Most people think stockrooms are the safest part of a retail store. Routine work, no real risk. That's not how WorkSafe Victoria sees it. 

Hand and finger injuries — lacerations, amputations, fractures — are exactly what a stockroom produces when safety knives and blades aren't managed properly. 

Nationally, Safe Work Australia recorded more than 146,700 serious workers' compensation claims in 2023–24, averaging over 400 a day across the country. 

This guide gives you a working retail stockroom safety audit: seven cutting hazards that hide in plain sight, how to spot each one during a walkthrough, and what fixes them without a big spend. 

 

Why Stockrooms Need a Closer Look 

When deliveries land and stock needs to move, stockrooms run on time pressure. Staff reach for whatever's closest rather than what's designed for the job. None of the seven hazards below is dramatic. They're small habits that become normal because nobody stops to question them.

Hazard 1: Exposed blades left on shelving 

Open box cutters are one of the easiest hazards to walk straight past. They're usually set down for "just a second" and forgotten, and the next person reaching for stock makes contact with the blade before they even see it. WorkSafe Queensland's guidance on knives at work is built around reducing the chance of accidental contact between the blade and anyone other than the person using it. 

Fix: Set a blade-retraction rule and give every packing station a fixed spot for tools. Where it's practical, move to auto-retracting safety knives from MARTOR — engineered in Solingen, Germany for reliability — which retract the moment they lose contact with material and remove the exposed-edge risk outright. Quick audit: Walk your packing benches right now and count how many blades are out. 

Hazard 2: Keys and scissors standing in for cutting tools 

If your staff pry cartons open with keys or a pair of office scissors, it means there's no proper cutter within reach. WorkSafe Queensland reports that almost a third of all injuries among

15–24-year-old workers are cuts sustained while working with knives, and that figure only gets worse when the "knife" in question was never built for cutting. 

Fix: Stock proper safety scissors and cutting tools at every station, and run a short toolbox talk on why the right tool beats the nearest one. Staff improvise far less once the correct tool is actually within arm's reach. 

Hazard 3: Lighting that makes cuts harder to judge 

People adjust to poor lighting without noticing it's a problem. SafeWork NSW lists inadequate lighting as a recognised workplace hazard and points employers to the AS/NZS 1680 series for illumination benchmarks. In a stockroom where people are moving constantly, that's not a minor issue. 

Fix: LED strip lighting over packing benches and portable task lights in receiving bays are inexpensive fixes. Check lux levels against AS/NZS 1680 whenever you're unsure the lighting is adequate for the task being performed. 

Hazard 4: Cutting while standing on a ladder 

During restocking, staff sometimes open a carton or trim packaging mid-climb rather than step down first. A cut that would be minor at ground level gets far more serious when the person is off balance. That's why the rule has to be simple: feet on the floor before you open the blade. Every time. If the job genuinely can't be done that way, it needs a different method entirely. 

Fix: Make "feet on the floor" a fixed rule — no exceptions. Stock must be brought down before it's opened.

Hazard 5: Using dull blades that force workers to push too hard 

The rule of thumb is simple: the sharper the blade, the less force it needs, and less force means more control. Look for tools that have opened hundreds of cartons and have no scheduled replacement. Workers compensating for a dull blade by pushing harder is exactly the moment they lose control. 

Fix: Set a blade replacement schedule and post reminders at packing stations. With MARTOR's specialty blades, swapping to a fresh one takes ten seconds — no excuse to let one run past its use. 

Hazard 6: No dedicated blade disposal container 

Used blades left in general waste or in a drawer are a hazard for whoever handles that bin next — cleaning staff, logistics crews. This risk is easy to overlook because it doesn't cause an injury at the moment the blade goes in the bin, but causes harm later to the next person handling it.

Fix: Install a used blade container at every cutting station and cover disposal procedure in staff induction. Make sure containers are labelled and easy to reach. 

Hazard 7: Cut-resistant gloves that aren't where they're needed 

Broken glass and torn packaging edges are common laceration sources in a stockroom, and PPE should be accessible in the moment, especially during a busy delivery. 

Fix: Stock cut-resistant gloves rated against AS/NZS 2161 directly at receiving and packing stations — not locked away, not in a back room.

 

Building the Checklist into a Routine 

This checklist works best as a quarterly store safety review rather than a one-time walkthrough — it gives you a record of what was checked, and it catches the small habits that creep back in. 

Run it during scheduled WHS reviews, after any major stock change, and whenever a new packing area opens. Keep it short enough to complete in one visit and specific enough that it leads to an actual fix. 

 

Conclusion 

None of these seven hazards needs a complicated fix. They just need someone to notice them during a proper retail WHS audit and follow through with a change. 

Exposed blades, improvised tools, poor lighting, cutting at height, dull blades, missing disposal containers and inaccessible gloves all add risk in ways that are easy to walk past. 

The right tools, proper training, accessible PPE and a regular audit rhythm are what separate a stockroom that manages this risk from one waiting for an incident to force the issue. MARTOR's German-engineered safety knives, blade containers and cutting systems support that effort. 

Download the quarterly stockroom safety checklist and audit your stockroom this week. Then explore MARTOR's safety knife range to see what a properly equipped packing station looks like.