Solomon Lew’s call that shopping centres check the temperatures and vaccine status of everyone who enters the mall has been rejected by the Shopping Centre Council of Australia, who say malls need to allow all shoppers to access its various services.
Lew believes it should be the responsibility of shopping centre operators, not individual retailers within the centre, to police vaccination status.
“A standardised set of measures applied consistently across centres will provide much needed confidence for customers and retail employees, as well as certainty for landlords and retailers,” said Lew.
“It’s no use having a patchwork of guidelines by state or by store. In a shopping mall context, it is far more practical and efficient for the health and safety measures to be established and administered by landlords at shopping centre entrances rather than the individual store.”
The SCCA has implemented its own COVID-safe shopping plan as the country begins to open up.
SCCA chief executive Angus Nardi said this includes regular cleaning, PPE for staff, and hiring extra security to monitor distancing and shopper numbers.
These protocols included regular cleaning, the provision of personal protective equipment to relevant staff and hiring security guards to monitor customer movement and crowding.