 enforced lockdown but they believe they are stronger for it.
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During lockdown, Orana Mall was often filled with carloads of people awaiting their online orders from the supermarket giant while workers from all over the store were pitching in to keep customers happy.
Store manager Graham McKenzie said the two month lockdown period was a tricky experience looking back on it now.
"It was extremely challenging," he said.
"But it was very rewarding because we found talents and skills we never thought we had. Virtually the whole supermarket was in quarantine or closed down due to the lack of team."
Mr McKenzie admitted a lot of the store had never picked online orders before or were relatively unfamiliar with how the process worked.
"We had bakers and deli team picking online orders," he said.
"We had people that had never picked online orders before having to learn a whole new skill.
"Obviously the demand was through the roof and the team did exceptionally well to stick together. They put their own personal risk aside to keep coming everyday and serving the community."
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Online order manager Katie Gardner said a lot of the customers were good to deal with when cars were backed up across the Orana Mall car park.
"It was disappointing to see but there was nothing else we could do inside," she said.
"Customers don't know what happens behind the scenes which is the hard part.
"But a lot of them were very understanding.
"Like Graham said it was such a rewarding time and honestly with the rest of the store pitching we would not have come out of that alive."
Mr McKenzie also wished to thank other members of the Woolworths Group from around the central west.
"We had people come from other parts of the group and zone to help us," he said.
"We had people from Cowra come and help us.
"They were a big asset to us and stayed in hotels.
"It was a whole Woolworths collective to support Dubbo."
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