Revealed: The secret code used by Coles staff over the loudspeaker
A curious Coles shopper has questioned the meaning behind a mysterious coded message recently heard over the in-store loudspeaker.
Taking to Reddit, a Melbourne woman shared a post under the heading: 'Coles employees of Australia, what is a "code blue"?'
The shopper explained that she'd recently been in a supermarket when she heard the cryptic coded message announced over the storewide PA system.
She wrote in the post: 'I was in a Coles the other day in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and overheard a "code blue" on the speaker.'
'Out of curiosity, what could this mean? Is it a medical emergency?'
The post was shared this week to the 'Ask An Australian' Subreddit and quickly attracted over a hundred helpful replies.
The top upvoted response confirmed the original poster's hunch.
It said: 'A code blue is a medical emergency.'
'When called, any first aid trained team member [is] to assist and call an ambulance if required.'
Another response from a person who claimed to be a first-aid trained Coles staffer elaborated that a code blue announcement was made 'when someone requires first aid in the store'.
'The protocol is to call, for example, "code blue service desk" three times.
'Any first aid trained team in the store are to attend to give first aid as needed,' they added.
'Using the example in my previous sentence, the incident has happened at/by the service desk so that's where we would attend too.'
FEMAIL reached out to a Coles spokesperson, who confirmed that the Reddit sleuths were indeed correct in their assessment.
In their stores, a 'code blue' announcement over the speakers occurs when there's a medical emergency situation in store. The coded message serves to inform staff that one of their first aid trained team members is required to support a customer.
'The safety of our team and customers is our top priority, and as such we have a number of codes to communicate with our store team when needed,' they said.
'These codes are used in situations where we need our team, who all work in different areas of the store, to take specific actions,' the spokesperson continued.
'[T]his can include situations related to medical emergencies or if a store needs to be evacuated.'
Interestingly, some responses to the recent the Reddit post noted that a "code blue" message has a slightly different meaning when used in medical settings, like a hospital.
In those circumstances, commenters said that a code blue announcement usually referred to a serious life threatening health episode involving a patient.
'A code blue is for a cardiac/respiratory arrest or major haemorrhage,' read part of a reply from a person who worked in a medical field.
But in 'non-clinical' settings, others explained that a 'code blue' message was more often used generally to refer to any situation when someone was in need of first aid or medical attention – even if it were not necessarily an emergency.
One person in the comments questioned why stores like Coles would go to the extent of using a coded message, rather than just directly announcing that they needed first aid assistance in store.
To this point, the original poster insightfully replied: 'I'm assuming the code is there for convenience, privacy and to prevent panic or nosy onlookers.'
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