ollectively, they employ more than seven million people, more than half of Australia’s working age population. “The Commonwealth will work with the business community about that particular message,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said at a press conference on Tuesday.  In addition to the communication strategy, some retailers have also offered to turn their bricks-and-mortar sites into vaccination hubs.  “We are happy to explore ways we could work with the third-party providers we use to offer workplace flu shots to our team members across the Group, and look at ways to do that for Covid vaccines,” Rob Scott, Wesfarmers’ CEO, said in a statement provided to Inside Retail. “In relation to supporting vaccination of the wider community, some of our locations may be suitable as vaccination points, especially standalone sites like Bunnings and Officeworks, and in regional locations, but not all sites will be suitable or make sense.”  Japan looks to Uniqlo, Toyota The Australian government isn’t the only one working with retailers to get shots in arms. The Japanese government recently gave the green light to thousands of companies, including Toyota and Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to their workers. “Fast Retailing will start its program at three locations in Tokyo, including Fast Retailing and Uniqlo headquarters,” the fashion giant said in a statement last month.  “To prevent possible infection at home and the company, Fast Retailing plans to also offer vaccines later to family members of employees, temporary employees working at headquarters and related locations, as well as employees of business partners providing cleaning services, cafeteria operations, and security for Fast Retailing.”  The company has a goal of vaccinating 18,500 employees, with a plan to eventually expand the rollout beyond Tokyo.  Reach into rural areas One of the advantages of getting retailers to help distribute vaccines is that their stores are often located close to people’s homes and some may have a bigger presence in rural and regional areas than GPs or government-run clinics.  Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US said it was considering working with Dollar General, the nation’s largest retailer with more than 16,000 locations, to accelerate the vaccine rollout in rural areas.  Starbucks has also been involved in efforts to get vaccines to less populated parts of the US, donating US$250,000 to Team Rubicon, which has been piloting mobile vaccination units to deliver vaccines directly to rural and tribal communities at convenient times, reducing transportation barriers Food retailers, like supermarkets and retail pharmacies, are also used to handling cold supply chains, so the storage requirements for certain Covid-19 vaccines isn’t a big problem for them. Leveraging trust In some countries, people may also trust retailers more than the government and be more receptive to messages coming from these businesses. This is especially true of retail pharmacy chains, which have played an important role in the rollout of vaccines around the world.  In the US, CVS, Walgreens and Walmart have been helping get shots in arms since February, while in Ireland, people can get vaccinated at more than 700 local pharmacies across the country.  Earlier this year in Canada, however, pharmacists said their skills and stores were being underutilised in the vaccine rollout. “Pharmacists are waiting and ready to do more,” Christina Tulk, chair of the Canadian Pharmacists Association, said in April.  “Every day we are hearing from pharmacists across the country who have thousands of patients on waiting lists. Pharmacies are close to home, familiar and trusted places for many Canadians. We need to direct the vaccine supply to where people want to go to get vaccinated.” A national survey showed that Canadians want to get vaccinated at their community pharmacy, with 43 per cent of respondents reporting the pharmacy as their preferred location to receive a Covid-19 vaccination, compared to 42 per cent favouring a physician’s office and 14 per cent a public health clinic.