Retired former Woolworths employee Bev Smith says she loves the North Orange Woolworths store but as a long-time employee who has worked in various areas of the chain, has concerns about young staff being used for the car park collection.

Woolworths confirmed in a statement staff were now responsible for collecting trolleys in the car park but contractors were engaged to collect trolleys from the surrounding streets of north Orange daily.

The statement also said team members nominated themselves "as to who collects the trolleys within the car park at any given time."

Mrs Smith said her concern was young staff members being outside the store late at night.

"I just think it's unsafe," she said.

"I've worked for Woolies all over the state, I can't understand the reason for them getting rid of the trolley contractors and asking the staff to go out in all kinds of weather to push trolleys," she said.

"Normally on weekends and nights, it's young casual [staff]. I wouldn't want my kids out pushing trolleys late at night in a car park. I don't care what town it's in."

A spokesperson for Woolworths said trolleys are provided for the convenience of customers and the majority do the right thing and return them.

"We work closely with dedicated trolley collection contractors who respond quickly to reports of abandoned trolleys and conduct regular sweeps in surrounding streets of North Orange Woolworths to return them to our stores within 24 hours," the spokesperson said.

"The team at North Orange Woolworths also regularly sweep the centre car park for trolleys and return them in-store or dedicated nearby trolley bays.

"Team members are provided with relevant PPE (personal protective equipment) including visibility vests.

"These efforts not only help preserve local amenity, but also ensure we have enough trolleys available for our customers in our stores."

Mrs Smith said she had sent an email to the Woolworth hierarchy but had received no response, and had contacted the union involved, which was unaware of what she believes is an safety issue.

"I also put a thing on Facebook, "mums and dads, are you aware that your children are collecting trolleys from car parks, day and night," she said.

Nationally, Woolworths partners with Trolley Tracker - a service which allows members of the public to report abandoned trolleys via a free phone call 91800 641 497) or online so trolleys can be removed from the area in a timely fashion.

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