Retail concern for Christmas trade amid 90% double-vax rules for shoppers

Unvaccinated shoppers are allowed to browse and buy in-store under the current rules, but when the next easing of restrictions occurs at step is taken only fully vaccinated shoppers will be permitted in store.

That is expected to occur around November 24, a month before Christmas and during a time retailers are hopeful shoppers will flock back to stores.

Instead they fear customers will stay away and do their Christmas shopping online, frustrated at having to show proof of vaccination in every store they visit - particularly in places like Bridge Mall and Stockland Wendouree where many customers visit multiple stores as they browse.

And stores say after two years of lockdowns and strangled trade, they can't afford to put on extra staff to check vaccination certificates or they will be unable to serve the customers that can come to shop.

"We've been doing it tough for two years and it's getting tougher, not easier," said Bridge Mall Business Association chief Germaine Davey.

"It's going to add complexity, especially over the busy period for traders already under pressure."

A loophole in the state's roadmap to reopening sees unvaccinated customers able to access all shops until the 90 per cent double-dose target is hit in around three weeks, after which time they will only be able to shop in-person at "essential" retailers such as supermarkets and pharmacies.

"People generally have to understand it's not us - we are not putting the rules out, we are trying to live with them and make it work. We are seeing a lot of aggression in stores as people get angry that they have to do it, but it's not us," Ms Davey said.

Messer and Opie manager Tracy Govan said many customers already failed to check in using the QR code or objected to it when challenged.

"Every second person every day we have to make go back and check in," she said. "Having the QR code restriction in place already impacts people's desire to go in to stores, let alone adding another layer of complexity with vaccination checks."

She was also concerned about the impact of staff checking customer vaccinations on the service they could provide.

"We can't afford to employ someone to stand on the door. We are struggling enough without that having to happen and if we have staff standing at the door, they're not serving customers and getting sales.

"In any case we have three doors so if we have three people checking vaccinations there would only be two staff to serve."

Ms Govan said older shoppers struggling with technology or those without smartphones would find it particularly challenging.

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Several local businesses including Officeworks and Cartridgeworld Ballarat are offering to downsize and laminate printed out vaccination certificates for proof, while Ballarat libraries have a service to help residents needing help to access and link their COVID-19 digital certificates to the Service Victoria app.

Ms Davey and Ms Govan both supported the measures in place to keep the community safe but believed the onus on vaccine mandates should be on government agencies rather than individual stores.

"I think personally that traders shouldn't be responsible for this. When people QR code in, if they are not vaccinated it should set off a red flag with the government, not us. We shouldn't be responsible for people's health choices," Ms Govan said.

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