A small act of kindness can go a long way. And Woolworths has been praised for a simple yet effective gesture to help shoppers stay cool while they shop for groceries amid soaring temperatures.
To the delight of shoppers visiting the supermarket giant in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne North on Wednesday, free bottles of water were left out for people to grab.
“Dear customers, feel free to grab yourself a bottle of water [in] this hot weather,” a note on a trolley filled with bottles of water read.
A customer who saw the trolley of water thanked Woolworths for the gesture, adding that “on a scorching day, this really helps”.
Other shoppers reported seeing water bottles at their stores, too.
It’s understood the water bottles are an effort to keep customers cool as the country swelters through an extreme heatwave.
Temperatures soared beyond 40 degrees across South Australia and Victoria on Wednesday, with the gruelling heat set to continue into the weekend in several states. Southeastern states, as well as Western Australia, are facing extreme fire warnings.
Woolworths offered free bottles of water during hot days last summer in the Greenfields store in Mandurah, Western Australia. Source: Facebook
It’s not the first time that Woolworths has helped out shoppers on a hot day.
Last February, customers at Woolworths’ Greenfields store in Mandurah, Western Australia, were offered a bottle of water.
“If you’re feeling hot and thirsty, please take a free bottle of water. On behalf of all the team here at Greenfields we thank you for shopping with us,” the sign read.
The year before, a shopper in Adelaide praised the supermarket after her local store provided water bottles in buckets of ice for customers to help themselves.
Woolworths previously told Yahoo News Australia it tries to bring a “little good” to customers every day and “this is just one example of the acts of kindness our team members perform”.
It is understood such gestures are at the discretion of each store.
Aussie town hottest in the world
On Wednesday, Adelaide reached a sweltering 43.2 degrees and had hit 39 before midday on Thursday. Melbourne reached 41 on Wednesday and is forecast to reach the same high on Friday.
It was slightly less gruelling in Sydney with a high in the city’s west of 38, while Canberra reached 37.
Elsewhere, South Australia’s Port Augusta hit a sweltering 46.3 — its hottest temperature in seven years, and was set to reach a similar maximum temp on Thursday.
Border towns of Hay and Mildura reached 45 and 44, respectively on Wednesday.
And Western Australia’s Onslow in the state’s notoriously hot Pilbara climbed to 49, making it the hottest place on the planet on Wednesday.
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