Woolworths has sparked fierce debate after posting a sign banning students from bringing their school bags into one of its stores.
A customer took a photo of the sign on the front door and posted it to Reddit on Sunday, but did not specify the location.
The sign, printed in capital letters on a laminated sheet of bright orange paper, warned school students that they would not be allowed to enter the store with their bags between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m.
“Please leave school bags at the entrance doors of the stores,” the sign stated.
Shoppers were left outraged by a sign (pictured) posted on the front doors of a Woolworths store instructing students to leave their bags outside.
The social media post was flooded with hundreds of comments from buyers.
“If they require the bags to be left outside, then they are 100 percent responsible for them,” one shopper wrote.
‘My venue tries to enforce this but they can’t do anything. There is no way my son will leave his bag with his expensive laptop unattended at the door,” another customer wrote.
‘TRUE. They could also put up a sign that says “MacBook Air Free Pickup Area,” a third added.
Others recalled that other supermarkets used to put up similar signs outside their stores “decades ago” (file image)
Others recalled that other supermarkets used to put up similar signs outside their stores.
‘A lot of shops had signs like this when I was at school, and that was decades ago. But we never had anything worthwhile in our bags,” one person said.
‘My local used to do this when I was at school. We just left our bags piled up outside, but it was visible from the cashier area, so no one tried anything,” another person wrote.
Some said the decision to put up the sign essentially suggested that students at the school were stealing items from stores.
“Not all students are thieves, so this is just collective punishment for the few who are,” one person said.
Woolworths has since confirmed that students can enter 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 in Bendigo, regional Victoria, in 2019.
A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that 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.